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How much do you pay attention in lectures?

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Basically what these guys said. Although no matter how much attention you pay, and how many notes or lovely little annotations you make, if you don't review the material the same day/soon afterwards, you WILL forget everything :lol:

Indeed! You will definitely not learn everything once over. Usually I read through the notes the night before, then go to the lecture, then during the review is when the proper learning with textbooks/internet etc happens.

Reply 41

SecretDuck

Most of my lectures, I do pay attention. My macro lectures, I don't. Why?

Because they always consist of the following:

-"Hi, I'm going to rush through the million assumptions because you can read about it later on" (understandable)
-"I'm going to be spending one hour and a half telling you tons of empirical stuff until your mind is numb!"

So I zone out when the lecturer keeps talking about the empirical stuff, when IMO more time should've been spent on the actual topic.

Reply 42

Stinkum

It always varies. If I know the lecture is going to be important (or interesting), then I will pay full attention and take very good notes.

However, a lot of the time I start to doze off after 20 minutes or so into a lecture, which is bad.

Reply 43

simplylldxo

Original post by Antifazian

what by, though? Lecture halls are such boring buildings haha

Not the building itself, the students within the lecture hall. If there is something happening around me e.g. People chatting, using their phones or eating, it puts me off so therefore distracts me! I want to do well this year :smile:

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Reply 44

Asklepios

Original post by suncake

And in Edinburgh med, don't need to make notes, as we have a guy who's written notes for everything. I think you might know him suncake :wink:

Reply 45

suncake

Original post by Asklepios

And in Edinburgh med, don't need to make notes, as we have a guy who's written notes for everything. I think you might know him suncake :wink:

Heh, you lucky sods... :rolleyes:

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Reply 46

Zottula

When I was at university I found most of my lectures very interesting and did pay full attention most of the time. There were the occasional ones that were less interesting, and as a result my mind would drift off more. Most of my lectures were about 3 hours long (but with a 10-15 minute break in the middle) so sometimes I would lose concentration in the last 15 minutes or so.

Generally I found taking notes helped me pay attention. We were always given hand outs, so I would annotate these. I didn't write word for word what the lecturer was saying, but instead summarised things, labelled graphs, diagrams etc.

Reply 47

Old_Simon

tbh I simply do not understand why unis give lectures at all. There is no educational evidence they achieve anything.

Reply 48

simplylldxo

Original post by Mick.w

i think you've missed the point. the idea is if you're bored and can't bare giving you're full attention. half the time the lecturers suck. i've asked a few questions they couldnt answer.

you'll have 4 good lecturers at uni if you're lucky. the rest won't be much better than a graduate. with the bad lecturers you're better just taking note of the books, hand outs and all other written down materials. you'll get better grades if you focus on learning how to pass rather than genuinely enjoy the subject and learn.

otherwise the only reason to attend is to just keep up to date with deadlines and such.

Not really... You worded it as in you were on about the students near you were 'boring' but okay then.

Even if I have the most boring lecturers in the world (I don't as I've met them and they seem alright), I'll have to attend them to do well but that's me :tongue:

I'll do the extra research though between lectures - my contact time is the bare minimum :smile:

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Reply 49

simplylldxo

Original post by Old_Simon

tbh I simply do not understand why unis give lectures at all. There is no educational evidence they achieve anything.

Well the lectures are to only guide you so you understand :smile:

the rest is up to you! My degree is 25% guided study and 75% independent study but I suppose it's down to the degree and how the students learn :smile:

some feel they can do it without lectures and others like the added bit of 'security' if you get what I mean :smile:

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Reply 50

Muppet Science

Well... I rarely attend lectures. Our lecturers put up their slides before the lecture, so I have a look at them and if they're self-explanatory I do not bother going to the lecture - if I need extra detail I can just do it online or with a textbook with the added benefit of staying in bed.

If the slides are not self-explanatory then I drag myself to the lecture. As to how much attention I pay it depends on the topic. If it is complicated then I will pay attention, or if I am interested in that topic then I will really focus. Otherwise I end up on Temple Run or some such.

I am such a good student.

Reply 51

Rum Ham

Truthfully - about 70% in subjects I like or I'm confident in and about 40% in subjects I really should pay attention in.

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Reply 52

Autistic Merit

I just tried to get all the equations and maths stuff written down before the lecturer rubbed the board. For the lectures in which everything was posted on Blackboard, I just didn't attend them. I got a First in the end.

Reply 53

Kosa

well all our lectures are given to us on paper and digitally, so i hardly turn up, and when i do turn up, i play pokemon in the lecture...

Reply 54

GemmaConlin

Just wondering whether you're allowed to record lectures as I'm very slow at note taking and don't like to miss stuff?

Reply 55

Ruffiio

Original post by Muppet Science

Wish I could not attend lectures, I could do my degree sitting in the library.

My attendance is recorded though and if it passes below a certain point the lecturer can decide to fail you for the module whether you do the assignments or not.

Reply 56

Mick.w

Original post by simplylldxo

I'll do the extra research though between lectures - my contact time is the bare minimum :smile:

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they're all nice to meet one to one. most of the time anyway. although i have heard exceptions.

yea i always recommend attending. but there will be some lectures that you'll be duped into turning up to which will be a waste of your time. trust me. like in 3rd year we had a guest speaker fro the library who taught us how to use the library resources that we had already known how to use for the past 2 previous years. it took up the entire lecture. considering we all had deadlines we figured we'd just lost 2 hours for no reason.

also lecturers can be nice to you but suck at lecturing.

but even though it wasnt my original point. yea some of the students will be more boring.
some people can be painfully boring. in fact. most people are. cause normal is boring and most people are "the norm". realistically there will be about 10% of the year group that you get on with.

Reply 57

Muppet Science

Original post by Ruffiio

I really do not understand why they make such a big deal of attendance. Sure, if one were to fail all their exams and had not attended a single lecture then give them a *******ing. But, surely what matters is one's grade at the end.

I barely attended lectures this year but I worked efficiently and knew the content so got a 77. - shrugs -