I'm currently sat in a very comfortable lecture theatre/cinema. I'm dozing off as my maths lecturer drones on.
Those of you who have been to uni what was your worst lecture and why?
Also what is your best story of falling asleep? (Don't lie, we've all done it)
Edit: I realise I should put my own anecdotes in.
My worst lecture so far was maths a couple of months ago, my lecturer speaks in halting english (it's improved now) and it's a warm room with VERY comfortable seating. I'd covered the lecture content in sixth form and so was not learning anything new so i was quite bored at the time. I tried my hardest to stay awake but even with my friend nudging me every now and then the warm embrace of sleep was too hard to resist.
my best sleep story was a skills for science lecture in freshers week where I had been drinking the night (and morning) before I don't remember falling asleep but i remember being put into groups a couple of weeks later and being shown by a coursemate I didn't yet know a picture of me with my head slumped to the side and my mouth open, needless to say there were many people in the course that had received that picture and were quite amused.
I'm afraid I cannot help you there. The closest I got was two years ago, because I was sick (fever and cold) and the 6 PM lecture made me feel quite tired. I politely waited for the break and went home, because I didn't want to be disrespectful to anyone there that was interested in the lecture. No offense meant, but I don't understand people that fall asleep during lectures: it's impolite towards the lecturer and everyone else in the room. You don't like the topic, you walk.
As for boring lectures, there's been plenty down the years, but I find that it's not really the topic that is boring in most "boring" lectures. It's the person that gives the talk. If he/she's good and trained for the talk, it can be made interesting even if it's not such a big deal. If the lecturer is just terrible, even a lecture on the development of BG/SoA would very likely bring on yawns. Unless of course, there would be David Warner up there. God, I love that voice.
You've never come into a lecture after drinking heavily the night before?
It's a combination of maths being boring and my lecturer not being a very exciting bloke. Unfortunately I still have to attend to complete the maths section of the course.
A few years ago I went to my Economics class the day after St. Patrick's Day. One of my classmates wore a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" t-shirt and the prof teased him that St. Patrick's Day had been yesterday. The guy smiled weakly and said, "I haven't been home yet."
My best sleep story is going into a lecture and I swear falling asleep straight away but somehow leaving with a full set of lecture notes in my handwriting. To this day I cannot recall a single word from the lecture
I once took a course on environmental systems theory (or something incredibly dull sounding like that).
Anyways every class without fail I fell asleep. There were only like 40 people in the class and it was always very evident. Needless to say the prof was not amused by this.
Anyways, one day while working at my job on campus a girl came up to me and was like "hey you are that guy who always falls asleep in ES213! (or whatever the course code was)". Thus I became universally known in that regard.
A macroeconomics class. The instructor had the perfect tone of voice to put you to sleep, even if you were fully awake and well rested beforehand. The guy should have sold his lectures as sleep aids, I swear.
Also, am I the only one who sees uni and thinks of the D&D cartoon? Yes? Oh, well, carry on then...
I get terribly bored in economy class and informatics (even if I'm a computer geek and a programmer, having to spend two hours with on a Windows using silly applications everyone should know like Excel, and somebody trying to teach you about boolean logic), but I'm in school.
My most epic nap in class was on maths class, but I had spent the whole night programming (after finishing doing my maths homework at 3am, which was after playing like 7 hours of BGT) and I haven't slept, so I was terribly sleepy and suddenly someone hit me accidentally, waking me up, and I almost fell off the chair. Luckily, the teacher had said only the first exercise was homework, while I had done all the exercises because I had forgotten, so I didn't get in trouble after all.
I get sleepy really fast in any class when professors are covering material I'm already familiar with. My tolerance for lowest-common-denominator learning environments is very low. Thankfully, today, many classrooms have individual computers with the internet, which makes them more bearable. Back when I got my undergrad degree 14 years ago we didn't have that luxury.
The one class I regularly fell asleep in was Linear Algebra. The professor knew his stuff, but he could not teach for ****, and it was a 1.5-hour class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I did fine on the tests, but then he took an entire letter grade off for lack of professionalism in the classroom. I protested it with the academic dean and lost, since it was a part of the grading criteria in the syllabus.
The professor makes so much difference. I have a class this semester for three hours on Tuesday nights with one who is really enthusiastic and inclusive, and it makes the three hours go by so fast that I've actually wished the class were longer.
The worst lectures back in my university were the ones when the professors instead of teaching us tried to tell us that our country moves in the right direction. The political propaganda is the worst thing that can happen on a lecture.
Comments
No offense meant, but I don't understand people that fall asleep during lectures: it's impolite towards the lecturer and everyone else in the room. You don't like the topic, you walk.
As for boring lectures, there's been plenty down the years, but I find that it's not really the topic that is boring in most "boring" lectures. It's the person that gives the talk. If he/she's good and trained for the talk, it can be made interesting even if it's not such a big deal. If the lecturer is just terrible, even a lecture on the development of BG/SoA would very likely bring on yawns. Unless of course, there would be David Warner up there. God, I love that voice.
It's a combination of maths being boring and my lecturer not being a very exciting bloke. Unfortunately I still have to attend to complete the maths section of the course.
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Except one pertaining to mathematics.
Anyways every class without fail I fell asleep. There were only like 40 people in the class and it was always very evident. Needless to say the prof was not amused by this.
Anyways, one day while working at my job on campus a girl came up to me and was like "hey you are that guy who always falls asleep in ES213! (or whatever the course code was)". Thus I became universally known in that regard.
Also, am I the only one who sees uni and thinks of the D&D cartoon? Yes? Oh, well, carry on then...
My most epic nap in class was on maths class, but I had spent the whole night programming (after finishing doing my maths homework at 3am, which was after playing like 7 hours of BGT) and I haven't slept, so I was terribly sleepy and suddenly someone hit me accidentally, waking me up, and I almost fell off the chair. Luckily, the teacher had said only the first exercise was homework, while I had done all the exercises because I had forgotten, so I didn't get in trouble after all.
The one class I regularly fell asleep in was Linear Algebra. The professor knew his stuff, but he could not teach for ****, and it was a 1.5-hour class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I did fine on the tests, but then he took an entire letter grade off for lack of professionalism in the classroom. I protested it with the academic dean and lost, since it was a part of the grading criteria in the syllabus.
The professor makes so much difference. I have a class this semester for three hours on Tuesday nights with one who is really enthusiastic and inclusive, and it makes the three hours go by so fast that I've actually wished the class were longer.