Should You Attend Class?

Some universities are beginning to phase out the traditional lecture and tutorial system. However, unsurprisingly, many law schools are slow to change and most courses still consist of 2-3 hour weekly lectures and 1-2 hour weekly tutorials. Do you ever ask yourself whether you should attend class? 

There are many potential problems with lectures. Some academics may be poor lecturers, and many students are terrible attendees. Tutorials, meanwhile, are often structured (unintentionally) as a mini-lecture or are hijacked by students that seek to have their own private tutoring session at their classmates’ expense.

Before we go further, let us be clear. There are some incredible academics that deliver value to all students in attendance. You should absolutely attend these classes. (Where you do decide to attend, do so with the help of our Complete Guide to Note-Taking in Lectures).

However, you will undoubtedly come across lecturers that come unprepared and read off the slides for the duration of the class with little to no elaboration other than to cite further paragraphs from the textbook or cases that form the content of their lecture slides.

By way of example, in my first year of law school, I attended a nightmare 3-hour lecture. The lecturer prepared a 120-slide presentation and attempted to read each slide word-for-word. The slides were an exact replication of the chapter reading for that topic and the lecturer did not add their own thoughts or analysis throughout the whole 3 hours. I heard from classmates that all 10 lectures during the semester were conducted the same way.

After leaving that lecture, I understood very little about the topic and needed to read the chapter in my own time. I was doubling up on the work for no apparent reason. This experience changed how I viewed lectures and tutorials, and informs the recommendations made in this article.

KEY POINTS

1.     You’re in control of your time

2.     Attend the first class to make an informed assessment Determine whether it was useful, recorded and/or compulsory

3.    Plan how will you use the time you have gained by not attending the lecture and how you will learn the material covered

You’re in Control of Your Time

“In guarding their fortune men are often closefisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most extravagant.” – Seneca

Before the substantial content, let us set out overarching principle of this article – you are in control of your own time. Time is finite and it is important that you respect your time, because others won’t. If you have been reading our other articles, you will know this is something we feel strongly about.

The way to avoid wasting your time is to first acknowledge that you are in control of how you choose to study during university. You do not have to follow others’ recommendations. You should make up your own mind.

Make an Informed Assessment

In our view, it is not enough to be told that something is worthwhile. You must think for yourself and make your own assessment. You should always attend the first class of every course so you can undertake an informed assessment.  

If you see early on that the class is not worth your time, do not attend it. Use the time to efficiently study for your course. The goal is to always maximise the outcome while minimising the effort (80/20 principle).

Attending a 3 hour lecture is pointless if you learn next to nothing from it. In our minds, this is an inefficient use of your valuable time – time that could be better spent studying in ways that help you to learn the material and achieve good grades.

Ask yourself the following questions after the class:

Did I learn anything useful during this class?

If yes:

• Why? Was the lecture delivered well? Was I engaged during the class? Were complicated concepts explained in a way that made them easy to understand?
• Could I have learned it more efficiently in another way (textbook readings, case law readings, tutorial questions etc.)?
• Was the outcome worth the effort? In other words, was the knowledge gained worth the time spent?

If no:

• Why? Was the lecture delivered poorly? Were you too tired or lazy to take notes? Were the tutorial questions discussed in detail or glossed over?
• Or is the tutorial filled with unengaged students who attend simply to “get the answers” and profit from others’ hard work?

Is the lecture recorded?

• If not, it might not be wise to attend unless you feel confident you won’t miss any important information.
• If yes, you can watch it on 1.5x or double speed to save yourself time, if it is worth watching at all.

Is attendance compulsory?

• If it is, then you are better off attending and making the most of it. Collect those free marks and do the best you can with the time spent.

Do your friends attend the class?

• If they do, rely on them to tell you if you miss something, or if there is a major change which makes the lecture worth attending.

Plan How You Will Learn the Material Covered in the Lecture

If you decide not to attend, make the most of the precious time you have saved!

The best way to do this is by planning ahead before the start of the week. As each week rolls around you need to plan at an operational level to manage your time and stay on top of the several different types of challenges facing you. (For more on how to do this, read our Article “Simple Planning Essentials: Do This Each Week”)

To ensure you never waste the time you have gained, make it a firm rule that you will always cover the material discussed in class during the allotted lecture/tutorial time.

How you do this is up to you – many people will simply read the textbook chapter and compare it with the lecture slides or complete the tutorial questions. It all depends on the nature of the course and what materials you find to be most efficient and useful for that particular course.

For example, in my “Civil Procedure” course – I attended the first two lectures and found that the lecturer relies heavily on the lecture slides and adds only sporadic commentary. The lecture slides were based on the required textbook. I stopped attending lectures and made it my routine to watch the lecture on double speed as I consulted my textbook and took down notes from all sources.

Let us know down below how you go about attending (or not attending) classes.