5 ms·

Im sorry, but if you think that you can NOT attend a class and do well, you deserve whatever grade you get. It is not the teachers fault for not forcing you to

Im sorry, but if you think that you can NOT attend a class and do well, you deserve whatever grade you get. It is not the teachers fault for not forcing you to go to class.

thrownaway2424 13y ago
Well, I don't know. I had an upper division thermodynamic class where the professor was an admitted bad lecturer. He had two policies. One was if you had an A grade already based on the mid-term exam and weekly assignments, you need not take the final exam. The other was if your final exam grade was higher than your mid-term + homework, you get the grade from the final. I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. Friends of mine also did not attended, but passed the final exam. A number of people who regularly attended the lectures failed the class. From this experience I formed the belief that a university lecturer can actually be counter-productive to the students learning the subject.
- marvin 13y ago
  I've always been a very focused student. Lecturers usually provide good value to their students, but in three courses during my undergrad I went to two lectures before determining that my time would be better spent reading up on the material on my own. The lecturers were just very bad and obviously made an inferior job than the textbook. This is what is so good about being a student: You are for the first time allowed to take responsibility for your own results. Unfortunately you have to be lucky or extraordinarily talented to get similar conditions when you get out in the real world.
- claudius 13y ago
  Is it correct to assume that both you and your non-failing friends put in considerable work outside the lectures? Or, depending on the exact subject, at least skim Wikipedia? If so, that is certainly an even better way to learn than by lectures, but unfortunately will not be possible by the fourth or fifth year in university.
- SamReidHughes 13y ago
  It could also just be that the smarter students were the ones more likely to feel comfortable skipping the lectures.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >upper division thermodynamic class ... I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. You must either be quite a good student or that was quite an easy/poor class. Personally, I try to make sure students have as close to a knowable outcome by mid-terms, so they can drop with a W. >where the professor was an admitted bad lecturer. Sometimes this is a ploy in attempt to get students to take some ownership in the process. To paraphrase "Don't expect me to magic this crap into your head with my gift of prose." >From this experience I formed the belief that a university lecturer can actually be counter-productive to the students learning the subject. No no no. Maybe those who didn't already know thermodynamics, or have the discipline to teach themselves felt it was important to attend lecture.
  - thrownaway2424 13y ago
    Well, I suppose it could have been some kind of mind trick, but the lectures I did attend were real snoozers. The old man would open up with "So as I was saying ..." and then launch mid-equation into whatever he was talking about last time. Like literally "So as I was saying, delta-aich over delta-tee ...."
    - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      Well, I have to admit that I have met some folks who could turn even the most fun stuff into drudgery.
  - VLM 13y ago
    "or that was quite an easy/poor class." That sounds like an easy class to test out of. If the prof provides an entire semesters homework, and you can provably ace "class A amplifier bias circuit design" without attending the lecture that supposedly teaches you how, then don't go. I never skipped entire classes but I certainly skipped lectures where I could prove to myself I knew the material. This works really well in most engineering classes where you can check your work. In fluffy stuff like English Lit being "right" means knowing the prof's politics and personal belief system, so its a bit harder to know if you're right or not, so you can't skip that lecture. Think you know "integration by parts"? Already did the homework and got it all eventually correct? Then not much point in attending lecture that day. This has a bonus in that you get a lot more out of a lecture if you already struggled with the topic for a couple hours rather than walking in cold.
maaaats 13y ago
Not sure what level of education we're talking about here, but at least in Norwegian universities lectures are mostly not mandatory. I never attend them. I do the required work and do well on the exam. The key is that: instead of spending 2 hours on a lecture where I'm sitting there passive, maybe not paying attention and the lecturer will only give the big picture and not the details (so I still have to read up on the subjects afterwards), I instead spend 1.5h reading/doing it by myself.
tomjen3 13y ago
I had one instructor who was so completely useless that I stopped attending his lectures. I ended up with the highest possible grade and, as he smilling me informed me, that was because I had clearly paid attention in his class (he had to had noticed me because just before I bailed I noticed that there were only about 5-10 students left). So how did I get that grade? Simple, I read the text book (and found it rather obvious and slow-going) and made many notes.

