Questions for Students to Ask Teachers
Questions a student can ask a teacher in the first weeks of a course and after the first graded work: how to prepare, how the teacher wants to be asked for help, what grading actually rewards, where students usually get stuck, and how to catch up after falling behind.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What's the best way to prepare for this class before the term gets busy?
Why ask it
Most teachers have one specific habit in mind, doing the reading before class or redoing problem sets by hand, and they rarely volunteer it. If you get something as thin as "just keep up," push once: ask what a week of keeping up actually looks like.
How do you prefer students to ask for help: in class, after class, or by email?
Why ask it
Some teachers answer email within the hour, others never open it, and some would far rather you stay two minutes after class. Knowing which one you have means you are not guessing at 11pm the night before something is due.
How much time outside class should I expect this course to take each week?
Why ask it
The number tells you whether the syllabus is realistic and lets you plan around your other courses. If the answer is that it varies, ask which weeks are the heavy ones so you can move other commitments off them.
Which parts of this course do students usually find hardest?
Why ask it
Teachers know exactly where a class loses people, and it is almost always one unit or one underlying skill rather than the whole subject. Hearing it in week one turns a nasty surprise into a problem you can schedule around.
What do the students who do well in here tend to do differently?
Why ask it
This asks about behaviour rather than talent, and the honest answers are mundane: they come to office hours, they start essays a week out, they ask when they are confused. If the answer is that the good students are just clever, the teacher may not be watching very closely.
Do you want us to do the reading before the lecture or after it?
Why ask it
Some lectures are built to preview the reading, others to unpack it, and doing it in the wrong order wastes hours every week. Teachers usually have a firm preference and are surprised to be asked.
Which chapters and resources do you actually use, and which can I skip?
Why ask it
Reading lists carry material nobody ever touches, often because the book was chosen years ago. Finding out what is decorative buys back real time, and asking shows you intend to use the rest.
What counts as participation in here, and does it affect my grade?
Why ask it
Participation can mean talking in class, posting on the forum, or just showing up, and the working definition often differs from what the syllabus implies. Quiet students in particular need to know which version is being scored.
When you grade a test or an essay, what are you actually looking for?
Why ask it
Most teachers can describe the gap between a strong answer and an average one in two sentences, and it is rarely what students assume. Listen for whether they talk about the argument, the method, or the presentation, because that is where your effort should go.
What are the most common mistakes you see on your exams?
Why ask it
The answers here are unusually concrete: skipping the units, not showing working, answering the question they wished had been asked. Each one is a mistake you can simply stop making.
Can I show you a draft before the deadline, and how far ahead do you need it?
Why ask it
Some teachers will read a draft a week out and will not look at anything sent later, some cannot read drafts at all for fairness reasons. Either way you learn the real deadline sitting behind the printed one.
How do you want us to work together on homework without it crossing into copying?
Why ask it
Honesty policies are written vaguely and enforced specifically, and the person who decides is standing in front of you. Asking where they draw the line protects you far better than rereading the policy page.
If I fall behind by a week or two, what's the fastest way to catch up?
Why ask it
You want this answer before you need it, while it is still a hypothetical. Teachers often name a specific route, one summary chapter or one set of worked examples, rather than telling you to reread everything you missed.
What do you wish more students asked you about?
Why ask it
Teachers tend to name the thing they repeat every single term and nobody hears. It is also one of the few polite openings to hear what frustrates them about the course, told calmly rather than in an end-of-term review.
How did you end up teaching this subject?
Why ask it
Simple, and almost nobody asks it, which is why it changes the relationship. The answer usually also explains why the course is shaped the way it is, including the parts that seem arbitrary.
What's something in this material you find genuinely interesting that the syllabus doesn't show?
Why ask it
Syllabi are written for administrators, so this asks what the teacher actually cares about. The topic they light up about is the one where a curious follow-up question gets you a long, useful answer instead of a referral to the textbook.
What would you cut or add if you had more class time?
Why ask it
Invites honest commentary on the course's constraints rather than a defence of it. What gets compressed for time is often exactly where students later struggle, so the answer doubles as a warning.
What does this course prepare me for, in later classes or outside school?
Why ask it
Teachers see where their students go next, which you cannot yet. The answer connects a required class to something you can picture, and it often corrects a wrong assumption about what the subject is for.
Which skill from this class will still matter to me in five years?
Why ask it
Content fades faster than method, and teachers know it. Answers like reading a source properly, or writing a proof, tell you which part of the work deserves deliberate practice rather than just a passing grade.
Is there anything about how I work, or what I need, that you'd rather hear now than in week ten?
Why ask it
This opens the door to mentioning an accommodation, a job, a language, or an ongoing family situation while it is still a planning conversation rather than a crisis. Teachers can work around almost anything they know about early and very little they learn late.
How to Get Useful Answers From a Teacher
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When to ask what
- First week: logistics and expectations. Preparation, help channels, weekly workload, what participation means. Teachers answer these briskly because they have answered them many times.
- After your first graded piece of work: the grading questions. Feedback in your hand makes the conversation concrete instead of hypothetical, and the teacher can point at a paragraph.
- Mid-term, once they know your name: the curiosity questions about the subject and their own route into it. These land badly on day one and well in week six.
- Not in the first minute of class while they are setting up, and not in the last minute while thirty people pack their bags.
How to open the conversation
- 1Say your name and which section you are in. A teacher with 150 students is not being cold when they do not place you.
- 2Bring one question, not five. "I have one question about how you want the reading done" gets a real answer where a list gets a summary.
- 3Say how long you need and hold to it: two minutes after class, or ten in office hours.
- 4Write the answer down while they are talking. It signals you plan to use it, and you will otherwise forget the specifics by evening.
Common pitfalls
Asking what the syllabus already says
Teachers read this as a sign you did not look. Skim the syllabus first, then ask about what it never covers: how they grade, how they want to be contacted, where students get stuck.
Fishing for the minimum
"Is this on the test" gets a short answer and marks you as a grade shopper. Asking what a strong answer looks like gets better information and leaves a better impression, for the same amount of breath.
Turning a question into a negotiation
Asking about drafts or catching up is fine. Following it immediately with a request to move a deadline makes the first question look like setup, and teachers notice the pattern.
Waiting until you are already lost
The help and catch-up questions cost nothing in week one and are painful in week nine, when asking them means admitting how far behind you are. Ask while nothing has gone wrong.
If the answer is unhelpful
- A vague answer usually means a broad question. Narrow it: instead of "how do I do well," try "what separated the top essays from the middle ones last term."
- Some teachers hear anything about the course as a complaint. Keep the question pointed at the work rather than at their teaching and you will usually get a straight answer.
- If a teacher will not commit to reading drafts or keeping office hours, treat that as real information and build your plan around classmates, the department's tutoring, and past papers instead.
- Ask the same question of a student who took the course last year. Where the two answers disagree is worth a second conversation.