Lectures – To go, or not to? (Sophie)
Someone the other day told me they didn’t attend any lectures except for week 1 and week 12 of a certain subject last semester because they didn’t think the lecturer contributed anything of added value.
This person is doing the same for another subject this semester.
It got me thinking….
Could it worthwhile to miss lectures?
Me being me, has been an avid lecture-goer since the start. Missing one would be one of the worst days of my life! Of course over the year so far, I have missed probably 1 or 2 in total due to unforseen circumstances.
I guess everyone is different and perhaps lecture-going is one of those things that simply comes down to personal preference.
For me, I have this inner fear that if I don’t go I *might* miss something important. Whether that be an example not on the lecture notes, or some reference to the exam.
Also sometimes a lecturer really does bring something to life for you. Nilss Olekalns as my Macro lecture is just amazing in that sense. He makes economics seem so exciting! SO MEANINGFUL! Like “if I understand this I can save the world!”
Added to this is that even if the lecturer doesn’t ‘add’ anything new, there is a revision function lectures provide. It is an extra thing of going through what I need to learn. If I didn’t attend, I feel I would lose that.
In a way it is “enforced” study.
And in all honesty, for 2 hours per subject of my time each week….is that really worthwhile to miss considering the possible negatives or missing things, and losing revision of the subject?
From what I know, studies have proven that student who attend lectures, on the whole, outperform other students. I haven’t seen this actual evidence but it sounds fairly logical.
On the whole, even though I’m a HECS student…I will be paying for my education when the time comes. I may as well use what my money is providing i.e. lectures.
What do other people think? Do you bother attending lectures? Is it worthwhile?
-Sophie
P.S Despite me saying I value lectures…I would give anything to be a student who does NO work, attends NO lectures and gets H1s in everything! (Ah the joys of being a genius).
** BRING DOWN TO EARTH TIME **
“Missing a lecture would be one of the worst days of my life!”
Soph, Soph, Soph. It’s just a hint, but that might possibly be overstating the meaning of “tragedy” and “catastrophic”. Either that, or, naturally, you’ve led a very charmed life indeed. (Though, personally, I’d prefer to miss a lecture, than, say, have my hair set on fire).
xo
jez
might I add… it’s 33-23, you’re ahead, by the way, you speed machine you. I’d like to do a word count on this things, though…!!!
DON’T MISS LECTURES!!
Case in point: I missed a macro lecture ages ago to finish off the CALM assignment. Guess what the lecture was on? AD/AS diagrams! In a nice twist of irony, guess what the second assignment was entirely about! I thought I had sorted it all out in the holidays but when i went to write it up last minute last night i realised that i was going round in circles and had no idea what i was doing, becoming more frustrated and confused and panicky and upset the longer i spent on it.
It’s due today so i have decided to throw the marks; i have luckily done well enough on my other macro assessments to put an end to my fruitless efforts. Lesson learnt though: don’t do all these things when a macro assignment is due:
a) leave things to the last minute,
b)go Krispy Kreming with Jez,
c) go shopping and
d) miss the lecture that the entire assignment is based on
Hindsight is 20/20 though: I’d probably do the same again.
I probably could have afforded to miss the lecture if i had got help and learned it all properly, but the stubborn and proud part of me hates doing that. But missing lectures does make learning significantly more difficult, and why make it harder for yourself?
Thanks for reading my rambling; commenting on blogs is very therapeutic.
xo Kim
It really depends on the subject – some subjects, like maths, I’d recommend you go to, but others (such as my programming subjects) can be completely learnt from the class notes and/or textbooks, and there’s not really much harm in skipping the lectures as long as you check the website for announcements and stuff. Not that you should skip every lecture, but once in a while it’s OK. It’s probably better than going into lectures and sleeping through all of them anyway, which is what I do – probably because I, uh, stay up until 2:15am posting comments on first-year blogs.
At least with my lectures, I find it very hard to concieve not going. I did miss a HPS one, which just meant there was a bit of a gap in the flow of what the lecturer was arguing.
I also did come late to quite a few Maths A advanced lectures last semester, and missed some physics tutes due to sleeping in.
I have made a very bad habit of not going to lectures.. and tutes too. I know I’m going to be reprimanded for this, big time, but it’s tough.
Despite onstage antics and some other things I do, I am actually crippled by shyness. A lot of the time, going to a lecture seems so utterly terrifying that I just can’t bring myself to do it. I often creep in through back entrances to lecture theatres and tutes.. let’s not go there. The thought of being in a small room with between 10 and 20 people who have no reason to like me or be nice to me is incredibly intimidating.
*sigh*
Why did I just tell everybody that?
Well, I guess the moral of the story is that you miss an incredible amount by not going to lectures. It makes your assignments ten times harder and you end up flopping around like a dead fish, freaking out and having absolutely no idea of what the lecturer actually wants you to write. I should know. So everybody else, go to your lectures AND tutes. They’re important.. I’ve practically thrown away my education, so there is no reason why you should too!
*nyeh* During my first year I enthusiastically enrolled in this particular subject but as the semester progressed, I found it boring, and realised that my pre-conceived ideas about that area of study was ..misled.
After I completed the first semester sequence and the end-of-semester exam, I lost all interest in it. I did not attend the lectures in second semester, and did almost no study for the subject. I completed the semester laboratory/tutorial assessments as required, then walked into the end-of-year exam after having done very little study. The good thing was, the exam was all MCQ and all the answers could be determined by logic from the way the questions were phrased (ie. I’m not saying I’m one of them smart people who do not study). I didn’t do too bad in the end, nothing flash but not too bad.
Thing is, I don’t really condone my actions under normal circumstances. That was just how it was in my first year, amongst other crazy things that were going on at the time. I dealt with that subject that way and the extra investment I was able to make on the other subjects paid off handsomely.
And if you are one of those people who don’t study and yet come away with excellent results, all the more power to you. I’m jealous as hell, but what can I do. *shrug*
Thank you mothgod for your comment!
You have a very sensible mindset about the whole issue it seems. I think it is okay to miss lectures within reason…I guess as long as you know you can still pass the subject perhaps? And if you hate it that much – well why torture yourself?!
It is frustrating those people who can study and get amazing results…but like you said – what can you do? It is not point comparing yourself to people like that or worrying about it because it’s life. You can’t change it.