The other day in class, I somehow managed to understand what was going on without coffee. Third-year classes aren’t easy so the fact that I understood something made me feel good about myself.
The illusion was shattered pretty fast. Turns out the professor introduced a large and important concept in the last 10 minutes with no indication that he would continue the discussion in the next class. Suddenly I was left scrambling to take notes while trying to recover from the math that was just thrown at me. Then, he hinted this concept would likely show up in the midterm.
Enter panic mode.
With a tutorial right after, I didn’t have time to stick around and ask for an explanation. What’s more, my schedule conflicted with office hours, so I couldn’t go there either.
But that’s not on me — office hours are meant for extra help, not as a way for professors to compensate for their lack of time-management during class. If they find themselves having to just scratch the surface of certain concepts just so they can say “this was covered in class,” they’re treating education as a to-do list rather than an investment in students.
I get that there’s a lot to cover in classes, but this is not the way to do it. Classes are hard enough without instructors’ tardiness.
