What to do if you want to avoid
getting an education
or
Things you should know if you want one
guidance from
Herbert Jack Rotfeld,
Auburn University, USA
& Colin Jevons, Monash University, Australia
- Come to class late, leave early, or just not come at all
- Never discuss the material with your classmates
- Never read lecture supplements sent via email
- Do not study the reading assignments before the class meeting covering
that material
- Only do the assigned readings on the day before a possible test or
exam instead of before the day it is to be covered in class
- If a topic is to be covered during multiple classes, never reread the
assignment before the second day
- Focus narrowly on what you think you need to remember to pass a test,
rather than developing a deep understanding of the subject
- Memorize lists & terms instead of understanding their use,
applications and meaning
- Don't review available study questions before each class
- Do the required work and nothing more; never look at optional or
recommended readings
- Never contact the instructor except to ask about your exam scores or
to what parts of the material are most important to study
- Don't take any notes from lectures, guest speakers' presentations,
videos or other students' comments during discussion
- Restrict class notes to copying slides from the screen
- Be too shy to try to answer a discussion question asked during class
or be too embarrassed to ask questions you fear are too dopey
- Caveat of the obvious: Questions would be better left unasked if you
came to class unprepared and don't know a clear answer found in the
homework, or if you are asking for a repeat of information you missed
because you were not paying attention while texting your friends or
doing the homework for a different class.
How to minimize scores when answering
essay questions
- Memorize and regurgitate parrot-fashion instead of understanding and
applying the material
- Repeat lists or terms from the textbook instead of answering the
questions
- Blindly transcribe textbook details even if lectures or other readings
questioned their validity
- Write an answer for the question you wanted to get instead of the one
that is actually asked
- Rewrite the question itself as an illusion of actually providing an
answer
- A tale of "Test Time in Verse" cause every student's been there
Also see Rotfeld's essays on higher education, especially:
- Slacker Profs Make for Slacker Students, The
Irascible Professor (July 28, 2008)
- Hello, Bird, I'm
Learning Ornithology, Marketing Educator, 17 (Fall 1998): 4,
6
- Chris:
A Professor's Memory, Marketing Educator, 13 (Fall 1994): 4
- Are These Lists Really Necessary? Marketing
Educator, 17 (Winter 1998): 6
- Marketing Wisdom of Dagwood, Hagar or Charlie Brown,
AMS Quarterly, 2 (December 1998): 5
- Evaluating the Point of Grades, AMS Quarterly,
4 (June 2000): 7

Professor Emeritus
Herbert Jack Rotfeld
Special Advisor to the Graduate School
Hargis Hall
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama 36849
rotfehj@auburn.edu
Copyright 1990-2025 Herbert Jack Rotfeld