Current Events > Why do american universities grade on attendance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like i know professors want people to sit through their lectures, and generally students should want to as well. But grades should be purely academic.
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Since probably always. They probably want them to spend more time in class and less time protesting against school mascots and ripping down statues of people who used to go to the school
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Here, our grades are 100% the final exam
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In my experience, it depends on the experience of the professor. The older they get, the less fuck they give.
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That really depends on the school and the teachers. During my college days I had only a few classes that took attendance and even then missing class could only affect your grade a little.
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To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.
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COVxy posted...

To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.

I like the idea of the weekly quiz better. All the answers are either in the readings or the lectures, so it will encourage people to study to get "free" points
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teepan95 posted...

Here, our grades are 100% the final exam

College or high school?

If college, I ain't paying for that shit.
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Attendance grades are the worst.

None of my professors take an attendance grade, thankfully. Your grade will speak for itself depending on which lectures you miss, or even exam days.
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teepan95 posted...

Here, our grades are 100% the final exam

had a calc class that pulled that, easiest A ever.
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COVxy posted...

To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.

I dont go to class a lot of the time and I get As. Im also a Physics major.

I just zone out during lecture. I learn much better from the book or from online resources.
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the fuck lol.

only exams matter here. don't even have to turn in papers for guidance-related grading though i suspect it varies a bit when it comes to stuff like mandatory group projects etc.

attendance requirements stop after high school.
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MetalGearRiki posted...

COVxy posted...

To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.

I dont go to class a lot of the time and I get As. Im also a Physics major.

I just zone out during lecture. I learn much better from the book or from online resources.

That's you. Unfortunately, many undergrads, especially in the first two years, often don't have the metacognition to understand if they do or don't need to attend lecture.
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because you lose financial aid if you skip too many classes.
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MetalGearRiki posted...

COVxy posted...

To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.

I dont go to class a lot of the time and I get As. Im also a Physics major.

I just zone out during lecture. I learn much better from the book or from online resources.

skipping lectures is fine, you cant skip labs though unless you love failing.
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Sada_Pop posted...

teepan95 posted...

Here, our grades are 100% the final exam

College or high school?

If college, I ain't paying for that shit.

University

And don't worry, I live in a civilised country so I ain't paying either :p
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Some of the classes benefited/required class discussion, so attendance was important in my experience.

Ruvan22 posted...

Some of the classes benefited/required class discussion, so attendance was important in my experience.

outside of labs i cant think of a single one. got any examples?
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Its not a university thing but a class and professor thing.

Many of my professors didnt grade on attendance. It was often 3-4 exams including the final and that was it. Fuck an exam up bad enough and good luck recovering.

If your prof did grade for attendance it was often 10-15% of your total grade. Not much but makes it nearly impossible to fail assuming you try even a little bit.
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In my experience as a TA that was only done for low level, mostly freshmen, type of classes and it was a department policy rather than a teacher made one. I think it was done because they didn't want freshmen failing out due to partying too much would cause them to have lower numbers for the higher level courses which could lead to scheduling issues at that level.

A class can only contain so many students. It's unfair to a student that couldn't make it into a full class if one of the students in the course doesn't give a shit enough to show up and learn. Their seat in class could have been taken by someone who actually attends class. Thus there should be consequences to missing a shitload of class time.
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several reasons
to make sure you actually show up and don't waste a spot to be given to someone else
because some material is better explained in class than from your friend's half assed notes or haslf assed slides
a full class means higher ratings for professors and higher chance of being hired properly
some are just mierable bastards who want you to suffer

ThePrinceFish posted...

A class can only contain so many students. It's unfair to a student that couldn't make it into a full class if one of the students in the course doesn't give a shit enough to show up and learn. Their seat in class could have been taken by someone who actually attends class. Thus there should be consequences to missing a shitload of class time.

that's the one that matters the most to students. i fucking hated the competitive nature of getting the classes you needed each semester, would piss me off to see people in class who gave no shits about how bad they were doing.
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I had a few profs who did that bullshit, some being a whole letter grade. But then I had a few who didn't give a fuck and I only showed up for midterms and finals.
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Ive had professors who would automatically fail you for missing two classes per semester. Keep in mind that some of these classes were 3x per week.

Some of these same professors also told students to not even bother going to grad or med school if they couldnt get an A on their exams.

In short, some professors are huge assholes.
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Some of this:
COVxy posted...

To try to prevent students from fucking themselves over.

Some of this:
Ruvan22 posted...

Some of the classes benefited/required class discussion, so attendance was important in my experience.

Like I taught math classes that were in an active learning environment, which has been shown to be better for your average students than straight lectures, but it works best when people buy into it and have a consistent group of people working with them. So that means student's not attending hurts more than just themselves.
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monkmith posted...

Ruvan22 posted...

Some of the classes benefited/required class discussion, so attendance was important in my experience.

outside of labs i cant think of a single one. got any examples?

Sure (these are just my experiences of course, and the I may be off on the course titles):
*Psychology of judgement/decision making
*Religion in American Public Policy
*Psychology and Law
*Interaction of technology on military policy

Attendance grades in college are pointless because if your class needs it and it isn't a lab/PE/practical class, you probably suck at teaching. Make class worthwhile and students will come.
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