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Are lectures at MQ mandatory to attend? (1 Viewer)

Heresy

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Got accepted into MQ and a lot of the early morning classes are gone (no surprise), so I've had to place some of my lectures at inconvenient times for myself. So is it compulsory to attend lectures? I know that MQ records their lectures so I can catch up on whatever I've missed. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
 

sida1049

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Lectures are generally not compulsory. A lot of students end up not attending any lectures (even tutorials) after the first few weeks.

Theoretically, it is true that a student should be able to catch up on lecture content at home and do just as well. However, the fact of the matter is that students who skip lectures regularly tend to do significantly worse than students who make a strong effort to attend lectures.

So if the lecture is really inconvenient for you, then definitely skip. But otherwise I would strongly suggest to generally make an effort to attend classes. (It's way too easy to fall into the mindset of "I'll just catch up on all classes at home because it's more convenient and efficient" and end up performing poorly!)
 

Drdusk

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Got accepted into MQ and a lot of the early morning classes are gone (no surprise), so I've had to place some of my lectures at inconvenient times for myself. So is it compulsory to attend lectures? I know that MQ records their lectures so I can catch up on whatever I've missed. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Basically what sida said. It's alright if you don't attend lectures IF you know you won't just forget it and procrastinate at home. This is probably the main reason students who skip lectures might end up doing worse because many just end up forgetting about it or procrastinating and then end up watching like 10 lectures a week before the final.
 

sida1049

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Basically what sida said. It's alright if you don't attend lectures IF you know you won't just forget it and procrastinate at home. This is probably the main reason students who skip lectures might end up doing worse because many just end up forgetting about it or procrastinating and then end up watching like 10 lectures a week before the final.
That, but I also found that when I did this to a course, even tho I set aside time each week to study the course, I simply had less retention of lecture content
 

Drdusk

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That, but I also found that when I did this to a course, even tho I set aside time each week to study the course, I simply had less retention of lecture content
I guess that mainly depends on the individual because I had much better retention sitting at home and I've always been like that for everything idk why.

I think it's because I usually like to go a bit more in depth than what's usually taught in lectures for my understanding and so when I watch it from home I can easily spend a hour pondering over a concept that's fresh in my mind and thinking about different ways to use it which I just can't in a lecture hall or a place where there's lots of students.
 

jazz519

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I guess that mainly depends on the individual because I had much better retention sitting at home and I've always been like that for everything idk why.
Basically what sida said. It's alright if you don't attend lectures IF you know you won't just forget it and procrastinate at home. This is probably the main reason students who skip lectures might end up doing worse because many just end up forgetting about it or procrastinating and then end up watching like 10 lectures a week before the final.
Yeah just adding to that inherently there’s no disadvantage to staying home for lectures and watching them if you are a dedicated student and keeping up to date. All just depends on the persons preference in studying and other factors like how far away they live or are the classes in bad times for other activities.

From my personal experience, for my courses never really gone lectures because live so far away and the travel in my opinion is a big waste of time if I’m traveling like 1.5-2 hrs each way (so 3-4 hr travel) for like 1-2 hr lectures. Where if you are at home you can just watch it and safe that 2-3 hr and more importantly sleep if it’s a really early class. Every sem the professors/lecturers make that comment that the kids who don’t go lecturers do bad (sort of groups everyone that didn’t go in a category of they don’t care about studying), yet it hasn’t stopped me from getting mid 90s and topping some subjects. So yeah try to not to feel like you have to go to every single lecture to do well and just find whatever works best for you personally. It’s important to take other people’s opinions but when it comes to studying there’s no one real way or method so you just have to see are u a person who studies better in person or at home in your own time
 

BLIT2014

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Got accepted into MQ and a lot of the early morning classes are gone (no surprise), so I've had to place some of my lectures at inconvenient times for myself. So is it compulsory to attend lectures? I know that MQ records their lectures so I can catch up on whatever I've missed. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Some lectures are compulsory and they will take a roll. If they take a roll, then they may or may not record them.

I would suggest you go to the first lecture, and you will see if any are compulsory.

If there is any iLecture option, then you can enrol them, and will not be compulsory to attend.

