Attendance and attention

[BigLuvin]

Just wondering, how does your school approach attendance and paying attention in class? I feel like I have taken a step back from undergrad at my school because we have attendance taken for every lecture (not a big deal to me) and constantly get nagged by faculty sitting in the back for looking at other material during class. I might be able to understand keeping you from surfing facebook during lecture, but when has prioritizing your time become a bad thing? If they're going to force me to be in a class from 8-5 then how can they tell me how to use my time? I just wanted to see what everyone else's experience is with these types of rules. Sometimes I just want to ask "have I not proven myself a competent and responsible student to get here?"

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[AwesomeTeeth]

Just wondering, how does your school approach attendance and paying attention in class? I feel like I have taken a step back from undergrad at my school because we have attendance taken for every lecture (not a big deal to me) and constantly get nagged by faculty sitting in the back for looking at other material during class. I might be able to understand keeping you from surfing facebook during lecture, but when has prioritizing your time become a bad thing? If they're going to force me to be in a class from 8-5 then how can they tell me how to use my time? I just wanted to see what everyone else's experience is with these types of rules. Sometimes I just want to ask "have I not proven myself a competent and responsible student to get here?"

Some professors care. Some don't. You just have to know which ones you can get away with. Same deal with attendance. Some things are mandatory and others aren't so much. I know a couple people who went to class everyday and just slept. They always just listen to the recordings later and do pretty well.

This is just for the basic sciences classes at my school. Labs and the dental courses are usually more strict.

 

[Streetwolf]

I found that as you progressed through the years, in general the faculty cared less (or maybe just noticed less) about what you did during lecture.

1st year they were taking attendance, walking around occasionally, keeping extra faculty in the back, etc. By 4th year there was usually 1 lecturer and they didn't seem to care what we did so long as like 5 people paid some attention.

 

[newyorkblork]

Yup, dental school actually feels a lot more like high school than college to me. Lots of "required attendance" lectures, lots of "show up or you fail" threats. I think it's because the faculty have to jump through a bunch of ADA hoops. Undergraduate professors didn't need to worry nearly as much about making sure you have your five hundred "competencies" completed, making sure you pass the NBDE, making sure of this or that or the other thing. They didn't have to sheepdog you because if you failed out of college, well, that's balls for you. If you fail out of dental school, it's a reasonably big deal for the school in terms of money and reputation alike.

What's mind-blowing is that it's well-established by now that lecture is a sub-optimal form of teaching in the first place, and it's well-established that only certain students gain anything from sitting in lectures, but 95% of the teaching is still done in lectures. Academia is a large machine, and slow to adjust.

 

[BigLuvin]

Yup, dental school actually feels a lot more like high school than college to me. Lots of "required attendance" lectures, lots of "show up or you fail" threats. I think it's because the faculty have to jump through a bunch of ADA hoops. Undergraduate professors didn't need to worry nearly as much about making sure you have your five hundred "competencies" completed, making sure you pass the NBDE, making sure of this or that or the other thing. They didn't have to sheepdog you because if you failed out of college, well, that's balls for you. If you fail out of dental school, it's a reasonably big deal for the school in terms of money and reputation alike.

What's mind-blowing is that it's well-established by now that lecture is a sub-optimal form of teaching in the first place, and it's well-established that only certain students gain anything from sitting in lectures, but 95% of the teaching is still done in lectures. Academia is a large machine, and slow to adjust.

Point well made

 

[noles]

never been to lecture so i couldn't tell you

 

[Lethstang]

yeah we have alot of mandatory attendance at UT. Lecture does nothing for me, but there i sit, all day. I dont want to be drugged up on addy all day to be able to listen and learn.

 

[bucknut2009]

First and second year there were very few classes requiring attendance at Maryland. When we did have to be there, we weren't policed ... you see some people playing games, most others on gchat and a few taking notes. All lectures are captured live online and available 24/7 for replay. I saved a ton of time listening to lectures at 2x speed. Also, try to get a group of 3 or 4 friends good at taking notes and do an outline group. Once you find out if your friends are taking good quality notes and everyone is formatting them the same, you are talking about only having to listen to 1 out of 3 or 4 lectures and knowing that you have everything you need for the exam at a fraction of the time.

Third year we have essentially had lecture 1-1.5 days/week and they tended to require attendance a bit more. At that point though, you are in clinic or have lab work so you are usually around the school most days anyways.

We gave our outlines to the prior year students each year and since the material is the same for every class, they are essentially studying for the exam from day 1. Check early to see if any upperclassmen have something like that available.

 

[HillsNayyr]

We have no required attendance (other than preclinic) and faculty don't really look over our shoulders.