You missed some important information on the first day and you'll have to go to some extra effort so that you don't fall behind. But you can do it.

1. If your instructor has a web page for the course (see the link from their name in the schedule), go to that web page, find the syllabus and course information. If your instructor doesn't have a web page, look at the departmental information for your course.
2. Make sure that you have met the prerequisite for the course. (Find that from the departmental information.) Your instructor discussed that with your class on the first day and helped those who didn't meet the prerequisite move back to another class. Since you missed that, you have lost an important opportunity to get some advice. If you have questions, plan to talk with your instructor outside of class when you go on the second class day. Or find any instructor of the course and discuss it with him right away.
3. Find the name and author of the textbook from the web site and go buy the book right away. (The bookstore also has information about which textbooks are used for which sections of the courses.) Start reading the book and working problems. Perhaps you can tell from the handout what material the instructor covered on the first day. If that isn't clear to you, assume they covered about the first two sections of the syllabus. Read those and work about every other odd-numbered problem in the exercises at the end of the sections.

If you miss more than one class at the beginning of the semester, it is even more critical that you buy the textbook and start doing the problems. When you show up for class the first time, you should be able to demonstrate that you have covered about two sections of the textbook for every class that you missed.

Last updated August 24, 2000. Comments or questions?