Office hours are blocks of time scheduled by professors and teaching assistants outside of classes to meet with students and discuss lecture material or any other related topics. Despite having office hours available to me since the beginning of my university career, I only started attending them in my second semester, and only this semester have I attempted to attend office hours as frequently as possible.

Researchers have found that there is a correlation between office hours and student achievement. Even though office hours may seem daunting, research shows that students who are present at lectures and office hours typically outperform students who are not.

For a long time, I was aware of the general idea of office hours, but only recently have I come to truly appreciate their usefulness. Going for office hours has helped me develop an understanding of what is expected of me in my courses.

I will use my English 1340 course as an example. For our midterm we wrote an in-class essay with a focus on the quality of our thesis statements. Before the midterm, I went for office hours and showed my professor a sample thesis. I used the lecture slides and my basic understanding of what a thesis was, to draft my work, and honestly, I thought I had done an outstanding job.

During the meeting, my professor pointed out a number of areas which needed to be revised.

In some places I was too vague and needed to be more specific, in other areas my sentence structure was off, and there were some parts that were just irrelevant and needed to be scrapped entirely. If I had to guess, I would say the quality of my writing went from a B to an A+ during the encounter. Even though I had a decent understanding of what my professor wanted to see in the essay, there were still areas that needed revision and the only way I could be aware of those areas was to meet with her.

I think this is the case with most courses.

As students we can only absorb so much in a lecture. And often it is hard to diagnose ourselves. We need someone who knows exactly what the professor is looking for to help us out, and who better to ask than, you guessed it, the professor.

As a new office hour attendee, I am amazed at the benefits of meeting one-on-one with my professors. In my first semester, there were a number of things that kept me from going to office hours, and I think these apply to most students. The first was scheduling conflicts. Sometimes the allotted time given by teaching assistants or professors just doesn’t work with a student’s schedule. Luckily, in my experience at the U of M, many lecturers are open to setting up hours outside of their usual slot to work with students.

On multiple occasions I have emailed and agreed with my lecturers on alternative hours to meet with them. This ensures that students can keep their other commitments without limiting their academic success.

Another factor that keeps students from using the office hours resource is the fear of being perceived as less intelligent. Some students feel that attending office hours implies that they are not paying attention in lectures or that they are not smart enough to keep up in the course, but this is false. Attending office hours actually gives your professors the impression that you care about the lecture material. So much so that even after classes you want to deepen your understanding.

I have heard my professors say that most students who achieve high grades in their classes attend lectures and go to office hours. I am convinced that attending office hours is a secret weapon for A+ students — and now we’re in on the secret.