The Unmentioned

And then there's also the amount of interest involved. Last semester, four out of my five classes were night classes, and if grades are any measure, I did more than just succeed at them. Only because they were all literature classes, and anyone who knows me knows that I'm a pushover when it comes to reading books. I think self interest can lead to self motivation too.

Absolutely, Amanda! Success cannot be attributed fully to the class structure/teacher. Sure, those factors can help, but it takes an effort and enthusiasm from the student(s) to make for a dynamic class.

In my classes, I found that the units where I was most enthusiastic about the material were the units I understood the most. The professor has to do his/her part, but conversely, the students must also do theirs.

I guess it all boils down to keeping that enthusiasm even when you are caught in unfavorable situations (i.e. bad class schedule, dry material, boring teacher...)

I prefer one-hour classes X two or three days a week vs. once-a-week classes for my major, specifically. Sadly, this fall I'm taking 4 lit. classes--all for my major--3 of which are one-nighters :-/ Nothing I can do about it except complain and then do my best... But it is rough to try to learn that material when you're not stomping it back into memory in class.

True enough, MB. In fact, I remember several times in my 3-hour, once-a-week Honors Philosophy course when the professor asked the class who had done the reading for that day, and practically no one raised a hand.

Many of us felt that the course's material was a little too far above and beyond what we expected in a freshman course... But only a few of us stuck it out and did the reading anyways. I'm not blaming those who didn't; I'm just recalling the facts.

I had a 4-4 1/2 hour-long lecture/film Islam course last semester on Wednesday nights. It was done that way because the professor was going to leave early for Egypt.

Though it had a great curriculum, excellent professor, and the discussions were stellar, many of us fell behind in the reading material. I would put my books aside after class and not see them until the next class--an 'out of sight out of mind' thing.

Every class was sort of a catch-up and guilt session because we realized how much we hadn't done in the past seven days. Then, before tests, we would all cram and then learn everything all over again, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

While I loved the course and did "succeed", I know I could have really put more into it if it had been a course like Faith, Religion and Society, which meets three days a week and has more deadlines and structure.

However, you must remember that success/failure rates have many factors--not just the class meeting times and dates. Willpower plays in there somewhere. Too many students expect to have a class work for them, instead of putting effort into it to make it work.