WHY ATTEND LECTURES

Why attend lectures when we have textbooks: Precision

  During my 200 level days we had a lecturer who always gave us a brief test on the assignment she gave the last class, I enjoyed it sometimes but like every other student I also complained about the fact that the time given was too short. After giving about three tests like that I was in her office and a student complained about the issue of time and she replied saying ‘’ We know you medical students have read a lot of things and you’re ready to pour them out, but the lecturer is not interested in the stuffs you have, he’s interested in hearing some things he considers basic and important. Besides, he most likely has forgotten most of what you’re talking about, but he can’t forget those things that he considers basic or necessary’’.

Mr. A; why do you stab lectures?

Mr. B; why do I need to attend lectures when I can read the same thing from my textbook!

             This is one of the most common responses many students give when they are asked the reason for not attending lectures. Well I was once in that category for some time, but in the long run I realized that stabbing (intentionally missing) lectures had some negative effects on the student. I’ll be sharing some of these negative effects which I have observed;

# Loss of sense of timing;It took me long to acknowledge the fact that courses in the medical school has been properly structured and spread to cover an amount of time. This is to allow enough time for students to integrate the knowledge they are getting. Usually the courses (especially in the preclinical level) take about 6-8 weeks. Missing lectures cause you to lose that sense of timing which has been embedded in the lecture scheme.

# Loss of sense of urgency;Still due to the initial loss of timing, there would be a loss of the sense of urgency. It’s just like you can’t read the times and seasons so you don’t know when it’s getting late, you don’t know what time would be enough for you to cover your scheme, two weeks would seem like there’s still time meanwhile there isn’t. You lose your own sense of urgency in academics and you begin to depend on people’s anxiety alarms.

# Disorganized or diminished reading pattern;When they try reading its usually disorganized, sometimes they’re confused because they’re not sure what text suits the lecturer’s point and the more frequent this occurs during reading sessions, then reading pattern begins to diminish gradually.

# Reading unnecessary things;For those who manage to keep up with reading, they end up reading junks or what is unnecessary instead of spending their time on what is necessary and save themselves the stress

# Longer time spent understanding certain concepts; Another common effect is that certain concepts would take a longer time to assimilate because they naturally  require a practical demonstration, so no matter how much you read it they might not get the full picture until someone explains it or you watch a video illustration on it.

# Poor relation of knowledge (because there’s no one to explain its real application); Similar to the point mentioned above, such student might end up just accumulating much knowledge at a time, but won’t be able to relate the information with previous concepts or they might only come to relate it at a later stage in medical school when they decide to properly understand it

# Confusion on what information is necessary for the course and level scope; Sometimes we pick texts and we feel like the text is crap, but it’s not always so, sometimes it could be that the text is for another purpose which doesn’t suit our present purpose. Nevertheless students guilty of missing lectures tend to frequently fall victim of this tragedy, they can’t decipher what the course or level requires because they’ve not been following their guide (the lecturer) to observe what he emphasized and what he brushed aside.

# Overwhelming feeling due to accumulated work;Students guilty of missing lectures  are usually in a constant state of overwhelm because they constantly remember the amount of work left for them to cover and even the thought of this alone could depress them and reduce top performance or concentration.

 These are some of the negative effects that I’ve observed when you continuously miss lectures. The benefit of attending lectures faithfully on the other hand are more, but the biggest is that you have a clear and precise sense of what is required to excel in the course, you know what the lecturer expects from you when he asks certain questions in an examination, you could even predict what questions the lecturer is likely to ask before the examination day. Attending lectures faithfully is one of the ways to work smart in the medical school in the midst of the large volume of information in our different texts.

Stay blessed! All the power, all the best!

- Folarin Gbemileke ( A 300L medical student)