If you weren't good enough to be a TA in undergrad, you aren't exceptional and you will never be exceptional

If you weren't good enough to be a TA in undergrad, you aren't exceptional and you will never be exceptional.

>if you aren't someone's assistant you aren't exceptional
>undergrad
That's fun that you just got a TA gig, but you're stil a faggot.
sage'd :^)

>mfw I got a TA position as a freshman

Get on my level faggot.

Are you meaning or serious

I don't understand this meme. Is it assuming the end goal is to become a professor, and TAing is the first step towards building experience towards that?

I truly do not understand the appeal of teaching. I love the sense of discovery that comes along with research, not explaining myself to a room full of people.

You can't be a TA in undergrad unless you are exceptional. There isn't anything to understand retard. You either know so much that you can literally teach the classes or you don't. Doing that in undergrad is a huge deal and the by far smartest people I've known were TA's in their undergrad and we're by far the most exceptional person amongst their peers.

Wow I'm not special! Truly how will I ever live again without being important.

Pretty fucking serious. Came in with a ton of AP credit, flew through the intro courses first semester, and was offered a TA position spring semester.

>You can't be a TA in undergrad unless you are exceptional.

Yes you can. I'm a TA. I'm definitely not exceptional.

Teacher jobs are comfy and pay well enough to pay off student loans. That's all. It's easy to emotionally distance yourself and explain some shit you know to some people who don't.

>3-semester undergrad chemistry TA masterrace
Feels so good brehs

>TA for first year vector calculus course
>first time I ever have to stand in front of a class and do an exercise on the blackboard
>day before
>preparing at home, applied a cheeky trick to one of the exercises to make it easier
>time comes for me to do the exercise in front of the class
>halfway through, can't remember how I did the trick again
>brain shuts down
>have to sit down and take a look at my notes again to see wtf I did

What a humiliation. How do you guys do it?

>Follow course
>Get good grade
>Move up a year
>Can now be TA for it
Woww that was fucking hard. Obviously it doesn't work for senior year courses and professors get their PhDs to do it, but for shit like 1st year Calculus it's pretty much always undergrads TAing it.

>>Good things about being a TA

You learn the material way more and to a deeper level than you did when you first took the class.

It looks nice on your CV

It pays well.

It can be fun.

>>Bad things about being a TA

Homework/Exam corrections take a lot of time.

Preparing problem classes takes a lot of time, depending on the class.

Not all classes are the same.

No downside unless you're a brainlet

I was never an undergrad TA, but I did present original research at top conferences in my field and got accepted into MIT. How about you user? Are you now starting to realize how trivial and unimpressive being a TA is?

Wow, even after doing all of that and you couldn't land and undergrad TA position? Undergrad TA really is for the most exceptional.

Classic Dunning-Kruger case. I've transcended the need to be a TA and worked in a lab instead. Why would I waste valuable time being a professor's bitch and grading dumb students?

>excuses

Whatever helps you sleep at night and feel okay with being unexceptionable, I guess.

:'(

>unexceptionable

If you have a problem we can step outside and solve it

I've done both TAing and Lab research

get on my level

TA is a waste of time if you don't want to be a professor

At my uni, there are tons of freshman TAs, especially for intro comp-sci courses. A big reason is that there are so god damn many classes so there is a huge demand for TAs. Basically the only requirement was that you got an A in the course you wanted to TA for.

>Did you memorize every page of the textbook?
>Does the thought of moving on to more complex material scare you?
>Are you unable to apply what you've learned in a research setting?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above then TAing might be right for you.

>not doing research

Keep on being "exceptional" explaining derivatives to retards. You're on track to be a really great high school teacher.

ITT: Unexceptional people who are trying to convince themselves their mediocrity makes them exceptional because they said so

What are the prerequisites for TAing undergrad at your schools? At mine, math has no undergrad TAs, only paid graders. CS has tons of TAs however. You just have to get an A (not A-) and apply and hope you get it.

Undergrad TA is literally grunt work for pleb brainlets. Undergrad researchers are brainmores and should be worshipped though.

bingo

Not OP but everyone should be doing research as an undergrad, what makes it so special?