Dec 9, 2021

Personally, I take my studies very seriously but sometimes, as a student there are other things that needs our attention other than being physically present in classes. Generally, the idea of skipping classes might seem detrimental to one’s performance in school, but there are upsides to actually skipping classes, at least that is what I think.

When i first resumed College of Technology in the year 2015, I was really engrossed with school. I’d wake up very early and get to school at least an hour before the commencement of the first lecture. I’d stick around to attend the rest of the lectures too, a serious student indeed. The first time I skipped school in college was the day I was mugged in the morning while trying to get to school early. It was the first time I’d experience such, and they took my tab, phone, wristwatch, leather belt, literally everything on me. I was glad they left my clothes on me. Haha. Hungry folks. I went back home, tried to reorganize myself and then went back to school. I started skipping classes since that day.

Yesterday, I had a class on my project research set for 9am and thought I’d leave the Motel where I stayed early enough to catch the first bus to school. I woke up around 7am, and since I was in a different state, I couldn’t meet up and decided to skip the class but did I miss anything? No! Or at least I think I didn’t because when I called a colleague and asked her about what was taught in class, I realized I would have regretted committing a lot of resources just to end up meeting the class.

Upside to Skipping Classes

Okay, I won’t advise anyone to go around missing lectures if you don’t have a proper time management or if you are struggling with your academic performance. This is just based on my opinion only and I attend way more classes than the ones I skip.

Irrelevant Classes

Not all lectures are relevant. In as much as it is advisable to attend all the lectures for a particular course, some are just not worth attending. I skip classes for courses I am really good at. Especially for courses that I think I know more than my lecturers. Don’t get me wrong. Not that I am proud or anything, it is just a crystal clear truth and most of my classmates will support me on this.
Currently, I am studying Building in a university, but I have a diploma in Quantity Surveying which I got from a 2 years study in college. Since Building and Quantity Surveying are both in the same field of construction, we take some courses from the Quantity Surveying field. I don’t read throughout the semester for those courses and I end up scoring highest whenever results comes out. So it is a waste of time attending those classes and a serious drag.

Part-Time Work

Well, sometimes as students we need to support ourselves by doing little and extra jobs, and we might be in situations where we’d have to decide if we need to attend classes or skip them. Skipping classes might help create time for work. Now, I am not suggesting that you remove focus from your studies and put it on your work. You just need to create balance between both of them. But personally, skipping classes have enabled me earned little incomes without affecting my academic performance generally. I skip revision classes and refresher topics. I don’t need to refresh myself since I am not really a forgetful person.

Downside to Skipping Classes

You miss lots of important notes when you skip classes. No matter how you try to catch up later, it just can’t supplement being in class. I have missed taking tests and participating in pop quizzes all because I skipped classes.

Sometimes, lecturers set test questions based on what they said in class during lectures, so even if you try to read up lecture notes and modules you won’t perform well in the test because you weren’t present in class. For some courses, attendance determine If you’d be eligible to receive the semester’s bonus marks for a particular course. So you’d be missing out on some important marks when you don’t attend classes. You also appear as an unserious student to both lecturers and students alike.

Generally, i think what is important is knowing when to skip classes and when not to.