Catch-up?

I was planning to talk about ideas, but my morning has led me to need to speak to you about something else.

I walk into a lecture for the first time at 9 o'clock after the hassle of trying to find the right room. Now, before you all begin judging me, I had not attended any of the previous lectures because there was a bit of a hassle with my credits and I only added this particular study unit last week.

Anyway, I enter the class a bit late, and ask the lecturer if it was the right credit.

He said it was but said, he wasn't sure if I was allowed to take up the credit so late.

I relied that the add/ drop period ended two days ago.

He answered that it was ok with him, but I might find it confusing to catch up as I had missed the first 4 hours in which the basics where covered. So I sat down, making the student population go up by one. We are now five students.

I'll admit I was a bit worried about being able to catch up. But as the lecturer started the lecture, I was following.

How?

Because, all lectures link and overlap. I mean seriously. Pick any group of lectures of the same topic, say, for example Philosophy, the information given during the first month of lectures are the same. Compare the notes, go on, do it, and I promise you, you can flip them and mix them and they would still make sense.

So, my point? Why not do the sensible thing? Meet the lecturers in the beginning of the year and compare syllabi and create one lecture as an introduction to the different others that build of it. I mean contrary to the thoughts of everyone above the age of 30, we students are busy people and have other things to do besides sitting for lectures we've heard a hundred times over.

I mean, how can you expect students to turn up for all lectures if they know that they're just going to be hearing repeated content. Yes, you can take attendance, but I find that treatment childish. Also, I'm sure the lecturers find it annoying lecturing the basics and would much rather skip to the 'interesting' stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I could catch up so easily to a lecture I missed two weeks of, but if I'm going to drag my ass to an 8 o'clock lecture every Thursday, I rather it be worth the effort.

I'd like to say something. I realized that this is my third lecture related blog entry. And while each one is different, I still feel the need to explain myself. I'm a full time student, so writing about the experiences I go through will obviously include lectures and lecture related things... like farmville.

out