<p>I've noticed some courses have 'discussion sections' - Chem 1A for instance goes from 2-3:10pm MWF but also has discussion sections T,TH from 2-3:45pm.</p>
<p>Are these discussion sections mandatory? Recommended to attend? One of the other classes I wanted to take falls into Chem 1A's discussion times. I don't know if I want to avoid time-clashes between disc-secs from one course to lecture times of another.</p>
<p>Thanks !</p>
<p>I think discussion sessions are more important if its a hard class/lots of info, like chem, or math. I dont know for certain since i’m only going to be a freshman, but I would assume discussions are like “we just had the lecture, now lets go over the material more in depth”.</p>
<p>Meh. Suddenly I miss my highschool science courses…</p>
<p>Basically when you enroll in a class, you enroll for a lecture and a discussion section (sometimes a lab too). The actual lecture is the time where you are in a lecture hall with all the students in the class and your professor gives his lecture. The discussion is a smaller group of students (usually less than 20) where a TA holds the meeting. Some discussions are mandatory because they assign quizzes or take attendance, while some discussions are only for extra help. Your professor will let you know on the first day of class if it’s mandatory or not. Sometimes even the system will say optional or not on your class search.</p>
<p>Also some classes involve enrolling in a lab (usually chem/engineering/physics) where you actually get a grade for the class (2 credits usually). This will be on top of your lecture and discussion, but the stuff you learn in lab is usually applying the stuff you learned in class.</p>