Again, so we don’t misunderstand each other: Many lectures are good and important. Most lecturers make an effort and want to present their material properly. But there are situations where they either don’t succeed or just can’t connect to the audience (to you). In these cases, productively conceived knowledge events turn into soporific energy robbers.
These lectures won’t do you any good; they paralyze and block you. So you can avoid them with a clear conscience.
Here are four reasons justifying this decision:
#1 The Lecture Offers No Added Value
Many lectures are quite nice: the lecturer is okay, the content seems well prepared and the lecture hall looks comfortable. You can follow the lectures to some extent and are satisfied afterward because you have done something for your studies. But is that really true? Did attending your event bring you more than you could have worked for yourself during this time?
Most students waddle to the lecture and let themselves be sprinkled. The lecturers know this and therefore prepare the content of their scripts and books in a brain-friendly way so that they can read it quickly and easily from a PowerPoint slide. Viewed soberly, this work is superfluous because your lecture then offers you no added value. Your lecturer works to rule and does not provide you with a single additional piece of information that you cannot read or google for yourself.
Therefore, pay attention to whether the teaching from your university teachings is productive and sustainable. Is previously unknown background information or additional comments are given that are not in the textbook? Are there new examples or further explanations that you wouldn’t come up with yourself? Does the lecturer present any practical applications or personal testimonies that could make your learning easier? If yes: stay seated; if not: skip this lecture!
#2 The Lecturer Kills Your Motivation
There are people you just can’t listen to. For me, it was Professor M in Accounting whose mere presence almost put me to sleep. One sentence was enough to make me question my whole study decision (I studied industrial engineering). Every lecture was a cramp and I stayed home more often than I left than stayed in the classroom until the end of the lecture.
In conversation – and, thank God, also in the closed room – Professor M was completely friendly and pleasant. In the lecture, however, he was a killer. With just a few words, he killed all of my motivation – and I bet you’ve already met your personal Professor M.
Everyone knows people whose talk is tiresome, aggressive, or evokes desperate emotional outbursts. Whenever possible: avoid such people. If your lecturer takes away the joy of your studies, stay away from his lecture. Get notes from fellow students or ask older students – but protect your motivation
#3 The Lecture Doesn’t Challenge You
There are students who do not go to the lecture because it is too demanding for them. These students are stupid. Not because they are not mentally up to scratch or because they have not yet mastered the material – they are stupid because they cowardly avoid the challenge and thus prevent their personal growth. They refuse to work and don’t want to study. This is exactly why they enrolled at the university.
A lecture must challenge you. It must not be soft background noise for you that you just take along with you. A lecture has to make you better – and that only happens if it cleverly pulls you out of your comfort zone and starts a learning process. If this doesn’t happen, your lecture is useless.
If your lecturer doesn’t make sure that you think along and develop new connections in your brain, he’s doing a bad job. And you must not encourage him in this by looking at him with tired eyes. Save your time. Better sleep an hour longer and work independently for 30 minutes on a previously unknown exercise or solve a problem from an old exam. That brings you more.
#4 The Alternative to Lecture Is More Valuable
“But if I don’t go to lectures, I’m not doing anything for my studies.” That’s what I often hear when I advise people to stay away from the lecture hall. Well, that’s right: If you don’t go to the lecture, you miss one or sometimes the only lecture in a subject. But attending lectures is not without alternatives.
Actually, there are always alternatives that can compete with your lecture and at the same time make sense for you and your studies – you just don’t see them. Example: Meet your fellow students to study and work on the topics of the substituted lecture for 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Explain the content to each other or discuss the results you have worked out yourself. Another example: Take private tuition from an older student or a tutor who is very knowledgeable about the content or who has already passed the module in question. The probability is not small that he can explain the content to you more at eye level than your lecturer.
Or: Work through the content of the lecture alone and use all the tools you can find (scripts, sample solutions, summaries, explanatory videos, and so on). But beware: Don’t cheat yourself and invent apparently adequate alternatives to your lecture! Just because you don’t feel like it, you shouldn’t badmouth your lecture – and your alternatives are not good. Choose wisely which action makes the most sense for you, but be realistic about it.
Conclusion
Many students skip their lectures and thus spoil their studies. You want to avoid work and lie to yourself. But at least as many students force themselves into the lecture hall almost every day and attend their lecture only to have been there. They study as a token and harm themselves and their studies as well.
Before the next time you go to class unproductive and bored, talking to the neighbors all the time or playing with your smartphone, you should use your time differently.
Skip your lecture if you notice that the event offers you no added value or the lecturer is a motivation killer. Stay at home if the lecture doesn’t challenge you or if you can prefer a valuable alternative. Trade your time only for exclusive information or unique inspiration.
Don’t settle for less. Stop wasting your time in pointless lectures and take responsibility. To you. For your studies. And for your life. Yes, sometimes, as a student, you should get the most student life to the fullest even if it means missing lectures or getting help from an essay writer – Hand Made Writing.