Would suggest that you attend all lectures the last 2 weeks or so before exam periods, as they may give you hints to what to expect in the final exams (this they may or may not record).

Which degree and major are you planning to undertake?

I did Commerce and Business Administration, and I only had one were all lectures were compulsory to attend.

Bear in mind they can have exams/tests (check previous editions of unitguides) so you may have to attend a few a couple of times.
 

BLIT2014

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In Commerce, pretty much all lectures are recorded so you can rewatch them at any stage you want.
 

integral95

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Another thing about recorded lectures, some lectures tend to use project screen in conjunction with the white/blackboard.

For example in my math lectures, there would be one projector used to show the lecture notes and the blackboard to show some examples. However, the recording would only show the notes so you wouldn't be able to see the examples. So naturally, there's a big difference.
Best to check by attending the first lecture as the others have mentioned.

Also I tend to have a lower retention rate with online lectures as well, but the real reason I do better by actually attending the lecture is being surrounded by like-minded people. Basically I would be able to discuss the content with my cohort to get a better understanding (and it also gives me the motivation to learn somehow) and even ask a couple of questions with the lecturer, so communication is another factor here. However, you do have to adapt to the pace of the lecture which can be a struggle sometimes since the amount of content in 2 lectures is equivalent to 2 weeks of high-school content.
Online lectures gives you the pleasure to replay those moments if you need to.

To summarise:

Online lecture:
No communication
May not be able to see everything
May not be as motivating (depends on you)
But you can listen at your own pace with pauses and replays

Attending lectures:
Communication with lecturer and cohort.
Can see everything.
Can be a bit fast sometimes.


Ultimately it's up to your own judgement to decide what's best for you.
 
Last edited:

Heresy

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Some lectures are compulsory and they will take a roll. If they take a roll, then they may or may not record them.

I would suggest you go to the first lecture, and you will see if any are compulsory.

If there is any iLecture option, then you can enrol them, and will not be compulsory to attend.

Would suggest that you attend all lectures the last 2 weeks or so before exam periods, as they may give you hints to what to expect in the final exams (this they may or may not record).

Which degree and major are you planning to undertake?

I did Commerce and Business Administration, and I only had one were all lectures were compulsory to attend.

Bear in mind they can have exams/tests (check previous editions of unitguides) so you may have to attend a few a couple of times.
I'll be doing Commerce with a major in Finance (for the moment) as I want to transfer into Actuarial studies/Finance.

Thanks for the advice, I'll take it under consideration.
 

Heresy

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Another thing about recorded lectures, some lectures tend to use project screen in conjunction with the white/blackboard.

For example in my math lectures, there would be one projector used to show the lecture notes and the blackboard to show some examples. However, the recording would only show the notes so you wouldn't be able to see the examples. So naturally, there's a big difference.
Best to check by attending the first lecture as the others have mentioned.

Also I tend to have a lower retention rate with online lectures as well, but the real reason I do better by actually attending the lecture is being surrounded by like-minded people. Basically I would be able to discuss the content with my cohort to get a better understanding (and it also gives me the motivation to learn somehow) and even ask a couple of questions with the lecturer, so communication is another factor here. However, you do have to adapt to the pace of the lecture which can be a struggle sometimes since the amount of content in 2 lectures is equivalent to 2 weeks of high-school content.
Online lectures gives you the pleasure to replay those moments if you need to.

To summarise:

Online lecture:
No communication
May not be able to see everything
May not be as motivating (depends on you)
But you can listen at your own pace with pauses and replays

Attending lectures:
Communication with lecturer and cohort.
Can see everything.
Can be a bit fast sometimes.


Ultimately it's up to your own judgement to decide what's best for you.
Thank you! I do want to say again though that if I was able to put lectures in the times where I'm available, I would attend them no question. But since I have most of my lectures at a really bad time it's just not possible to attend.
 

BLIT2014

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I'll be doing Commerce with a major in Finance (for the moment) as I want to transfer into Actuarial studies/Finance.

Thanks for the advice, I'll take it under consideration.
Other the midterms/class tests you should be fine with skipping lectures.
 

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