[stevegalla]

In all seriousness, I stopped going to lectures* and studied at my own pace. My learning isn’t linear, so there will be some topics that are easy that you can move quickly on. Other topics take more time. Sometimes you can take a detour and dive deeper kn interesting topics.

Going to lecture, sitting in lecture, waiting around, etc. provided very little information per unit time for me. I can’t learn math or anything quantitative from watching someone do it. By using lecture time as study time I was able to double the time spent learning the material.

When you get stuck, go to office hours. Or look for notes from similar courses for a different perspective.

At the start of the course look at the book and see what the prerequisite material is. Review that material during the first week when there is time.

* exceptions being courses that have a participation grade.

I tried my best to have profs that followed a textbook.

[dwohnitmok]

I found lectures to be valuable only if I had reviewed the material beforehand. This was mainly because otherwise I just wouldn't be able to keep up in lecture.

If I had reviewed the material beforehand lectures were often extremely valuable for gaining new intuitions about a subject at hand that could be gleaned by an instructor's choice of explanation. And being able to ask questions in real-time was also quite valuable.

[Karrot_Kream]

I wish I had realized this while I was still a student. By the time I was in grad school, it was too late. Now I make sure that I at least skim the material a bit before the lecture so I can see the other perspective, but also ask the professor/teacher any questions I had from my own pre-reading.

[baby]

I think I agree with you. For me lectures where mostly about trying to take notes while the teacher wrote on the blackboard. Completely useless in terms of learning. I stopped going to lectures after a while and just learned on my own.

[hansvm]

You'll win a lot more social points with your profs if you show up to the lectures and work on your own problems in your notebook. As an added benefit, if the lecture offers something special beyond what you can gain from the book then you'll be there in person to receive it.