On Optimizing Time Spent on Classes

In the middle of Week 2, I stopped attending physics lectures. The teacher has a thick accent, I can’t see the blackboard because (1) she writes too lightly and (2) my eyes fail me, and she goes way too fast that I can’t keep up.

I’ve tried some simpler solutions. I’ve moved to the 2nd row but I still couldn’t see it. I’ve tried reading the textbook beforehand but that’s just too much work. I can’t do anything about my eyes.

Thus, I’ve concluded that the most optimal strategy moving forward is that I must stop attending lectures and begin studying on my own. Initially, I began reading the raw textbook but that took forever, so I used AI to summarize the chapters in its own words. That was working for a few days but that took super long as well. Lastly, I noticed that the professor posted her lecture notes online after the class, and those were about 2 pages long. I simply would send those to Claude or Muse and have them teach it to me.

I would always tell them to go step-by-step and only move on until I understand it, as well as draw diagrams to show the equations and problems in detail. It has been working out so far and I’m about to test my skills on the practice mid-term. Here we go!

I don’t think I did that bad. I had to add some more equations to the cheatsheet AI made, and the practice-midterm was pretty easy, but I don’t think I did that bad. I’m a little nervous for the actual midterm so maybe I’ll do some of that optional homework.