<p>Really? what is the point to going if the professors have clearly made it known that dont care if you learn the material or even want to help unless a grade is on the line? Whats the point in going if the professor's English is barely comprehensible? Idk. theres really no point to this, just wanting to see what everyone else's thoughts are</p>
<p>To find out which area(s) will be on test. Sometimes, you cannot just trust the syllabus. Nothing got me more steamed that practicing all night on math/physics problems that were not even touched during a midterm or final.</p>
<p>Beside what Global said, I have a few points:</p>
<p>(1) You paid for it.
(2) When you did bad do you blame self or the professor?
(3) You might be surprise that the example he showed in class was on the exam
(4) You might not understand certain things from reading the textbook, and some “dumb” kids keep asking the same goddamn question and one time your professor made it so clear that everyone went “OHHHHH”
(5) You know where he’s up to </p>
<p>Syllabus is dumb. I never trusted it, and professors never bothered to use it.</p>
<p>My physics professor isn’t a great teacher either. He’s a very nice person, and very responsible (he answers our email every day, unlike some professors that never returned an email…sigh*). I went because I paid it, and all the reasons above.</p>
<p>I skipped a lot in the past and I did bad. I blamed myself. You can’t blame the professor. He did his job. Other students did well.</p>
<p>You go to class for the same reason you go to school: to learn.</p>
<p>The biggest thing you need to go to class for is to get in the habit. If you get into the habit of skipping classes a lot, you will have trouble not continuing that trend when you get into later classes that you can’t afford to skip. Trust me on this, I have been through it. You skip too many Econ lectures because it doesn’t apply and you will do fine. Then you you start feeling like you can start skipping your circuits class because it doesn’t really come into play as an ME, so it won’t hurt. Next thing you know, you are an ME who is skipping thermodynamics. That is no path to go down. Best to start good habits early. I started some of those bad habits early and it was hell to try and break them.</p>
<p>Cause if you end up failing because of not going to class, it’s your money going down the drain, you STILL have to take the class if it’s part of your major requirement, and the professor still gets paid.</p>
<p>Not hard to see who will always be the winner and loser in that scenario huh?</p>
<p>I didn’t give a great response. The other posts were right on point. It’s just that sometimes a syllabus is something that was used during the previous semesters and the professor changes the title from “Spring 2010” to “Fall 2010”. Also, you have to factor in that depending on a professor’s interests and sometimes their research area(s), certain topics of a course can be emphasized more than others.</p>
<p>Case in point: My Numerical Analysis professor also does his research in numerical linear algebra techniques. Even though he covered and tested us on all of the required areas (numerical solution to ODE’s, PDE’s, Runge-Kutta, etc)…guess which area had the MOST questions asked?..Yup, linear algebra.</p>
<p>I guess Magneto is too accustomed to being coddled by his high school teachers. College professors have so many students there is no time to make sure each and every one understands the material. If you can’t keep up with the work, maybe college isn’t for you.</p>
<p>@ Yakyu</p>
<p>In general, professors are teachers. So in general, there are teachers that cannot teach. We refer to college education as the higher education, but learning and teaching are independent of level of education. In another word, if you are a professor, you should be careful with how you pass your knowledge to your fellow students.</p>
<p>There are high school teachers that teach straight from the textbook. My calculus professor from last semester taught straight from the book. All he did was repeating what the book did. The only advantage is that he’s a human and we can ask questions when we don’t understand, instead of going on the Google looking for help (i.e. physicsforum). </p>
<p>Nonetheless, unlike students in high school, college students have this gut-instinct feeling that they are adults and professors will not go after them. This is probably the logic behind your statement, Yakyu. </p>
<p>I agree that each professor usually takes 2-3 courses and that’s a lot, consider 30-40 people per class in smaller schools. If they are not adjunct, they also need to publish papers and participate in research.</p>
<p>My switching system professor has a very thick accent, and he has a hard time completing his own sentences. But he’s fun and very helpful. On the other hand, if he yell at us for no freakin’ reason like <em>{CCNY<em>ENGINEERS</em>KNOW<em>WHO</em>HE_IS}</em> then you know how much students don’t like this professor. In fact, upperclassmen had written so many complaints about him and hoped to get him fired. Sadly, you can’t fire a tenure just because of bad teaching.</p>
<p>Now teaching is a very personal thing which I strongly agree. We can’t match everyone’s taste and we can hardly put everyone in the same pace. But if you are a college student you must have met at least one horrible in comprehensive professor that just speak to himself and get mad at students when they started asking questions.</p>
<p>If that’s the case, I believe it is the school’s fault.</p>
<p>Professors grade slackers more harshly. He thinks that you are not trying. He will not be lenient in grading.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the Professor sees that you are trying, he will be more lenient in grading. In fact, if you are on the borderline between two grades, he will give you the higher of the two grades.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your responses. I pretty much know most of this in my head, just had a bad day with one of my classes yesterday and it kinda ****ed me off.</p>
<p>@GLOBALTRAVELER and jxwie: you guys always know what to say to me. I really appreciate the both of you. Ive actually been pretty good about going to my classes while im here at my CC but not at my home school</p>
<p>@boneh3ad
</p>
<p>I like this. never thought about it that way. Im going to keep this in mind when I go back to my home school! thank you</p>
<p>@Yakyu Spirits
actually no Im not used to those kind of teachers. I actually had to work somewhat in high school and my teachers were horrible. the difference is that they didnt say on the first day that they didnt care or didnt want to help at all if people need help (granted it is high school but still). If a student wants extra help outside class and would like to get it from the source, the professor shouldnt scare students away even if there’s alot. They knew that they would be teaching alot of students before the class even started.</p>
<p>You go to class receive a grade so you can receive credits towards the academic degree. Occasionally you might learn something new and/or useful. Most learning occurs on one’s own time, anyways.</p>
<p>I skipped at least half of my classes during my bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Not because I thought it was “cool” or anything… but sometimes I just didn’t see the added value in going to class. I always went to the first class at least to see how the professor taught the class. If he was just reading his notes or PowerPoint slides in front of the class the whole time, I usually just stayed home and read the textbook instead. I always made sure to get my hands on a friend’s notes however, for examples and such. On the other hand, if the professor was good and I really felt like I was learning something from going to class, then I’d do that. I was also the treasurer of my student government during my senior year, so I missed a lot of classes (sometimes against my will) because I had meetings at the same time. </p>
<p>As for professors being more lenient with students who show up in class… I’d say that at least 75% of the professors have no idea what their students’ names are.</p>
<p>A lot of friends have told me that there’s no way they could skip class like I did and still get good grades. To be honest, I can’t say that I have learned a lot from my degree. I managed to cram everything in the day before exams, and then I’d forget about it. I don’t really want to work as an engineer anyway, so I don’t really care about that. I managed to get a good enough GPA to get accepted into grad school, so that’s fine with me.</p>
<p>^ lol … i think this said a lot
</p>
<p>Sometimes, there really isn’t much of a point. A lot of the classes that colleges make you take, engineering or otherwise, are bullcrap. The gen eds only exist so colleges can force you to stay all 4 years and waste money. Since they have practically zero use, there’s no point in going to those. And some engineering classes are stupid too. I’m taking an intro to project management class which is so stupid a business major could ace it, which is why I skip it.</p>
<p>To me, college is just about learning what you need for the test and getting the degree. If you can do that without going to class, more power to you.</p>
<p>So I don’t have to read the book myself :)</p>