Attending Lecture

This is the original image of the book.

mathematical techniques and concepts. Do not rely on this. Assume that the first week is just as intense as any other week. That is, you will hit the ground running, and the professor will explain the context of the course as if you had just finished the prerequisite the previous week. They could care less that you spent three months doing nothing but diddling yourself over the summer.

“Math is like exercise – if you don’t continuously partake in practice, you will lose all the muscle mass and become weak.”

For most students, if they are prepped on the course material a few weeks ahead of the semester and maintain a consistent “stay ahead of the game” strategy, their weekly study time is just doing the homework, which becomes very-very simple in comparison to those who try to learn everything from the lecture alone.

Wouldn’t you like to just do the homework without trying to learn each problem on the fly, ace it and focus on other things? Just be a few weeks ahead of each lecture, and you can!

II | Attending Lecture

How often have I listened to students moan and groan about how pointless the lecture is and how it wastes time because they get nothing out of it. Well, if you don’t do as part I suggests, then yes, it is a waste of time. I recommend you go to a movie in a language you do not speak without subtitles and learn the language without teaching yourself the language first. Math is a language!

Let me assure you that if you do not attend the lecture, you will most likely fail the course. Maybe you’ll get lucky and scrape by with a D- or a C. Likely, you will fail.

Why? First off, if you don’t study the material before the lecture, you won’t understand anything, so then, yeah, what is the point of going?

Secondly, the teacher may be a jerk or unpleasant, but they, too, have emotions and feelings. They prepared this lecture as you may prepare a party for your friends. How do or would you feel if one of your friends didn’t show up to the party because they thought they would get nothing out of it? Professors do care if you show up (for the most part).

Thirdly, regardless of the syllabus saying or not saying that attendance is or is not required and does or does not count for credit—it will. I have seen students with worse grades pass with a C for showing up than students with better grades pass with a D for not showing up.

As much as we want to have faith in equality, everyone is discriminatory towards something, no matter their stature, race, religion, beliefs, or anything else; we are all guilty of this. You will never get an A if you don’t attend every lecture, participate, and prepare for them.