GSI
TA Talk Highlight

The end is near. A time when the weather changes and both teachers and students start looking forward to a nice long break from the pressures and demands of life at a university. But before they can get there, they have to get through the end of the semester.

You may have noticed a few more e-mails in your Inbox and a few more students approaching you before and after class. You may even begin seeing students showing up in your office! It's that time of year when students have started noticing that the semester is drawing to a close and that there are not many more opportunities left for grades in their classes. It can be frustrating as a TA to field all of the different type of student requests that you may be receiving so here's a bit of help from some TAs who've been in the trenches.

First, there are different types of requests that you will be dealing with these last few weeks of the semester:

Re-grading: Students are looking back over their work and may come to you for an explanation as to why they missed points and they may ask you to re-grade some assignments.

Extensions: Many classes have projects that are due at the end of the semester, so students may be bombarding you with requests to extend the deadline. This could also happen if late work is accepted.

Incompletes: Some students that have missed a majority of work may come to you to ask you to assign them a grade of incomplete (X) for the semester so that they can make it up next semester. Incompletes are usually only given in the most extreme circumstances, such as illness, and are regulated by the university. For more information, please consult the Office of the Registrar: http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/grades/#tempdelay.

Extra Credit: Students are busy calculating their grades so far for the semester and estimating what they will probably make in the class. Some students who are not happy about their grade may come to ask for any extra assignments that can be used to add points to their overall score or replace an existing assignment.

Extra Help: As students are calculating what they will need to make on that final project or exam, they may decide to come to you for some extra help in studying or preparing for that exam or project.