<p>I'm finding it more common that I'm thinking that going to class is actually a bad idea nowadays. I'm in a lot of math and engineering classes and the lectures are never conducive to how I learn. When I learn things, I look at a concept, take a couple minutes to ruminate over it, then go to an example, think about that some more, then go to another concept. In my lectures though, there is no thinking time. The class goes from concept to example to new concept to new example to another example and then to a concept that requires knowledge of the first concept but that I totally forgot about by then and so I don't know what that new concept is. I just take everything at face value that the lecturer says and my notes just copy down everything he/she writes down. I try to add more things to my notes, but I find that writing down things I don't understand won't help me understand them. </p>
<p>I feel like I should be one of those people who learns everything at home and only goes to class during midterm/final days.</p>
<p>If you learn better by self-teaching, then I don’t see an issue with skipping class and going over concepts on your own. You’ve already tried going to class and it hasn’t been helping you. That’s the beauty of college: You don’t have to go to class if you’re not benefiting from it (unless there’s required attendance). Just keep office hours in mind if you run into any problems.</p>
<p>I personally skipped my intro to software development class spring quarter after a couple weeks for the same reason. I actually started understanding the material much more once I was self-teaching. My project partner for that class did the same thing, and we consistently got projects done and working on time with minimal issues. If you need to skip, you need to skip. Just stay on top of everything.</p>
<p>Can you read ahead on the syllabus, familiarize yourself with the concepts for the upcoming lecture and then attend the lecture? I’d highly advise against skipping classes. Even if there is no attendance policy.</p>
<p>If you can, why not do both? Spend some time before class learning on your own and then during class what the teacher says will be a nice reinforcement of that. If you can talk to the professor and explain to him/her what the situation is and if they can give you some of the material before each class to help you learn.</p>
<p>I second what Harvest8888 is saying. Go over the material before class, take notes and listen to lecture during class, and then review the material after class. I would not recommend skipping class entirely.</p>
<p>If you skip class there is the possibility that either the prof will change the date of a test or say something will be on the test that only the students that went to class would know.</p>
<p>I highly recommend doing both, if you have the time for it, regardless of which way you learn better.</p>
<p>There were some classes where I don’t think I learned much of anything during the actual lecture time. There are few people who could go to a math lecture, for example, and then be prepared to take the exam right after (assuming, of course, the material is new to them). That’s not the point of the lecture. The point is to either introduce the topics or reinforce them (depending on if you studied the material before or after the lecture) and to guide your learning. Good professors will help you to focus your studies, will explain things in ways that have been successful with students in the past, and will provide useful and instructive examples. Good students use their notes to guide their understanding of the material, reading, and/or problem sets, and then spend more time on the concepts that they didn’t full understand. There’s not enough time for everyone to sit in lecture and think about the concepts at their own pace, and that would be a waste of time for everyone.</p>
<p>I’d recommend that you familiarize yourself with the material before hand and/or go over the material afterwards to spend more time working through problems and addressing concepts that you didn’t understand initially. It should be easier now that you’ve had someone walk you through the material previously, and you can refer to your notes if you need assistance. Walk through the material at your own pace and see if you can tell how one concept connects to the next, etc.</p>
<p>If you don’t have time to do all of that, of course, you have to prioritize in whatever method works for you. Going to lecture, however, is generally always good, unless you have a really rotten professor. If nothing else, you’re professor writes the test, and going to class will help you understand what sorts of things will be tested or emphasized. It gives you a feel for how the professor thinks, and it makes it easier to predict what sorts of things he might test on.</p>
<p>If you don’t have enough time to study adequately for your courses, perhaps you should consider giving up one of your other commitments.</p>
<p>It’s college, and you’re an adult. If you feel that you aren’t getting anything out of your lectures, you are allowed not to attend them. If you can do perfectly well without attending them, then why would you? However, from your description, it sounds like the class was moving too quickly from topic to topic and that you didn’t have time to learn them as the lecture was proceeding. If that is the case, it would likely take you longer to learn the material on your own, so perhaps, you should consider dropping one of your other commitments regardless, especially during semesters where you have a heavy course load.</p>
<p>I didn’t learn anything from my Differential Equations professor really during my winter quarter so I skipped maybe 60% of the time. Still got a good grade. Although, I did attend every single lecture no matter what for Partial Differential Equations. For my upper-div stats class I skipped 7/10 weeks. Aced the final no problem…just do what works for you. </p>
<p>If there’s an attendance policy, go. Otherwise, it’s optional. Some classes like my psychology class I had an actual interest in so I went to every lecture and that class was 4 hours long.</p>
<p>My intro to proofs class I skipped maybe once a week because I wanted to see physics lectures instead. Pretty sure I was the only one to do that at most times. But the teacher did take notice when she handed me a pretty big stack of my homework assignments. Kinda laughed about it. Of course she had to always call on me during class to prove something or write my proofs as examples I had from the homework on the board, which I guess was good way of making sure I was on my toes. I only attended class for my Operations Research on Fridays even though it was offered 3 times a week unless I had a test on one of the other days. I’d know ahead of time, though. She knew I was skipping class and that I absolutely did not care for the subject. The classes were never helpful, I just went for appearances. They’re all good professors but if I don’t care for something I don’t care for it. Simple as that. </p>
<p>All of my physics classes were extremely interesting, so I always went. I spent much more time learning about them than my math classes. </p>
<p>I do most of my learning on my own and 80% of the time find teachers useless. I will probably end up attending every single lecture this fall since they’re all classes I care about. I do generally go to all my general eds to pad the overall GPA. I’m basically paying 2000 for my classes per quarter, so I am going to get those A’s. </p>
<p>Skip if you’re confident in that you’ll be able to pull out with a good grade on your own. Don’t if you’re not. Stay if you enjoy the classes. Or because there’s an attendance policy.</p>
<p>OP - IMHO, skipping classes is a real bad idea. I’d suggest you reconsider. Lectures are designed to cover concepts/examples and move pretty fast to cover a lot of materials. Professors ususally don’t have time for a lot of discussions during his lectures - that’s why they have TAs and discussion sessions. It is your job to go over the stuff covered in the lecture, go to the discussion sessions with TA, make sure you understand the materials, and then follow up with your professor during his/her office hours. If you make habit of skipping classes, you may make it thru the first year but probably won’t make it thru the program. But, as others have said, you are an adult now. You make the bed you lie in. Good luck.</p>
<p>Lectures have completely passed my mind now and have become useless imo. The discussion sections with the TA go even faster as he blitzes out one example after another, with problems so long they make you forget what day it is. And my teacher’s office hours are at the beginning of the week, right after he teaches a new concept during lecture, which means that I would always be a week late in learning a concept, if even then. </p>
<p>Another problem with my math class is that often times, I find that my notes contradict themselves. One part, my notes say this, the other part says the complete opposite. Then I go online to find instructional videos on the subject and the notation is completely different and confuses me even more. It’s infuriating and I’m starting to think that robots should replace human teachers.</p>
<p>I agree with others that have stated you should try to go over the material before the lectures. If you already have an understanding of the material ahead of time, the lectures will be a lot more effective. You won’t be left trying to comprehend every single detail as it’s being presented to you, and you’ll be able to focus on the details that you may still be a bit fuzzy about. Skipping lectures is never a good idea. The professor may discuss a concept that isn’t in your book, or they may change test dates, change assignments, or offer extra credit opportunities. If you’re not at the lecture you miss out on this information.</p>