Guy who doesn't show up for lectures, but aces the exams.

<p>How many of these individuals have you guys encountered so far? There's one guy in my multi-variable calc class who only shows up for the review before the exam, and the actual exam. The frustrating part is that he's the curve-killer.</p>

<p>Do you happen to know if he knew the material before he took the class? (E.g. because he had already taken it somewhere else but did not get transfer credit for it, or because he had taken another class that used the material, or because he had already taken a more advanced class.) </p>

<p>I could have done that in several classes required for my major and minor simply because I already knew all of the material for those classes. But I didn't want to do pointless work for pointless classes, so I opted to talk to the departments instead and fulfilled the requirements in other ways.</p>

<p>He would have been pretty impressive though if he had never seen any of the material before! I guess some people just learn better out of a textbook than in a class.</p>

<p>Does the instructor have an attendance policy?</p>

<p>What is your complaint? If he showed up for every class, he would probably wreck the curve even more.</p>

<p>Life is unfair. Learn to deal with people who are smarter, dumber, lazier, harder working, or exactly the same as you in any possible combination of the preceding.</p>

<p>I knew a guy who was a senior and had to take a sophomore class to graduate. He never went to any lecture but still killed the curve. To make it worse, he didn't even care about the grade because he was about to graduate.</p>

<p>What's the problem with that? He knew the material and did well on the exam. Why show up for lectures if you already know everything?</p>

<p>No complaints, guys. I was just thought it was pretty impressive and wondered if anyone had similar experiences.</p>

<p>ken285: nothing wrong with it. He's actually a good friend of mine. I kind of felt sorry for the kids that were struggling in that class though.</p>

<p>I feel like I could have done that in my Gen Bio I class last semester, but there was a fairly strict attendance policy.</p>

<p>There was a recent thread about this...somewhere on CC about students supposedly doing better on exams if they don't attend lectures. Perhaps that rings true for him?</p>

<p>It depends a lot on the class. If its a small humanities class where participation is very important, you have to go to class. No exceptions.</p>

<p>In most cases, going to class can never hurt. Why not go?</p>

<p>But in some cases, it's okay if you don't go to class. I didn't go to my Calc 3 class because the book was very good, and the professor's lectures were mostly proofs. I made an A+ in the class, but I kind of regret not going to lecture because the material in class was really interesting. That's what you get for living in a forced triple, not enough sleep to wake up for morning classes.</p>

<p>my cousin that goes to brown says that a lot of those exist ...
i believe that quite frankly people practice from early how to do good in school, having patterns really help! there are people who can party 6 days a week, and on the 6th day that same night cram like hell and ace the test, then there<code>s people who</code>s brain just take in everything and don`t really have to study because they retain information like a sponge retains water , then there are people like this kid in my math class, who is just BRILLIANT! and somehow uses math to do well in all his other subject!</p>

<p>the mind is a powerful thing x;]</p>

<p>I had a roomate who would lay in his bed on his stomach playing WoW all day and all night and never sleep. He never went to class and only left the bed to **** and eat. He only went to class for tests and the first day. Guess what he was a freshman and 17, and he graduated before I did. I was a sophomore at the time. He took 27 credits a semester. He graduated a year before me with a 4.0 in a BIO/pre-med curriculum. Was I mad not really. But it was pretty amazing how he had never taken the classes and aced everything.</p>

<p>I agree with those saying "depends on the class." I have a friend who pulled off an A in her freshman chemistry course after attending maybe 50% of the time (and not at all in the last month of class), but she'd already been taught most of the material and all the notes were online. She used to just study intensively around test-time, and then she'd go in and do really well.</p>

<p>That's me! :)</p>

<p>"I had a roomate who would lay in his bed on his stomach playing WoW all day and all night and never sleep. He never went to class and only left the bed to **** and eat. He only went to class for tests and the first day. Guess what he was a freshman and 17, and he graduated before I did. I was a sophomore at the time. He took 27 credits a semester. He graduated a year before me with a 4.0 in a BIO/pre-med curriculum. Was I mad not really. But it was pretty amazing how he had never taken the classes and aced everything."</p>

<p>What a waste of talent... And WoW... that's sad.</p>

<p>I showed up to half of my chem 101 classes and even fewer of the discussion sections and still destroyed the curve every time because the notes were online with practice problems and the professor gave us practice problems every week that were just like the test questions. The next semester in chem 102 I went to all but one of the classes because the professor didn't post anything online and didn't give us any practice questions. You don't need to go to class depending on the material and the professor. A lot of the time the professor just reteaches what is in the book.</p>

<p>Hi .</p>

<p>Aren't most lectures just review of the reading material?</p>

<p>He could have just read the material in the book and gotten through the class. I'm still in high school and I can assure you if my school didn't have an attendence policy, I would skip everyday because I can just read the text book and get A's on everything.</p>

<p>^
Yeah that's very true. If the teacher uses powerpoint slides (especially those supplied by the textbook publisher) everyday and posts them online, studying at home would make little or no difference. Although, I hate those professors because the learning experience is boring and also because I want to learn something outside of the textbook.</p>

<p>
[quote]
What is your complaint? If he showed up for every class, he would probably wreck the curve even more.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>hahahahaa</p>

<p>and yes, I know quite a few. that's life (meeting better test takers).</p>

<p>:'(</p>