One of the classrooms that we spend plenty of time in.
This year, my medical school decided to try out a mandatory lecture attendance policy. Although we all saw it coming, there was still a lot of concern over the possibility that more time in class would be detrimental to our overall performance in classes and ultimately Step 1. Throughout last year, many of my peers relied on being able to stay at home to learn the material from books or stream the lectures at a faster speed. As a result, attendance dwindled and since we have a class of only 50, the seats in the 100+ person lecture hall looked painfully empty. I distinctly remember attending a lecture where only 10 of us were there – the guest lecturer [a cardiothoracic surgeon] looked around the room and shook his head at the turnout before starting his presentation.
Because I am responsible for ensuring that lectures get recorded, I attended every single class last year. I watched as the number of attendees started to drop and noted that around exam time, barely anyone attended and those who did seemed preoccupied. I heard remarks from faculty and guest lecturers that ranged from, “Is this it?! Where’s the rest of the class?” to “I never attended class when I was in medical school – I can’t blame you guys for doing the same.” Then, toward the end of the year, I started hearing rumors about a new attendance policy.
The policy states that we must attend all mandatory activities (team-based learning, labs, assessments, etc.) and at least a total of 70% of lectures (the mandatory stuff is included in that). Although not meeting the requirement doesn’t automatically lead to failure, one must “remediate” by completing an assignment. So far, it seems like the majority of my class plans on meeting the requirement.
Last year, our classes generally ran from 8AM until 5PM Mondays through Thursdays and 8AM until 11AM on Fridays. If you total up the number of class time we had, it was close to 30-35 hours/week, which makes it extremely hard to get much outside studying or activities in. While I understand the need for higher attendance, if someone isn’t an auditory learner or the lecturer didn’t present the material clearly, then this time could have been better spent outside of the classroom. Furthermore, by streaming the lectures at a later time, there is the potential to gain additional study time.
This year, our lecture hours have been decreased – we have around 20-25 hours/week. While this is a significant improvement over last year, I understand why some of my classmates still feel frustrated with our mandatory lecture policy.
I personally do not learn much from most lectures; however, I do find that I passively absorb the material. Having taught a little bit in the past, I can definitely understand the disheartening feeling that accompanies presenting to a paltry audience. On the other hand, time is precious to any medical student and spending it in classes that may or may not be helpful can be infuriating. While I agree that there should be more of an incentive for us to attend, I am still on the fence about whether I endorse this particular approach.
Does your school have a mandatory attendance policy? What do you think of ours?
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