Attending and Participating in Class

Sometimes there are important commitments, illnesses, or other events that keep us from making it to class. However, it is important to not make these absences a regular occurrence because there are many benefits to attending class regularly. These include:

• Topics that don’t really make sense in the readings and homework can be discussed in class
• Paying attention and participating in class can improve your comprehension of the material, which can cut down on study time in the future
• When lecturing, the professor goes over the highlights of the material, telling you what is important to know for exams
• You can interact more with the professor, which helps you build a relationship and is helpful when you need letters of recommendation or references in the future

There are many benefits to attending class and participating. It can be hard to catch up from missing even one class and it can affect your performance in other classes as well. As Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up.” 

- Rachel