Lecturer Survival Guide : How to Navigate Different Lecturer Personalities

You already know that being a Nigerian student is a blockbuster movie. It’s a whole lot of drama mixed with suspense and mind games. How you choose to play the game, or the character you choose in the movie, can either make or mar you.

Here’s one honourable way to make sure you’re not on the bad side of academic history: know your lecturer.

This is a top-tier survival skill. You’ll be making a huge mistake if you think all lecturers operate the same way. Unlike secondary school teachers, university lecturers have more autonomy, more style, and more personality than you’d expect.

In this post, we will show you how to navigate different lecturer personalities.

Why Lecturer Personalities Matter

Lecturers influence attendance. Imagine going to class five minutes late only to meet a locked door, and God helps you if attendance counts in your CA.

Lecturers also influence exam style. This is one of the biggest reasons why knowing your lecturer matters. The way they ask questions, how they like answers framed, and how they grade can be completely different from the lecturer next door.

They also influence your stress levels. Some lecturers make class feel like a peaceful retreat; others make you wish you could sleep with your eyes open. Whichever one it is, knowing the person speaking will save you a lot of headaches.

The Lecturer Archetypes & How to Navigate Them

• The PowerPoint Reader

These lecturers come to class, open their laptops, and read the slides word for word. Minimal explanation. For them, reading equals teaching. Their exams usually come straight from the slides, so you quickly learn that you’ll need extra materials if you actually want to understand the course.

• The Exam Setter from Hell

This one boasts proudly that they’ve been setting exams for years and only a limited number of students can ever “decode” what they want. Their questions feel like riddles, as if you got admitted to study detective work instead of your actual course.And their marking scheme? Wickedness in bullet points.

Students who survive them usually depend on past scripts, deep understanding of the course, and wisdom from seniors who already went through the battle.

• The Friendly-but-Unpredictable Lecturer

They are so nice in class that you start wondering how a lecturer can be this sweet. But don’t be deceived , their niceness doesn’t extend to grading. You will enjoy their class, yes, but you will also understand that taking notes and paying attention is not optional.

• The Attendance Police

This lecturer takes attendance like their life depends on it. Attendance is half of your CA in their course. Missing their class is basically asking for premium academic tears. With them, you learn quickly that showing face is a strategy.

• The Storyteller

These ones give the best stories. They will teach the actual course for 10 minutes and spend the next 50 narrating life experiences. They digress like they’re being paid for it.

Recording their class (if they allow it) becomes a lifesaver, because you’ll need to replay the parts where you blinked and got lost. And you learn to filter out the important points hidden somewhere in their stories.

• The Ghost Lecturer

They hardly show up, sometimes they don’t show up at all. But their question? Number one in the exam. Every time. Like they expect you to be a miracle worker.

The only way to stay alive with this one is to find materials from previous years early enough. Never assume that because they didn’t teach, they won’t examine.

Conclusively, lecturers won’t change, but your strategy can. Tailor your approach to the uniqueness of each lecturer, and your academic journey becomes far more manageable. Good luck!