I'm a T.A. (teaching assistant) at a university and forgot something doing a review session?

Question

It was really embarrassing. I'm a PhD student and was running a review session for an undergraduate intro exam and didn't remember the answer when a student answer. I eventually found it in my notes, but I am so embarrassed that I didn't have it in memory. Is it normal for this to happen once or twice in an hour long review session?

Answer 1

Totally normal. It's OK. It's more important that you can point the students in the right direction than to have everything in memory (even though it may not feel like it for a while until you get really used to teaching).



Also keep in mind -- you are more expert than the students, but the lecturer/professor is supposed to be the ultimate expert. ;) And, having taught courses as the instructor rather than as the TA, I can still tell you that there are things I forget and have to look up, especially if I'm teaching something that is very technical (e.g., stats) or not my area of expertise -- even if I've taught the course before.



It might help to have some standard ways of responding to questions, e.g., "That's a great question. You know what, I have a guess, but I want to make sure I'm perfectly right. Let me look it up and get back to you on that..." or "That's a good question. Let's take a look at what the text says [and flip pages]" or "Oof... I don't remember actually. Let's take a look."

Answer 2

It sounds like you're pretty new at it? I think it's normal, teacher's that have been teaching for about 10 years know their lectures front and back so they never forget the answers. It's okay though you'll be fine just be more prepared next time and review what you're going to teach before class. And don't stress too much about it!

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry about it much. I attended a review session led by a TA today, and he didn't remember the answers to some of the questions students' asked, he had to go over his notes. My point is, there's nothing wrong with not remembering an answer. As the previous poster noted, it takes an extensive amount of practice and experience in the field to answer questions from memory.



Also, most undergards understand that TA's are preoccupied with their own education and are not obligated to "impress" them with their TA skills.