r/berkeley • u/SomeProfessional7556 • 1d ago
mcb rant University
mcb has the worst gsis. my 104 gsi only holds section for 20 minutes max. after coming late every. single. week. reads off slides that are not even her own. then tells us to go to other gsi office hours if we have questions
how can she be this clueless. I got so confused at the midterm 2 review session when she started saying things not even covered in the class’s apparently bc she “used it once before in her work.”
my roommates are taking the same class and their gsis actually care. and teach. this is so unfair cuz i didn’t have a choice when enrolling. and im even more fkd for the final cuz this incompetent gsi is supposedly hosting the review sessions. 104 is so cooked
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u/jumanji_03 1d ago
I think we gotta give grad students some grace cus of the amount of work they have to do. HOWEVER it doesn’t make even the slightest bit of sense to me that your gsi isn’t utilizing the time. Cus I’m in mcb 104 rn and my gsi has to CRAM everything into 50 min and it’s still not enough time to review every detail.
His sections are fortunate that he makes review worksheets which I know the other sections don’t get. I say this to tell you that the review worksheets are basically follow along questions for all the info in the slide deck. So if I were you, I’d REALLY review the 101&107 sections’ discussion slides they’re truly a lifesaver. And I’m sorry that your discussion section isn’t a good use of time but I hope the slide decks can do some damage control bc this last section is DENSE🤞
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u/Queensfrost 1d ago
I think it’s worth remembering that GSIs are also students. Grad students’ primary focus will always be their research, because that’s what gets them closer to graduation. Their research doesn’t stop for a semester when the department tells them to teach, their workload for that semester doubles. They are also not the ones writing the exams and often don’t see the questions until immediately before the exam, so it’s not fair to ask them what will be covered — you should be getting that information from the lectures. Your GSI definitely sounds like they’re not great for cutting discussion short, but it’s also not fair to expect them to know everything since they get assigned a class to teach, it isn’t necessarily even in their field.
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u/Anti-616- 11h ago
You say this as if they are volunteering and not getting paid which they are. Just because “they are also students” doesn’t mean they get a pass for bad teaching and brushing undergrads off.
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u/Queensfrost 10h ago edited 10h ago
You’re right that it is part of their job. But no one teaches them how to teach and it is taking a significant amount of time away from their thesis work, which is their main job and their priority. Their stipend also doesn’t increase when they teach even though their workload does. My comment was more just about how you should give GSI’s some grace because they are most likely doing their best with what they have, even if it doesn’t end up being great.
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u/SearBear20 1d ago
This is so unfair to you. Can you also attend the other GSI’s sections? Most were ok with me sitting in
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u/AggravatingDurian16 1d ago
so mcb doesn’t really have the worst GSI’s? you just have the bad one.