Does Going to Class Really Make a Difference?

Daniel T. Willingham's research exposes a seductive trap: class attendance correlates with grades more strongly than IQ, entrance exams, or study habits, yet the causal effect is far smaller than the correlation promises. A US economics experiment found mandatory attendance lifted grades by only 0.17 standard deviations. The real mechanism is surgical: students score worse specifically on exam questions covering lectures they missed. Singapore data reveals 8 a.m. classes see attendance drop ten points, with a third of students waking after class starts.

You'll learn:

- Why borrowed notes deliver only half the cognitive benefit

- How lecture recordings help attenders but harm substituters

- Which students gain most from showing up, and skip most often