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Comment by annzabelle | Hacker News Reader

I was lucky to attend a liberal arts college with a large and extremely pedagogy focused mathematics department, and all of my math classes there were like this. Engaging lectures, if I listened and wrote down everything on the board I would be able to get a B on the exams, even if I skimped on practice. Made it all the way to measure theory this way. They included in class group practice integrated with the lectures, which definitely helped.

St. Olaf College for those wondering.

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I also went to a liberal arts college and, yes, my instructors care a lot about what I've learned. However, I am exactly that "asked educated question but sucked at homework and test" student. I usually got A or A- for first few assignments and just cannot finish any assignment near the end of the semester. The only exceptions are those "really hard and abstract" lessons where most of people got 70/100 for exams and I got 110/100 (literally).

I am 30 now and I realized that it was very much of ADHD symptoms. I am just an edge case of college education.

However, by genetics and mathematics we know that in every classroom, there are tons of “edge cases” from different perspectives.

I definitely struggled with feeling hyper engaged in the classroom setting, and then the jarring transition to the next class. By the time I switched between three and four subjects that day and on to do assignments, I was completely fried.

Bette White has an honorary degree from there for her Rose Nieland character on Golden Girls

I'm having a hard time believing this. I've had one really good math teacher, his lecture prep was thorough, and the way he presented the material was very understandable, but without doing the problem sets, and some pre-exam review, I would not have been able to remember everything weeks later on an exam.

I can believe this. I had some subjects I was able to do this for going through Naval Nuclear Power school, and later college. Others I was unable to do this with.

Different people grasp things at different rates.

Yes, I can see it with something you are naturally gifted in. But in that case the instruction probably has less impact; you'll get it even if it's poorly explained.

I definitely did some problem sets and review if I struggled with a topic, but the lectures+in class review was enough for most topics. I do pick up math very easily - a lot of my peers needed more practice than I did.

I will note that this was the B's get degrees approach. If I had been aiming for graduate school, I would've needed to put in significantly more time to get A's and get picked for/complete undergraduate research projects.

My son went there! Andrew the cello player.

Loved my time at Olaf.

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