lmao hello when do tutorials start? do we have to go to them starting thursday or only after we’ve been to the first respective lecture? thank u!

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hi, I was wondering if first years need to attend tutorials that precede their lectures for the first week of school? Is it best to email the prof?

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lmao hello to the both of you,

sorry for the wait with this answer but no, you don’t have to go to them starting thursday. the general rule for tutorials is that if they do precede your lecture, you should not show up. no one else will show up. the TA will not show up. you’ll be greeted with an empty, dark lecture room, populated only by one or two equally lost and confused souls. if at all. but hey, maybe that’s your cup of tea.

angsty.

so i guess you could go if you want. but yeah, usually tutorials won’t run before the first lecture– you’ll get more info about them during that class.

hope this helped, and best of luck with the start of classes! hope your profs are quality, your textbooks are available used, and you don’t need to jaywalk to get to class on time. that would be nice.

be Boundless,

aska

Hi aska! I’m a first-year student and I dread how most of my tutorials take up a huge percentage of my marks. Now, I understand that participating in class discussions is the best way to learn about the lessons and to help us grow and interact with others but I just… can’t. I have social anxiety, and I’m scared to talk to my TA about this because she might think that I’m just making up excuses so I don’t have to talk. Is there anyone else I could consult with about this? 🙁

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hey there,

i’d suggest you talk with your professor, but i have a feeling that in a (likely massive) first-year class, your prof is going to be even more intimidating to you than your professor.

i really think the best person to talk to about this is your TA. and by the way, anxiety is a totally legitimate reason not to speak up in class. it’s not an excuse, but it is a reason to start a conversation about possible accommodations. and it is highly unlikely that your TA will think you’re making excuses – more likely, she’ll be impressed that you took the initiative to start thinking about a creative solution to your dilemma.

what i would recommend is talking to her (after class, in office hours, by e-mail; whatever makes you most comfortable) about your concerns, and then asking if there is any alternative way for you to gain participation marks. feel free to propose your own ideas. if you’re a bit stuck, here are some of my own suggestions (all of which i have seen put into practice in actual tutorials/seminars):

• visit your TA every week in office hours to have a discussion with them, one-on-one, about the readings. this narrows the crowd of people you have to talk at from ~20 to 1
• submit a weekly written reflection about the readings/lecture to your TA, perhaps at the start of tutorial, or via e-mail
• this one may not work for you, depending on the extent to which public speaking makes you anxious, but: try sitting physically next to the TA. that way, when you speak, you’ll feel as if you’re speaking directly to them, as opposed to across a room full of people
• is your class on Blackboard? ask whether you can submit your thoughts about the tutorial or readings or lecture on the discussion board; that way, people can write back if they so chose, and you can have discussions online rather than in person

again, i understand that this is not an easy or comfortable thing for you to do, but TAs only want the best for you. they’re usually able to be a lot more invested in their students than profs, and i’ve never encountered a TA who’s not willing to make changes to suit a class’ needs.

you’ve got this!

cheers,

aska

Hi Aska,

if I want to change a tutorial section, do I need to get permission from the lecture prof first?

Thanks!

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hey there,

so many people not happy with their tutorial sections! what’s the deal? does your TA remind you too much of some actor and you just can’t place him, so you can’t focus in the class? (no, that TOTALLY didn’t happen to me. what are you talking about.)

talk to your TA about it first – depending on how many TAs there are, it may be up to the head TA or your to coordinate. either way, your TA will know for sure, and will likely be able to coordinate a switch.

you may have to get it switched officially on the SWS at your registrar’s office, but that depends on how your tutorials for that class are administered. talk to the TA first and then go from there.

cheers,

aska

ok i’m not 100% sure you could help but i’m in soc101 and i have a friend in that class who says that when she enrolled acorn asked her to choose a tutorial time? but acorn didn’t ask me to do that and now i’m totally lost on how to sign up for a tutorial or whether i’ll get into one at all???? especially because it’s a huge class???????

to be fair i don’t have class until wednesday so i guess i could run to the front then and try and ask but since it’s a con hall lecture i doubt i’ll be able to… help please??

i am sorry for the lack of capitals and terrible grammar i am in a panic

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hey there,

you can always double-check if you have a tutorial by looking at the timetable.

(honestly, it’s a good idea to treat this as a general rule of thumb – if there is anything you don’t know about a course, check to see if the timetable has that information. or you could e-mail me. but as you’ve seen, i get a lot of e-mails and you won’t always get your answer right away – so it’s your choice).

SOC101Y1 DOES have tutorials. i’m not sure why you weren’t able to find them on ACORN – i’m able to see it when i log in myself.

the tutorials don’t have any enrolment controls, so you should be able to get in at this point. some of the tutorials do have space left, so there’s no need to panic! take a look on ACORN again, and if you still can’t see them, talk to your registrar’s office about it.

best,

aska

Hi Aska!So just to clarify, do we have to show up for the tutorials that we already enrolled in for certain classes on ACORN? For example, do I need to attend my MAT135 tutorial that first week?

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hey there,

yes, you need to show up for any and all tutorials you enrolled in – assuming you want to pass those courses. which i hope you do, because you don’t get much else but a degree for all that money you spend on university. i know. it’s crazy, right? where are the aesthetic pictures of me laying on the grass in front of UC, smiling blissfully into a copy of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, that i was promised in my admissions package? where are they, @uoft?

anyway. be aware that many classes won’t begin tutorials until the second week. keep an eye on your mail.utoronto e-mail address and Portal; they may let you know when tutorials begin via those avenues. otherwise, they will let you know during your first class, which is almost always earlier in the week than its corresponding tutorial.

if you don’t hear anything through any of those channels, it’s probably safe to assume that there will be a tutorial.

cheers,

aska

hey aska! im a student at UTSC, and i am taking a full year course as a pre-req. i was wondering if i could have a different tutorial for the first half of the term vs the second half (fall and winter semesters). i was planning on taking a course at UTSG in the fall but the tutorial timing is making it rlly hard to do so :// thanks for all the help !!

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hey there,

i’ve seen people do it before, so it’s not impossible. the best thing to do would be to explain the situation to your T.A. and ask them if it would be possible.

if you don’t know who your T.A. will be and you want an answer right now, you can e-mail the instructor and ask them.

just make sure you explain the full situation. if the T.A. thinks you want to switch tutorials because you don’t like them, they PROBABLY won’t be as empathetic to your situation. just a thought.

cheers,

aska