I'm Not Alone In This

As a firm believer in the lack of use for lecture attendance, I’ve found that you share my concerns, and you have come up with some points that only strengthens my argument.

You share many of the same concerns that I do. You say in relation to one of your subjects, “pointless lectures, literally reads from powerpoints which he posts online.” I could quote a very similar comment from my own blog post. It just goes to show that I am not alone in my opinion that one wastes their time going to lectures when a lecturer goes over slides that one can just go over in their own time.

An issue that I didn’t raise was your point expressed- “He is so confusing and goes off on tangents.” Lecturers can often go off the topic, and express viewpoints that have no apparent relevance to what is being learnt. This then creates too many ideas in a student’s head, prompting confusion over what to write when it comes to assignments.

As said in my opinion piece, there is of course some use for lectures. If one is able to get past the monotonous tone of the lecturer and actually listen to everything, there is a strong chance that valuable points will get brought up, leaving you more prepared when it comes to writing assignments or tests. “He’s willing to help if you go to his office hours,” is your quote suggesting the approachability of lecturers. From previous experience, this can be said on behalf of many lecturers at Rhodes University, where I currently study. Therefore it would be safe to say that if you can go to a lecturer one on one, and discuss the precise aspects of a subject you don’t understand, you would be far better off than going to the whole lecture that discusses points you may already know.

If you give yourself all the time to prepare, study and do what really counts (tests, assignments and exams), I believe it is far more beneficial than wasting valuable time going to lectures. You say “If you study on your own, you’ll be fine,” and I can’t help but agree with you. I sincerely hope I don’t get proven wrong when it comes to the end of year exams!

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