Should You Attend Or Skip College Lectures? (Explained)

I hear you, college lectures take up a lot of time.

Understand you have paid your college fees, but the problem with going to lectures it takes you away from your business or work.

For some who like to sleep in late, it prevents them from doing so. Pulling over the duvet and staying asleep in a warm bed is an attractive option.

Lectures are also spread throughout the week, so it’s not like they a consolidated into 1/2 a day or day per week.

This makes it challenging if you are trying to run a business or work, even part-time.

So you probably wondering if you should attend or skip college lectures?

Yes, you can skip attending college lectures, they are not compulsory. However, If you want to increase your chances of passing or obtain higher scores you should attend college lectures. Attending lectures you will learn more about the subject and receive key insights from the lecturer.

For someone who has studied at college, I can give you some insights into attending lectures.

In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of attending lectures.

What Happens if you don’t Attend Lectures in College?

Most colleges will not withdraw you from the course. By not attending lectures you will miss out on key insights and learnings, making it more difficult to obtain higher marks and increasing the likelihood of not passing the subject

So you don’t need to attend the lecture when the lecturer is regurgitating the textbook, right ??

Textbooks can be quite big, and lecturers don’t always focus on the whole textbook.

So you spend more time reading the textbooks than you would otherwise spend attending lectures.

Lectures focus only on parts that are relevant to the topic, the topics, and the themes that you need to focus on.

Lecturers will often spend time explaining and emphasizing key topics that will later be used in exams.

Reasons Why You Should Attend Lectures

Attending lectures does save time as the lecturer will narrow in and explain complex themes and concepts. If you don’t attend you will miss out on learning these key concepts.

Lectures provide you with the opportunity to get involved in discussions and debates with other students and professors over interesting concepts.

Lecturers prefer and often encourage interaction and discussion about real-life examples to make the lecture and conversation more interesting.

Your lecturer does provide helpful comments about exams, timeframes, projects, websites, and assignments.

More often than not they will provide you with key areas to focus on in exams and assignments.

Often a lecturer will say, “You need to take note or understand this”

If you have questions or queries you can always reach out to the professor after the lecture.

Any questions you may have, you can always chat with the student next to you.

Chatting with other students will increase your network and friendships.

Taking notes is a proven way to increase your understanding and learning of a subject.

Unfortunately taking copies of other students’ notes is not the same.

Finally, attending lectures can blow your mind away intellectually, can alter the way you see the world.

You have spent your hard-earned money on getting a college qualification, providing you with the opportunity to expand your learning and ideas then why not make the most of it.

It goes without saying you won’t know the quality of the lecture unless you attend. To get a flavour of the lecture suggests going to a few lectures.

Some Colleges Track attendance

Unlike high school colleges are not concerned if you attend a lecture or not.

Colleges leave it up to their students to attend or not.

However, it is not common, but some colleagues to track attendance.

So before you stop attending lectures or class, check that attendance is not recorded or a requirement to pass the subject.

Reasons Why You Would Not Attend Lectures

For many the reason for not attending lectures or classes because they didn’t feel the time was well spent

Some lectures and classes are just plain boring. Not because of your lack of interest, or because you consider yourself a genius. It’s because of the slow pace of the lecture or class.

A genuine reason for not attending is if you have a firm understanding of a subject, and are confident you will pass the subject without attending lectures or classes.

Hence, time is better spent working or other life activities.

If you’re comfortable with the subject, you can still view the lecture or class via the recorded option.

This allows you to watch the lecture on your own time. Ensuring you don’t miss out on key information.

Some lectures are recorded for viewing online later

In 2017 a lecture posted a photo on LinkedIn showing a lecture theatre with a few students in attendance.

The reason for the low attendance is the introduction of the recording of lectures provided online.

This has the advantage of letting you view the recording at a time that suits you.

If you live off-campus this can save you having to spend time travelling to a from lectures.

In case you need to get a better understanding, recorded lectures have the advantage of rewinding parts of the lecture.

If you want to ask questions or get involved in a discussion, this is not going to happen if you are watching a recorded video of a lecture.

Can I Attend College Without Being Enrolled?

Yes, you can attend college without being enrolled, however, be eligible to receive credit for the class or take exams.

In a smaller private college, you might be noticed and proof of enrolment requested.

But in most cases, in my experience, nobody checks the people in the lecture hall whether or not they are students.

So, you can attend lectures without being enrolled.

Final Thoughts

Yes, you are free to skip lectures; they are not required. If you want to improve your chances of passing or getting better grades, however, you should go to college lectures. By attending lectures, you will have a better understanding of the subject and gain valuable insights from the professor.

The decision to attend college lectures depends on several factors.

The main factor being if you are not confident that you will pass the subject without attending a lecture then you should attend lectures.

If you are confident that you will pass without attending lectures then you have a choice.

There are benefits to attending lectures, such as building networks, obtaining a better understanding of the subject which will improve your marks.