Can a student rarely attend lectures and still do well in a class?

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all the insight everyone.

Regarding lecture notes...yes they are posted online.

To answer the person above, he has taken AP Chemistry and regular physics. He did exceptionally well in physics and scored a 4 on the AP Chem exam (not high enough to get credit at this school). I was also also thinking the same thing -- that he was at some advantage having just taken those courses with the last couple of years. That said, I also do worry this is enforcing bad habits. Hopefully next semester he will realize he needs to be present.

I don't know exactly what happens in the tutorial classes. I believe these are smaller classes with the TA.

Finally, in terms of the professors, I do know he likes both of them, but the physics professor has an accent and he has a hard time understanding him. He is also hearing impaired, so that doesn't help matters either.

[Anonymous]

My DD did Wharton as an undergrad, decided the professor who was teaching one of her finance classes didn't present information correctly so stopped attending classes after first one. Wharton is graded on a curve and she was one of the top scorers in that class so, yes OP-you can do well w/o attending class. Still have to master the subject, test and do requirements but showing up not always required or needed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is possible. I know from experience.

[Anonymous]

It completely depends on how the prof teaches and assesses. If they teach from the textbook and you have all the material through the text or class notes, then going to class adds very little and you can do just fine.

It also depends on who / how they assess. If they use question bank exams that aren't specific to the class but more a test of general knowledge, then as long as he knows the material covered he will be fine as well.

If the prof is someone who adds a lot of content in class and fine tunes their assessments to the content only covered in class - then he won't do fine.

[Anonymous]

Most college professors suck, you only go to class to understand what will be on the test.

I use to skip lectures and go to the TA instead and just go over what he thought I needed to study. I was a Math major.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, I get the frustration but I think it's doable. I worked FT in undergrad and always had at least one class I didn't go to. Grades were fine with just doing the reading. I think it ultimately depends on the class + the student.

[Anonymous]

OP - I know a recent PharmD grad. He said many of the top students never went to class. Many still graduated in the top 10% of the class, passed their state licensing exams, etc.

It is entirely possible. I don't respect that decision but some students do it, and some students succeed.

But STOP with the parental oversight. You are going to:
*) hurt your own mental health (with worry that shouldn't be on your shoulders

*) wreak your relationship with your *adult* child

*) thwart your adult child's development into an independent adult

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the subject matter as well as how well the lecture tracks with the textbook. My area was math and I did have trouble in grad school with courses that did not track closely with the textbook regardless of attendance and notetaking--I really needed the text as well. But generally, if you are dealing with hard sciences and math, as long as the content is the same and you're paying attention to the textbook (or whatever passes as resource material) and going to tutorials and you can do it--sure.

My undergrad calc class was scheduled with the dept chair who had a strict attendance policy, and I had a conflicting job I needed in order to pay my rent, so my advisor told me to talk to the chair about the attendance conflict and showing up just for tests. The chair declared I would flunk calc and flunk out of school, but when I got the highest score of all his students it turned into a scholarship recommendation.

But I also had classes at undergrad and grad level where even if I could have done fine without attending class I never wanted to miss the lecture/discussion. But also never had to sit in a lecture hall with 150 other people.

[Anonymous]

I'm a professor and I teach a large lecture class. It is captured on video and loaded to blackboard so if a kid misses class (or wants to go over something again) they can watch. However, I do in class turn-in assignments, so students would miss points if they didn't attend class.

I'm giving the detail to explain that it completely depends on the technology and the instructor. If it is solely a lecture class and is taped, with no in-class assignments, then students could watch on their own time. The classes you describe may be like this-- large lecture one day and labs (which he apparently is attending) another day. But if a professor adds the active-learning component to the large lecture, he may miss learning and/or submitted assignments by not attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for all the insight everyone.

Regarding lecture notes...yes they are posted online.

To answer the person above, he has taken AP Chemistry and regular physics. He did exceptionally well in physics and scored a 4 on the AP Chem exam (not high enough to get credit at this school). I was also also thinking the same thing -- that he was at some advantage having just taken those courses with the last couple of years. That said, I also do worry this is enforcing bad habits. Hopefully next semester he will realize he needs to be present.

I don't know exactly what happens in the tutorial classes. I believe these are smaller classes with the TA.

