Graduate assistants end students' careers
As final exams approach, the thoughts of undergraduate students usually turn to those faceless graders, otherwise known as graduate teaching assistants, who seem determined to end the student's academic career.
However, most students are unsure of how the grading system operates in practice.
Actually, in almost all classes with over 50 students, graduate teaching assistants grade or help in grading exam papers. In smaller classes much of the grading is done by the professors themselves.
NOT ALL GRADUATE assistants are concerned with classroom work. Many of them are occupied solely with research. For the teaching assistants grading is but a part of their jobs. Sometimes it is the major part. Sometimes it is only incidental.
Teaching assistants do everything from composing tests, to taking attendance, to actual teaching. In the lab sciences many teaching assistants conduct lab sessions. Most discussion groups of large lecture classes are also taught by them.
Many of the graduate assistants, whose main task is grading, have definite ideas on the subject. One of these is Robert L. Boyce, Bonner Springs graduate student in history.
"The most difficult part of grading tests is determining whether the student really knows the material or not," he said.
COMMENTING ON COMMON faults of students, Boyce said, "When taking humanities tests students many times don't answer questions directly. They answer a different question from the one that is asked.
"Another common mistake they (students) make is overlooking what is really important and dwelling on details. In history, names and dates are not as important as ideas and historical trends," he said.
Boyce feels that lack of adequate high school preparation hinders most KU freshmen. Inability to organize their studying and thinking creates unorganized test answers.
He prefers essay tests to objective tests, even though the former takes longer to grade. "Essay answers tend to make the student think in terms of the large picture, and are preferable to objective tests that dwell on useless detail," he said.
'Hello Day' gone
KU students demonstrated their friendliness in 1922 when a "Hello Day" was held. Under the supervision of the Y.W.C.A. and the Y.M.C.A., the purpose of this event was to create a feeling of unity on the campus.
One January 18, 1922, "Hello Day," every KU student was requested to greet every person he saw with a hearty hello. This 1922 event was the second of its kind. "Hello Day" was abolished the following year, however.
Daily Kansan
Tuesday, May 24, 1966
Congratulations to the Class of the Century from Lawrence's Century Old Bank Lawrence National Bank Lawrence's Full Service Bank