Everybody knows that you can learn a lot from a lecture. At least, that is what the teachers want you to believe. Attend every lecture, just keep listening and you won’t have to study anymore. A bunch of bullshit, according to me. According to me, there are 3 factors which makes it worth to go to a lecture.
The 3 factors that determine if the lecture is worth attending
- Is the material hard enough? If the teacher is in front of class talking about things you already know, why should you spend another hour listening to him? You can spend your time with studying material you don’t understand and becoming way better than your peers. Look at last week, how many lectures did you attend which probably weren’t that useful because you already knew the material covered? If this is more than 2 or 3 hours, you may start considering skipping the lecture before it has even started, with only looking at the subject. When you already understand the venous vein function curve already, why would you spend another hour on it?
- Did you prepare the lecture good enough? In a lot of cases, you don’t have to prepare the lecture, but you have to have some basic knowledge to understand what the professor is saying. If you don’t understand what he or she is saying at all, you will just come home with a head ache and the will to drop out of college right away. Probably not that good of a motivator, right?
- Is the professor good enough? This is the most important factor for me. Is the professor worth listening to? This sounds more worse than I mean it. What I mean is: is the man or woman able to speak in front of a class? I have seen teacher who kept staring to the monitor and repeating what the slides said. We are in college know, we are paying a lot of money (or others are doing it for us) and that is why I expect to have good (if not very good) speakers in front of me, explaining things where they know a lot about. And when the teacher isn’t good, I won’t be able to listen just because I am frustrated about the fact that the money is not well spend. You probably have lectures from the same professor a couple of times in the semester, so if you already know that that person shouldn’t be in front of class and you know you can’t stand that, you probably shouldn’t go at all.
These are the three factors that determine if the lecture is worth attending or not, these are external factors which you probably cannot influent that much (except the second). But there are also reasons to not go to a lecture because of you.
The 3 factors from within which determine whether you should go or not
- Are you awake. I’ve discussed this one in the first chapter of my free ebook, so I won’t get that deep on this one. But it is really important to be awake during the lecture, you should be able to understand what the professor is saying and to process the material he is covering. A lecture is important and a lecture can cause you to not read the study material anymore because you already know it, but you should be paying attention at the lecture, which isn’t possible when you are sleeping, right?
- Are you able to concentrate? Do you have a clear mind? Do you have a lot of things going on which distract you from the talking voice in front of class? Are you able to pay attention? For instance, if one of your best friends has lost a relative just the other day, you probably cannot pay attention because you are thinking about him/her. This doesn’t make the lecture worth going to, you may need to go to your friend in stead..
- Are you in the mood to be a knowledge sucking sponge? Cause if you aren’t, will the time be spend useful? When you are not in the mood at all, you probably end up drawing flowers or talking to friends, not that effective. You need to be motivated and in a certain mood to suck up all the knowledge the professor is spreading over you!
I know, not a lot of people will tell you to skip a lecture, I am also not a big fan of not attending them. But look at the last couple of weeks, how many hours have you spend at lectures which you could use in a better way? I know people who don’t go to lectures at all but pass with great marks. You may have a better use for your own time, also this is a part of time management.
Find out which lecture you probably shouldn’t attend and have peace with it. So if you are not going, read the chapter in the book a little bit better, talk to your friends about what they have learned, how does this work for you? Let me know.
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Twitter: campusbyte
March 31, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I only rarely skip class. If i do skip, it’s usually because I’m way ahead and I can use the class time to work on other projects.
I wouldn’t recommend skipping class ever, at least at my school. You are paying for your education, so you might as well go to class.
Interesting argument made for not skipping though.
.-= Jay Willingham – CampusByte´s last blog ..The 7-Day Challenge: Join Me =-.
Yeah that is an interesting argument for not skipping, but also for skipping. When the classes are empty, they may start to think about getting another teacher (I hope at least)!
Thanks for your comment Jay!
Twitter: collegethrive
April 1, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I have a professor who is entirely too boring to follow, and I often find myself browsing the web instead of paying attention. I often skip his class and study on my own time since most of the notes are online.
I agree, there is times to skip class, but it shouldn’t become too much of a habit, because like Jay said, you’re paying for your education.
Good article Stefan!
Thank you Dan! I appreciate your appreciation, haha!
That is the danger, that you will let it become a habit. You will start to skip class also when you are busy or when you don’t feel like taking a lecture. Be aware of that!
I skip specific lectures often because they are wastes of time. I often know the material so i just study the harder parts of it at home instead of playing games on my phone
I think the more you do not feel like attending a lecture, the more you need to attend!
Reasons like falling asleep, not being able to follow and thinking the professor doesn’t know a thing are counterproductive and are problems that need to be solved rather than excuses for not attending.
Lectures are opportunities to learn about a topic, and the amount of preparation that goes into the lecture both on the side of the lecturer and on the side of the student makes it a good chance not just to learn more about the topic, but also to find out what you don’t know, what is important to focus on in the exam, as well as to hone the skills of taking good notes and following arguments. Lectures form the bulk of teaching in university and as a student who has been through 2 years worth of lectures the only thing I regretted is the 2 lectures that I’ve missed.
Hi Nephellia, thanks for the comment.
I do not totally agree with you. There are a lot of lectures, at least at my university, who just don’t seem to be worth the effort. Professors doing nothing but reading their powerpoint sheets (stay tuned for a post about this
) or Professors who fail to inspire me. And I get a lot of frustration out of this which makes me complain a lot and generally get me in a negative mood. This negative mood resembles on my ability to focus and to appreciate the person in front of the room. How I should deal with this? No idea, that is why skipping seems more logic to me..
Please let me know what you think..