Sitting in a Useless Seminars

That usually happens when a speaker doesn't know how to make the students active or in participation with the seminar. A speaker on the first place should have a commanding voice. He/she should know some in-between activities that will liven the seminar. However, if the topic is indeed boring or already known to the students, it cannot be avoided that everyone will not be attentive or sleeping.

Same thing happens with us. Our collage is trying to make its stand in the university and we students have to pay the price. Our collage management is full of idiots who from time to time organize seminars and paper presentations which we are already aware of or which have nothing to to do with our academics. The ones presenting their presentations are the so called renowned dignitaries of whom we have never heard of. We simply sit and waste our time playing games, chatting or doing other stuff. Its just a publicity stunt to draw attention that we are an education oriented institution. I feel like scolding them in front of a crowd... :p

Yeah that happens sometimes. I remember quite a few dull ones from my student days and some interesting ones to be fair. I think that it really does go to show you that some people do tend to violate one of the primary rules of public speaking and that is know their audience. You do not give the same speech to high school students or college students as you might given to a company's board of directions. Some people are both engaging and informative. Some people, however, they have a format that they will go through. They won't be able to stray from their subject. Rather they just keep going on and on and on and eventually it is something that is going to be something that is going to make you want to doze off into the land of sleep.

I haven't been to a lot of uninteresting seminars but I do find it hard to sit and listen for a long time even if it is interesting! I think my attention span is about an hour maximum. How long did this seminar go for? I think people that run seminars should be good at making it interesting for the listeners.

No matter what I will stay awake and listen to them. That could be the last seminar and perhaps I will not attend the same so better to listen to them...Plus it is free and even if I need to pay for it, it is better for me to listen to the speaker as it will worth the money I pay.(^^) But I admit that in certain time the seminar could be so bored and tired to pay attention to it. Just keep your eyes open and bear till the last minute of the seminar. If I can't take it then I will start doing other things like drawing etc but still listen to the speech.(^^)

In my college days I have also gone into boring seminars like yours! It is not just feeling, boring and sleepy, but I can also feel stress and hunger in the middle of the discussion. A good speaker can caught his listeners attention for a long period of time!

The seminar is boring if the speakers did not interact the student and did not give what the student want to listen. If the topics is not on the particular subject they want to learn about that's really boring because how can you listen if the topics is out of the subject and not related on the course you learn about?

As much as possible, I try to learn something new in every seminar that I would attend. I try to focus on what the speakers are trying to say and point out. But there are really some times that the speaker is boring and I can't help but try to combat sleepiness. I just try to think of the other things that I will do after the seminar or other things in my mind so that I won't waste my time just trying to fight the sleepiness.

Hi, Yur topic reminded me of the speech of '3 idiots'(hope you watched this Amir khan movie in Hindi) by Chatur... Sometimes the speaker don't know how to keep the crowd attentive so these days the management gurus are using interactive fundas and make it short and sweet.

I can relate to that. I have been into many seminars which are organized by our department also. I could not forget my first seminar which was conducted when I was first year. And as what you have said, some of the seminars are quite boring. What I do if that's the case is I go outside and don't listen. I will just be sleepy if I listen more.

Sometimes we feel as 'though the seminar's useless, but that's not true sometimes. Maybe it's just the speaker who have no tools or visual aids that can attract student's attention. I have been on seminars that are really boring too, and sometimes its because the teacher's voice is not lively.

I had many of these boring seminars when I was in college. Our department organized them just for the sake of showing to the students that activities are being made and that the officers are looking at their welfare. Students excitingly attend the seminars and leave the room frustrated. The speakers most of the time are just reading what is on the screen and seldom input something new. What a waste really and hope that other students do not encounter such things :)

Yes, The normal student can pay his truthful attention to lecture, seminar and presentation for utmost 10 to 15min. After that he/she cannot able to concentrate on topics. This is the nature of human. In most colleges, they conduct seminar on unrelated topic. Every student can have different field interest. Student who without having interest on particular topic, he may not able to use that session efficiently. Better they allow student who like to attend seminar. This will be helpful to all. We cannot tolerate those kind of useless seminar conducted in colleges.

hi yaso, you say absolute correct, generally seminar is a lot of matter observed in our mind is a very interesting session but so many seminar not interacted, why not interacted means the speaker full fill concentrated is not and other thing how to speech first ,second one is how to reach other person it is main important one.

this situation happens for every student. Some speakers irretates by speaking about some non related topics. So many students wont listen to their lectures.