Comment by alexpotato
19 days ago
Regarding people not reading books:
My first semester of business school, I realized I opened only half of the books/packets I was told to buy.
I made a decision to see if I could do the next 3 semesters without buying any books or packets.
I think I needed a book once or twice for some specific homework assignments. For the packets, I even took an Ethics in Business class where every week you were supposed to read a case to prepare for class discussion. I would just listen to folks make points for the first 15 minutes, figure out what the case was about and then make a new point based on that. Professor even wrote in my class feedback "you always have a good insight to bring to class discussions."
I mention this to point out that a lot of emphasis is put on textbooks that either:
- the professor doesn't even use but is required to select (one professor stated this explicitly)
- are considered "great!" by the professor but awful at teaching the material
- are pretty good but duplicate what is in the lectures.
My school made it a rule that any book required by the professor had to have at least one copy in the library system. The book could only be checked out in short increments and wasn't supposed to leave the library. Also it may be in 1 of 14 department specific libraries.
I figured this out freshmen year, and didn't buy books the last 3 years. I would just copy pages as needed for homework/readings. I think I probably looked at 10% of the total pages I was told to buy. Most classes would use less than a hundred pages a semester. The best classes the professor just skipped this rigamarole and handed out packets copied from various books directly.
Only very basic 100 and 200 level classes would stick to a standardized curriculum that followed hundreds of pages in a book. Anything challenging used dense material from real technical books or academic papers.
What would that class be like if no one made an effort to read and study the material though? Just a brag?
Well, the comment you replied to talks about classes where books are secondary to better sources from which to learn the material, like lecture notes and other sources.