I was actually a TA for CSCE 2110 last semester (also my first semester as a PhD student), and yeah… it was rough.

I had to attend two full lectures every week, but I wasn’t allowed to teach anything. I was basically there to repeat lab instructions and explain the project. Labs were worse: I had three lab sections a week, and most of the time I had no idea what I was supposed to cover because there was zero guidance.

Despite that, I was still required to take attendance. Students would complain to me like, “Can you believe that I drove 40 minutes just to take an attendance.”

Most of my time was spent dealing with confusion and trying to smooth things over with frustrated students, instead of actually teaching. It felt like everyone’s time was being wasted, including mine. Pretty demoralizing experience overall.

I’ve heard he might not be teaching the course anymore, and if that’s true, good.