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Anecdotally, I remember taking an early morning marksmanship (shooting) class in college. Students had no trouble getting up early for this and the class had ne

Anecdotally, I remember taking an early morning marksmanship (shooting) class in college. Students had no trouble getting up early for this and the class had near-perfect attendance throughout the semester. Biology, on the other hand, was another matter.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
I assume biology is full of mostly pre med and nursing students, so I’m surprised it wouldn’t be well attended, even early in the morning, at least at the university I went to.
- asdff 4y ago
  The intro bio series usually lecture straight out of the book. You could very well get an A without attending lecture.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    I don't know. I made the mistake of taking Chemistry my freshman year, and got my lowest GPA ever (2.7! I think I graduated with a 3.78). Pre-meds mess up the curve a lot, you really have to be on top of everything to do well in those classes.
    - asdff 4y ago
      Straight out of the book doesn't always mean easy. It just means there's nothing you'd get from the class you wouldn't get from the book, because the professor is using the powerpoint slides the publisher sent them which are made entirely from the book, and they aren't the type to have in class discussions you could benefit from. If you want extra help that will give you a leg up in those sorts of classes, you skip lecture and go to office hours.
Broken_Hippo 4y ago
And these different activities require different sorts of effort. So long as you are awake enough to be safe and aim at the target, you can shoot a gun. Realistically, guns are designed to be used even if you aren't at your sharpest, and there is only so much you'll learn during a session. You are also active, while doing a leisurely activity (assuming here that even if it was an accredited class, it was optional). This isn't quite like taking a biology class where you are supposed to be sharp enough to learn - or prove you grasp complex subjects. It takes more mental effort. On top of this, classroom conditions are different. Stuck in a chair, in a room often too cold/too warm, listening to someone go on about the history of trees and how they developed into the modern tree. Thrilling.
- giantg2 4y ago
  "So long as you are awake enough to be safe and aim at the target, you can shoot a gun." Please do some research into a topic before spewing complete nonsense. Competitive shooting and marksmanship involve a lot of different things. Adequate sleep and being focused/alert are some of the core components to good marksmanship.
  - Broken_Hippo 4y ago
    Sorry, you've missed the point completely. Physical alertness, the sort that you need to shoot a gun or a bow and arrow or other things that require physical activity don't take the same sort of brain power or concentration that learning a heavy subject takes. One has activity built in, the other has seating and a possibly boring environment. That's the point. It isn't that one doesn't require some level of alertness, but that it is different. You can kill yourself lifting weights or swimming, but folks still do that early in the day - even as they might not be alert enough to sufficiently learn during a boring class.
    - giantg2 4y ago
      I didn’t miss your point - your point is wrong. You clearly don't have any subject matter expertise in this if you're equating it to swimming and weights.
asdff 4y ago
You probably can't get an A in marksmanship by just reading a textbook and not shooting a gun. If people were skipping lectures in my experience, its because the professor was just lecturing out of the book. If the professor is lecturing without a book, attendance is much better, because there's no way to learn what you will be tested on otherwise. Then again if the professor is one to just read verbatim their slides, and they are online, no reason to attend either if its inconvenient.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

I assume biology is full of mostly pre med and nursing students, so I’m surprised it wouldn’t be well attended, even early in the morning, at least at the university I went to.

asdff 4y ago
The intro bio series usually lecture straight out of the book. You could very well get an A without attending lecture.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  I don't know. I made the mistake of taking Chemistry my freshman year, and got my lowest GPA ever (2.7! I think I graduated with a 3.78). Pre-meds mess up the curve a lot, you really have to be on top of everything to do well in those classes.
  - asdff 4y ago
    Straight out of the book doesn't always mean easy. It just means there's nothing you'd get from the class you wouldn't get from the book, because the professor is using the powerpoint slides the publisher sent them which are made entirely from the book, and they aren't the type to have in class discussions you could benefit from. If you want extra help that will give you a leg up in those sorts of classes, you skip lecture and go to office hours.

Broken_Hippo 4y ago

And these different activities require different sorts of effort. So long as you are awake enough to be safe and aim at the target, you can shoot a gun. Realistically, guns are designed to be used even if you aren't at your sharpest, and there is only so much you'll learn during a session. You are also active, while doing a leisurely activity (assuming here that even if it was an accredited class, it was optional). This isn't quite like taking a biology class where you are supposed to be sharp enough to learn - or prove you grasp complex subjects. It takes more mental effort. On top of this, classroom conditions are different. Stuck in a chair, in a room often too cold/too warm, listening to someone go on about the history of trees and how they developed into the modern tree. Thrilling.

giantg2 4y ago
"So long as you are awake enough to be safe and aim at the target, you can shoot a gun." Please do some research into a topic before spewing complete nonsense. Competitive shooting and marksmanship involve a lot of different things. Adequate sleep and being focused/alert are some of the core components to good marksmanship.
- Broken_Hippo 4y ago
  Sorry, you've missed the point completely. Physical alertness, the sort that you need to shoot a gun or a bow and arrow or other things that require physical activity don't take the same sort of brain power or concentration that learning a heavy subject takes. One has activity built in, the other has seating and a possibly boring environment. That's the point. It isn't that one doesn't require some level of alertness, but that it is different. You can kill yourself lifting weights or swimming, but folks still do that early in the day - even as they might not be alert enough to sufficiently learn during a boring class.
  - giantg2 4y ago
    I didn’t miss your point - your point is wrong. You clearly don't have any subject matter expertise in this if you're equating it to swimming and weights.

asdff 4y ago

You probably can't get an A in marksmanship by just reading a textbook and not shooting a gun. If people were skipping lectures in my experience, its because the professor was just lecturing out of the book. If the professor is lecturing without a book, attendance is much better, because there's no way to learn what you will be tested on otherwise. Then again if the professor is one to just read verbatim their slides, and they are online, no reason to attend either if its inconvenient.