Finally, in terms of the professors, I do know he likes both of them, but the physics professor has an accent and he has a hard time understanding him. He is also hearing impaired, so that doesn't help matters either.

You probably know this, but if this is documented, he can get accommodations, such as an amplification system.

I think he's probably fine, for now.

My husband is a professor (humanities) and every semester there are a couple students in his 100-level classes who barely come to class and only show up for exams. They also turn in papers. He says sit's clear they are doing the reading and grasping the material well enough to get Bs or B-s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman son (in a selective top 20) NEVER attends his physics lecture and rarely attends chemistry. He does participate in the labs and attends "tutorials." Right now he has a B+ and a B in the classes but promises he will end up with an A in at least Chemistry, possibly physics. Would he potentially do better if he attends the lectures? I didn't go to a four year college, so I am kind of clueless!

PS: I know this because I have been tracking him (please don't make this thread it about this issue). I haven't brought it up to him and don't plan to unless he ends up with poor performance.

If you know his attendance, so does the professor.

If your son claims it is about hearing in the large lecture hall, he should talk to the professor. Accent is no excuse - if your kid attended, he'd be used to it by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks for all the insight everyone.

Regarding lecture notes...yes they are posted online.

To answer the person above, he has taken AP Chemistry and regular physics. He did exceptionally well in physics and scored a 4 on the AP Chem exam (not high enough to get credit at this school). I was also also thinking the same thing -- that he was at some advantage having just taken those courses with the last couple of years. That said, I also do worry this is enforcing bad habits. Hopefully next semester he will realize he needs to be present.

I don't know exactly what happens in the tutorial classes. I believe these are smaller classes with the TA.

Finally, in terms of the professors, I do know he likes both of them, but the physics professor has an accent and he has a hard time understanding him. He is also hearing impaired, so that doesn't help matters either.

Does he have an accommodation for his hearing impairment? Some students wear headphones and the prof wears a mic, while other students might actually need a sign interpreter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I know a recent PharmD grad. He said many of the top students never went to class. Many still graduated in the top 10% of the class, passed their state licensing exams, etc.

It is entirely possible. I don't respect that decision but some students do it, and some students succeed.

But STOP with the parental oversight. You are going to:
*) hurt your own mental health (with worry that shouldn't be on your shoulders

*) wreak your relationship with your *adult* child

*) thwart your adult child's development into an independent adult

Where did he/she go? "Many" cannot graduate in the top 10%. By definition, the max you can have is 10% which I don't know if it meets the definition of "many."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I know a recent PharmD grad. He said many of the top students never went to class. Many still graduated in the top 10% of the class, passed their state licensing exams, etc.

It is entirely possible. I don't respect that decision but some students do it, and some students succeed.

But STOP with the parental oversight. You are going to:
*) hurt your own mental health (with worry that shouldn't be on your shoulders

*) wreak your relationship with your *adult* child

*) thwart your adult child's development into an independent adult

Where did he/she go? "Many" cannot graduate in the top 10%. By definition, the max you can have is 10% which I don't know if it meets the definition of "many."

You misunderstood the PP. They said of those who never went to class, many graduated at top 10%. Furthermore, if you have a class of 2,000 students, the top 10% would be a total of 200 students. Many is a relative term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman son (in a selective top 20) NEVER attends his physics lecture and rarely attends chemistry. He does participate in the labs and attends "tutorials." Right now he has a B+ and a B in the classes but promises he will end up with an A in at least Chemistry, possibly physics. Would he potentially do better if he attends the lectures? I didn't go to a four year college, so I am kind of clueless!

PS: I know this because I have been tracking him (please don't make this thread it about this issue). I haven't brought it up to him and don't plan to unless he ends up with poor performance.

I would hope that some of the other posters are correct and the lectures are the big intro lectures that are taped or follow the textbook exactly, with the real learning in the labs and tutorials. In this case it would seem like your kid is ok.

Personally, I wouldn't take the risk of skipping the lectures. You just never know what little information you might gain that could be valuable on exams. And what else is he doing with the time? Sleeping in? Point out that each class hour is the equivalent of $X tuition dollars.

I only missed one class in all of college and that was because I was sick.