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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Generally speaking... absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

I mean, C'mon, kid. Go to class.

That said, I guess he'll find out.

[Anonymous]

He will do poorly. If not now, later for sure. Ask me how I know it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would he potentially do better if he attends the lectures?

Yes, there is a reason that professionals (paid by you, by the way) stand in front of the class and talk.

[Anonymous]

It depends.Some profs put all their lecture notes on line. In some classes,there are designated note takers for kids with disabilities and some of the note takers will give them to anyone who asks.

So,in these cases, it's possible to skip class and do well.

[Anonymous]

I don't know. Are the lecture notes/power points available online? How good is the instructor?

I guess I can imagine some circumstances where hearing a sub par lecturer wouldn't add any learning above and beyond doing the readings and going through the notes, but it's suspicious that he is handling both classes this way. Also, as the classes get smaller this would not work.

You don't have to accuse him of anything, but you could ask him to tell you what the classes are like, what the instructors are like. That might give you some insights.

And maybe since he's a freshman he got the crappy 8:00am classes everyone else knew not to sign up for, so this will be a time limited issue...

[Anonymous]

I attended Ohio State University and just about all of my freshman classes have at least 300 students and the professors didn't care much about the lecture. They were more interested in research than teaching the class. I skipped going to classes in my freshman and studied on my own. I prepared for midterm and final exams using the brain dumps exams from previous years. A lot of professors didn't even bother changing the exams from previous years. I did well in my freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Are the tutorials the weekly sessions with the TA, where they go over homework and stuff? There is a chance that's enough, at least to get a B. He may be able to stay current that way, as long as he's studying the textbook and doing all the homework. That's my guess. But I rarely missed lectures. My husband skipped more often than I did and is doing just fine now as a professor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends.Some profs put all their lecture notes on line. In some classes,there are designated note takers for kids with disabilities and some of the note takers will give them to anyone who asks.

So,in these cases, it's possible to skip class and do well.

I am a professor. I put all of my lecture powerpoints online. The vast majority don't just read off their lecture notes verbatim - I say a LOT during class that is not written on my lecture slides, because Powerpoints/lecture notes serve as an AIDE to the presentation/lecture. They are not the entirety of it. Especially not in classes like physics and chemistry.

[Anonymous]

Depends, with large classes and large universities it may not make any difference as long as the student does the reading and goes to the labs.

[Anonymous]

In a large lecture class, sure. If your son has a history of his test scores outperforming his attendance, engagement, homework, class participation scores, then he may be able to pull it off, especially if grading is heavily weighted to the final exam.

[Anonymous]

Not likely.

My experience in the classroom suggests that it is an unusual kid who fails to attend lecture but is still actually engaged in the class.

So most likely your kid is BSing you.

[Anonymous]

Back in the day, I took some classes where I never went to class, only showed up for the final, and still got an A.

But those were blow-off liberal arts classes, not chemistry or physics.

[Anonymous]

If he took and did well in AP physics and AP chemistry in high school and you're talking about intro classes in college, he could definitely do well in the class without going to the lectures. It's harder if he did not already learn the substance of the class. But if he's going to regular one-on-one tutorials, he may in fact learn the material better than sitting in a giant lecture hall. Even better if he has a strong study group, even if they rotate attendance at the lecture. FYI - This only works with intro calculus, physics, and chemistry that hew closely to the APs and have pretty standard content at every college. The downside is that it reinforces bad habits (skipping classes, relying on tutors, notes of others) that will be problematic in other classes.