IM LATE TO CLASS!

I have a question to anyone in Uni... I've never been "late" to a class (except for one instance where I had a meeting with my academic advisor--bastard.) So how late would being "late" be? Should I even go to class? I have training for my work to go to that lasts until 8 (class starts at 8:25 am.) The job is off campus and I'll be dealing with rush hour traffic (give it about 8-10 minutes to get from my work to school w/out rush hour, so with rush hour it would double.) Then I would have to park in a parking lot that is about 10 minutes away from all of my classes. I would be about 5 or 10 minutes late, but I've came 5 minutes late and my professor has yelled at me already. I'm wiling to take a lecture, but if it gets to the point where they won't let me go to class for the day (I've heard they do that,) then I don't want to waste my time. I can reattend the class during the afternoon (It conflicts with another class I have, but that's besides the point because I hate the substitute anyways and practice piano on my own time.)

Given the situation, should I skip my first morning class and attend the afternoon class instead? I'll be doing this until the end of next week anyways.

A professor yelled at you for coming in five minutes late? That's a blessing. Back here, you aren't allowed to even go inside once the professor HAS set foot into the hall (but we manage our way in somehow cause half of us are deviant little suckers).

I do remember missing a lecture once this year (not that it was important), due to arriving five minutes late. If you have two lectures after one another, it is possible to attend the lecture that is to follow the one you missed. Just make sure you're there on time once the previous one is over.

I could have attended the afternoon lecture for the one I missed, but I had a section at that time, so I just had to leave it and study it on my own (thankfully, nothing difficult). Remember that lectures are in the end explanations of the content of your study books, but practical work is more than just reading a few lines. If there's a clash, I would personally favor practical work over theoretical. However, there are a few cases where the opposite is the better solution. It's up to you to decide.

Now if you want to avoid all that, you should simply not come in late. A fool proof method I use is that I leave the house an hour in advance of the start of the lecture, even if I could have arrived in ten minutes. Coming late should be a rare occasion, not a habit. Do what you must to avoid it.

EDIT: I reread your post, about how your job is before school. Not sure how I can help you with that one.

Hmm, from experience I'd say that the 2 hour and 30 minute mark for 3 hour classes, for example, is too late, since you'll have like 15 minutes left by the time you get there which isn't much of anything, so don't procrastinate that far! This is actually a serious predicament, you check the time, think there is still time (here we have something we jokingly call "the academic quarter" which means that taking up to 15 minutes is "ok") and ever so often you realize there is now only half an hour left so even if you take off, there will be nothing to attend by the time you get there. Happens to me all the time.

Anyways, I don't think there are that many people here, if any, who attend a university which follows the same system as your university, so there are things to consider. Did you try explaining your situation to the professor in question? Some people are understanding of the fact that people have to work and are willing to give some leeway or assistance in regards to that. Is there a way for you to get the material covered through other means? (a good book that is well followed in class; e-class, which would be basically parts of what was said in class uploaded online; other people taking the class who are willing to share notes with you, etc.) If yes, taking a week or two off should be no problem so long as you are willing to make use of those resources properly at your own time and soon.

If neither is possible/available and you learn from official sources that tardiness is not tolerated (unless there are no specific rules on that matter and anything can happen because the students have not formed a proper community to do anything about it), then yeah, just pick the harder class. If it's just 2 weeks, you can catch up with the other one.

We just come in and say that we had some sort of other academic commitment, like music lessons or tutoring or banging an english classmate in an unused room for an hour because she has a great body, but usually you don't tell them the latter, and I'm not entirely sure why I told you.

But then, I'm in college at the moment so we're probably slightly more lax about that kind of thing, really.

I'm late for class alot of the time, got to be thankful my country is overly laid back sometimes as, the lecturers never seem to care if I'm late or not