Confessions of a GTA: Part 11
Presenting as an undergraduate was always horrific. A lot of it had to do with that we (were all given the same project. Having to sit through at least 10 presentations on exactly the same thing, whilst noticing everything the other groups had done better, was not only boring but galling all at once
Presenting as an undergraduate was always horrific. A lot of it had to do with that we (were all given the same project. Having to sit through at least 10 presentations on exactly the same thing, whilst noticing everything the other groups had done better, was not only boring but galling all at once. However, what I thought suspect about the whole thing was the marking. Yes, I saw the nicely prepared marking sheet for the guest markers, but none of them ever filled them out. Somehow too the groups with the flashy presentations without much technical detail always seemed to do best (luckily for me….).
Thus, I was filled with a sense of justice when asked to help asses one of these days. I was going to mark the heck out of these kids, but what I was concerned about was asking those tricky questions. I mean I never knew where they got them from. How did they know about the agricultural industry in southern Chile? Seriously?
So having jotted down a few things relating to the project, I headed on down to see and hopefully destroy what they had come up with. But again that irritating thing called compassion reared its friendly head. They were after all 1st years and looked scared out of their minds. As the first one started I looked down at my mark sheet to find it was completely useless. Just three boxes with content, style and clarity. How do you asses those things without seeing all of them first? Yet, I was determined to write something for each group so got stuck in, even if most of them there was just a “good”.
The thing was they were in general good. Though the familiar boredom did slowly creep back after about six of them, it was not as bad as before. I had not poured my blood, sweat and tears into it for the last few weeks so it was rather interesting to see what they had done differently. Yes some were more flashy and enjoyable than others, but only one was terrible. This group had tried to source materials from a small Central America country where the material does not actually exist. Having been there and tried to find it myself, I know. Surely that would be on Google? When I questioned them about it, they seemed to think the sustainability of this resource was more important than that it actually existing there already. I think they were planning to impose a new million industry on the poor locals within a week…..
These students obviously got marked down immediately, while those with a rather slick presentation that winged it a bit more conservatively got my vote. So the confession this week has to be if you are presenting something, make sure your facts are straight. If you don’t know perhaps you should “look into it later at greater detail”. Or there will be someone in the audience who will tell you (perhaps very nicely) you are an idiot.
