Published on 12, July, 2020
A couple of days ago I posted on here about wanting to pay attention in lectures. However, I managed to have a look at my timetable today for September-December and I have 7 hours of lectures every Monday split into 9am-1pm and 3pm-5pm. Unfortunately, at least 4 of these hours are for a module where part of your grade is dependent on your attendance.
I know no one can help me, and the school has never done anything about timetable issues in the years gone past so it's not possible for this to get changed. I'm just very worried for how I am supposed to cope with this. It will completely wipe me out :(
9am-5pm with a 1hr lunch break is a typical standard working day. I haven't been to university but I would have assumed working 9-5 being a pretty standard, or is that not the case? My when I was at school it was 8am-6pm followed by 2hrs of homework after dinner - but that was boarding school so maybe normal schools differ.
If attendance is an issue, can any classes be taken online? Maybe you'd feel more comfortable in your own home rather than in a lecture theatre?
University lectures are quite different from school. In school you have a bit of teaching and go off and do your own work. At university you literally have to sit there in silence for however long and just get spoken at the entire time on a very specific/ complex topic.
My school was exactly how you described - you must sit in silence while being taught ('spoken at') while taking notes for a few hours. Then you change classroom and do the same in the next class on a different subject.
Is that not what all schools are like?
I went to three schools and they all had this same teaching style, but again they were all boarding schools so maybe our rules were just different? I don't know.
I've never been to a boarding school myself but, no I don't think that's very common. I went to three schools by the time I sat my A-levels and it was very rare (and very dull) if a teacher just spent the whole lesson just talking at you.
Most of the time you would spend, say, 15 minutes listening to whatever it is they would teach you, and then they'd give you worksheets or questions from a textbook to do or maybe some research depending on what the subject was.
Sometimes the teachers would make you do it in silence but most would be happy to have a bit of talking as long as you were productive. For me, I didn't struggle so much in those situations because I would actively be doing something, where as the lessons (and university lectures) where you are just spoken at were very difficult for me and I would walk away feeling as though I had gotten nothing from them.