Tuesday, December 1, 2009

of TAs and bad grades.

I have TAs for my course subject.
I love them. They're super cool.

Neil from Biochem
My tallest TA ever. He's more than 7 feet and doing PhD now and he's not even 30!
Imagine me, the smallest students in the lab talking with him, the tallest person ever. A weird combination, i know.
And he's my TA.
"You just broke the pH meter". One of his way to crack a joke in the middle of doing labs.
He really makes everybody feel at ease when in lab.
*even if the lab do take the whole 4-hours*

Karl from organic chem
He's Polish. He's in his 4th year but already married with 2 children. Well, before you say how young he is, bla bla bla.. He's like one of the people that stop study and go working and later come back to school.
Yeah. That's him. He did work in Europe before going back to school. He's like one of the hardest TA ever.
It's usually easy to get full marks in the pre-lab section. As long as you write long enough, they usually assume you did it and give you big fat 10 out of 10.
But Karl....
He read every single line and even check the MSDS (It's a list of hazard precautions for chemical solvents and you have to copy it all down in your lab book)
He deducts marks. Yes he did. For not writing it in paragraph. For not having enough MSDS lists. For not giving examples *Examples kene cari kt textbook bukan kat lab manual. Susah lah*

Tp, i didn't manage to get full marks for the pre-labs except for the last lab. Sheeeeeshh.. At least there's one.

Yup. Speaking of him. I do know that not many students like him for his strict marking scheme *it's just a pre-lab for God's sake* but i think i totally get his perspective. I UNDERSTAND. Doesn't mean i'm happy about it.

This is what i got from one lab session while chatting with him.
He's not from a rich family. He did work in Europe, Ecuador. Places where you have to work hard to earn enough. He struggled to bring his wife back to Canada. He's working full-time. He's studying *4th-year students*. He's in Carleton's varsity team. He's a TA. And a husband and a father on top of that.

Imagine how hard his life can be. Maybe that's why he's strict while marking the labs. He's used to doing it hard
*kut*. We did whine just because we got low marks for pre-lab while he didn't say anything about how hard his life is. It makes me realize something a lil bit. And maybe i didn't deserve that marks coz i know i didn't put any effort in the pre-lab *tp still nk markah tinggi. hah. dgn TA laen boleh la buat cmtu. kan dah kene* with Karl. Your effort counts. *dgn nak tambah. dia ni comel lah*


Basically, Neil and Karl shows me what's important: effort and determination. Neil walks out from Carleton's basketball team to continue in PhD. and Karl works, study, and a TA. See Neil's determination to continue study. Karl's effort to support his life. Jom2. Jadi cam Neil and Karl. :P

6 comments:

farra said...

hu.
kte x de pun TA kacak/cute dis semmmmmm~~~ whatta bad luck kannnnn.
sob3..hua. joking2. :p

sarah.azman said...

i was hoping a different respond from you.. of all the things that i wrote, conclusionnye "kte xde TA kacak/ cute dis semmmmm~~~"???! hahaha

tikah said...

huaaaa kite sgt terharu dgn cite karl ni. maybe la kot, die dah biase hidup susah, so die tak rasa pon yg dia being hard on you guys.aiseh aiseh. terharunyaaaa.

kite ade tak suke gile sorg ta sysc ni. dah second last week of the sem, baru suka. hohohoho. lps ni tak jumpe die da :( aiseh

sarah.azman said...

heheh.. terharu kaaaan... tp siyes die nmpk mude.. kih3..

kitatiga said...

hey sarah

haha cikyn baru tau sarah ada blog from farah's page.
:)



cikyn

sarah.azman said...

eh eh.. heheh.. segan jeeee cikyn tau.. :)