Graduate work and TA responsibilities are very demanding and require effective
time management. Since the international TA must also deal with an unfamiliar
language and culture, graduate work and TA responsibilities can consume more time
than expected. The following suggestions were offered by experienced international
TAs.
- KNOW COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
- Talk to other graduate students who
have taken the courses you are planning to take. Find out how much reading
and how many papers are required. This way you can avoid taking the most
demanding courses all at the same time. You lose time when you discover
that your workload is too large and that you must drop a course that you have
already spent time on.
- SET TIME LIMITS:
- There is a saying, "Work expands to fill the time available".
If you set a limit on the amount of time you give yourself to do specific tasks,
you are more likely to get the work done in a shorter period of time. Set
daily and weekly deadlines for each task.
- SCHEDULE TIME EFFICIENTLY:
- Some TAs try to schedule their courses one
right after another. Having an hour between classes often means that the hour
is wasted time. If it is necessary to take classes that are one or two hours apart,
schedule your TA office hours during that time. This allows you to have larger
blocks of time for concentrated study.
- COMPRESS YOUR TIME:
- When setting up an appointment with a student,
professor, or friend do so immediately after a class or your office hours. If your
class ends at 3:00, schedule meetings for 3:15. Scheduling a meeting at 4:00
may mean an hour of wasted time.
- PLAN AHEAD FOR TA DUTIES:
- As a TA, you may have a lot of grading to do
during midterms and finals. This makes it important to keep up your own studies
as you may not have much time to prepare for your own exams if you are required
to grade your students' papers and exams. Although a TA is required to spend
15-20 hours a week on TA duties, some weeks may only require 10 hours of work
while during exam time you may end up spending 30 hours a week. Concentrate
on your own studies when TA duties are light so you will be prepared for the heavy
workload around exam time.
- TALK TO YOUR PROFESSOR:
- Sometimes TAs find that their duties can be
lessened by speaking with the professor of record. One TA had only three
students in one section. He spoke with his professor and she agreed that he
could combine the smaller section with a larger one. Thus, he had one less
class to teach each week. Another TA found that it took weeks to grade the
midterm exams. The next semester he spoke with his professor about this and
the professor helped him grade the exams. Later, a reader was hired to help
with the heavy workload for that class.
These time management strategies have been found useful for many TAs. Of
course, we each have our own ways of managing time. One TA said that he plans his
office hours late in the day to help him resist his desire to go home in the afternoon.
Some TAs find that working in their offices during the evening saves time since less
people are around to talk with. One TA explained that he concentrates on his TA duties
for two days and then has the rest of the week for his own studies. Another TA reserves
mornings for her TA duties and afternoons for her own studies. Planning large time
intervals for concentration on one task is a successful time management strategy.