Im sorry, but if you think that you can NOT attend a class and do well, you deserve whatever grade you get. It is not the teachers fault for not forcing you to go to class.

thrownaway2424 13y ago

Well, I don't know. I had an upper division thermodynamic class where the professor was an admitted bad lecturer. He had two policies. One was if you had an A grade already based on the mid-term exam and weekly assignments, you need not take the final exam. The other was if your final exam grade was higher than your mid-term + homework, you get the grade from the final. I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. Friends of mine also did not attended, but passed the final exam. A number of people who regularly attended the lectures failed the class. From this experience I formed the belief that a university lecturer can actually be counter-productive to the students learning the subject.

marvin 13y ago
I've always been a very focused student. Lecturers usually provide good value to their students, but in three courses during my undergrad I went to two lectures before determining that my time would be better spent reading up on the material on my own. The lecturers were just very bad and obviously made an inferior job than the textbook. This is what is so good about being a student: You are for the first time allowed to take responsibility for your own results. Unfortunately you have to be lucky or extraordinarily talented to get similar conditions when you get out in the real world.
claudius 13y ago
Is it correct to assume that both you and your non-failing friends put in considerable work outside the lectures? Or, depending on the exact subject, at least skim Wikipedia? If so, that is certainly an even better way to learn than by lectures, but unfortunately will not be possible by the fourth or fifth year in university.
SamReidHughes 13y ago
It could also just be that the smarter students were the ones more likely to feel comfortable skipping the lectures.
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
>upper division thermodynamic class ... I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. You must either be quite a good student or that was quite an easy/poor class. Personally, I try to make sure students have as close to a knowable outcome by mid-terms, so they can drop with a W. >where the professor was an admitted bad lecturer. Sometimes this is a ploy in attempt to get students to take some ownership in the process. To paraphrase "Don't expect me to magic this crap into your head with my gift of prose." >From this experience I formed the belief that a university lecturer can actually be counter-productive to the students learning the subject. No no no. Maybe those who didn't already know thermodynamics, or have the discipline to teach themselves felt it was important to attend lecture.
- thrownaway2424 13y ago
  Well, I suppose it could have been some kind of mind trick, but the lectures I did attend were real snoozers. The old man would open up with "So as I was saying ..." and then launch mid-equation into whatever he was talking about last time. Like literally "So as I was saying, delta-aich over delta-tee ...."
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    Well, I have to admit that I have met some folks who could turn even the most fun stuff into drudgery.
- VLM 13y ago
  "or that was quite an easy/poor class." That sounds like an easy class to test out of. If the prof provides an entire semesters homework, and you can provably ace "class A amplifier bias circuit design" without attending the lecture that supposedly teaches you how, then don't go. I never skipped entire classes but I certainly skipped lectures where I could prove to myself I knew the material. This works really well in most engineering classes where you can check your work. In fluffy stuff like English Lit being "right" means knowing the prof's politics and personal belief system, so its a bit harder to know if you're right or not, so you can't skip that lecture. Think you know "integration by parts"? Already did the homework and got it all eventually correct? Then not much point in attending lecture that day. This has a bonus in that you get a lot more out of a lecture if you already struggled with the topic for a couple hours rather than walking in cold.

maaaats 13y ago

Not sure what level of education we're talking about here, but at least in Norwegian universities lectures are mostly not mandatory. I never attend them. I do the required work and do well on the exam. The key is that: instead of spending 2 hours on a lecture where I'm sitting there passive, maybe not paying attention and the lecturer will only give the big picture and not the details (so I still have to read up on the subjects afterwards), I instead spend 1.5h reading/doing it by myself.

tomjen3 13y ago

I had one instructor who was so completely useless that I stopped attending his lectures. I ended up with the highest possible grade and, as he smilling me informed me, that was because I had clearly paid attention in his class (he had to had noticed me because just before I bailed I noticed that there were only about 5-10 students left). So how did I get that grade? Simple, I read the text book (and found it rather obvious and slow-going) and made many notes.