I can think of at least one university class where the pace was well below what I could handle. In order to prevent myself from getting bored and falling asleep

I can think of at least one university class where the pace was well below what I could handle. In order to prevent myself from getting bored and falling asleep (both figuratively and literally), I regularly took a newspaper to class and read that. Occasionally, I would look up to make sure I was still following the class. Sometimes, having a distraction can actually improve your attention to otherwise boring material. Clearly, this is not going to apply in all or even most university classes where the level of the material being presented is quite high, but my point is that different things work for different people or even the same person at different times.