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TOEFL Essay "Should students be required to attend classes?"


Irrational 6 / 13  
Oct 18, 2010   #1
Hello guys,

this is another attempt on the TOEFL format. Please feel free to comment.

Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Which point of view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer.

The issue at hand is whether it should be obligatory for university students to attend classes. This is an interesting question because it affects a great amount of students worldwide. Nonetheless there are various different policies regarding this topic. An important aspect might be whether one desires to optimize the learned knowledge or the amount of valuable experiences for the students. However, to my mind students should be free not to attend classes because it improves the quality of student life as well as their learning motivation and teaches important life skills.

Firstly, a liberal policy is very feasible. Checking for attendance requires a lot of bureaucracy. Especially for larger classes it is impossible to check for everybody to attend. So an optional attendance saves time and money.

Secondly, some students might learn better at home on their own, for instance, by reading the textbook. This problem occurs especially if the lecturer is lethargic. By letting students choose not to attend class you give them the opportunity to escape bad teaching. Thus they are able to save precious study time and dive into the course syllabus independently.

In addition, being free to stay away from classes improves flexibility and therefore quality of student life. Sometimes the wild party on Thursday night is too good to end already at midnight only because of a lecture on Friday in the morning. With a liberal policy students are able to postpone the learning to the afternoon which gives a feeling of freedom and improves time efficiency. Research has shown that the more satisfied the students are with those life aspects, the better they perform in academic areas.

Finally, psychology knows two types of motivation. There is intrinsic motivation which comes from your own mindset. And there is extrinsic motivation which comes from the praise and laud of other people. Intrinsic motivation is known to be much more desirable because it leads to better learning and well-being. However, in order to gain intrinsic motivation students need to become aware of their strengths and aims. By giving students the freedom to choose about class attendance they might rather be thinking about why they decided to study and learn to motivate themselves. These are crucial skills for the duration of their study and their whole life time.

To conclude, it is clear that going to classes should be optional for students. I hold this belief due to the improvement of students' current experience as well as the valuable skills and knowledge they obtain for their whole life afterwards.
EF_Kevin 8 / 13,321 129  
Oct 21, 2010   #2
Checking for attendance requires a lot of bureaucracy.

This is a good point.

So a policy of optional attendance saves time and money.

Thus they are able to save precious study time and dive into the course syllabus independently.

Good sentence.

...escape bad teaching. ---- Hmmmm... alright, after reading this essay, I came to a conclusion. A higher quality university can have smaller class sizes, good teaching, and carefully kept attendance records. If more money is invested by the school, the school can raise its standards. I bet a lot of organizations would be more impressed with applicants who attended a college where showing up for class was mandatory. I think that when people don't go to class it shows that education has become undermined as degrees are bought and sold.

In your conclusion, you express the opposite view. You argue that it is good for classes to be optional. I guess that is good if the classes are challenging enough; if classes are challenging enough, then the student will indeed have to work hard regardless of whether or not he attends class.

Anyway, I guess I agree with you, but I think it really is best if students respect the teacher-student relationship and show up to class so that the teacher has a chance to really give an inspiring experience. It is rough for a teacher to be treated like a television program that you can ignore if you want to. :-)


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