I gave an exam in one of my classes a week ago. After exam grades had been handed back, a student in the class who did poorly complained to me. The complaint was that they missed class the day that I talked about the test and therefore ended up a week behind on being able to study for it. Trying to keep a straight face and keep my eyes from rolling into the back of my head, I calmly uttered the one phrase that emanates from the mouths of exasperated professors across the nation every single semester…

…”It’s in the syllabus.”

The college syllabus is not a waste of paper that should be tossed away and forgotten after the first day of class. It is a contract between you and your professor that contains information critical to your success in the course. The syllabus typically includes professor contact information, required course materials, course policies, school policies, assignment descriptions, and the course schedule, among other elements. Yet professors are approached by countless students every semester who are unaware of some of the most basic policies of a course.

Take my classes for example. My attendance and participation policy takes up almost a full page in my syllabus. It includes the expectations for attendance and participation, the penalties for missing class, and the requirements for getting an absence excused. Despite this detailed information, I get emails at the end of the semester from students complaining about their attendance and participation grade. “I think I participated a lot in class,” they say, unaware that their 11 absences resulted in a letter grade drop in the course. Had they read the attendance policy section of the syllabus, their grade would not have come as a surprise.

This brings me to today’s sage piece of college-going wisdom: read the damn syllabus.

Dr. Diane McNulty, a professor a the University of Texas at Dallas, lists not reading the syllabus as one of the top 10 things that drives college professors crazy.  There are few things more exasperating to a professor than having to answer a question about something that is clearly outlined in the course syllabus. We spend a lot of time carefully crafting our syllabi, and it is exceptionally frustrating when all of our hard work goes unread.

Reading the syllabus shouldn’t just be about saving your professors from ripping their hair out, however. There are countless benefits to you as a student when you thoroughly read and understand the information presented in your syllabus. If you want to be successful in a class, you need to know what the expectations are for that class. You need to know how to get in touch with your professor if you have questions. You need to know what the required materials are for the course. You need to know course policies such as attendance and late work. And, like my student who was unaware of the upcoming exam, you need to know the requirements and due dates for your assignments.

In addition to covering the basic information about a particular course, syllabi often include information about important resources within the college as a whole. My syllabi, for example, include information about tutoring, writing help, library services, veteran services, counseling services, student rights, accessibility services, and tech support. These are a great way to learn about some of the extra support the college offers you outside of the classroom. From my own experience, the students who demonstrate knowledge of the information in the syllabus tend to be the ones who perform better in the class.

The last reason you want to read your course syllabus is that sometimes your professors like to sneak Easter Eggs into them. These are typically opportunities for points that are not announced in class. An article by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz in the Chronicle of Higher Education gives several examples of Easter Eggs that professors have buried in their syllabi, including requests to send them pictures of dinosaurs, medieval tattoos, and the TV character ALF.

The use of Easter Eggs is something I have tried in my courses as well. One semester I added a clause in the syllabus that offered extra credit points to anyone who came to meet with me mid-semester to discuss their course progress. Of the approximately 120 students who were given this option, exactly one student actually saw the clause and came to meet with me. A friend of mine who put a similar Easter Egg in his syllabus got zero responses from any of his students, many of whom could certainly have used those bonus points.

Success in any college course starts with understanding the basic policies and schedule of that course. We use products more easily when we read the directions, we find our way to new places better when we read the map, and we do better in our classes when we read the syllabus. So please save your professors from complete exasperation and save yourself from unpleasant surprises in your classes and just read the damn syllabus.