<p>It depends on the course, the student, and the student’s goals for the course. In the humanities “acing the exam” may be impossible. Many courses have papers but no tests, and class participation is part of the evaluation. Even if one wrote an excellent paper without attending class (if that were even remotely possible, since the professor would probably want to see something of the class discussion come through) would miss the point of being there.</p>
<p>In technical fields, many courses are designed to teach how to approach and solve certain kinds of well defined problems. People who can do that have mastered the material of the course, and class discussions are rare anyway. The classes are used to clarify the assignments and methods. If these are clear to a particular student, then there may not be much to be gained by attending. Of course, by skipping, the student misses out on the chance to extend beyond the text and homework, ask the professor for more in depth consideration of the material, and become more engaged. In one’s major, these secondary gains of class participation may become important. For an engineering major who wants to be able to solve differential equations, but can pass on the deeper beauty of mathematics, then going to class may be optional.</p>
<p>Here are comments from a stereotypical MIT math genius about courseload, class attendance, and mastery of the material</p>
<p>“…the next term I took eight classes, and after that I took nine, and I took seven this semester.”</p>
<p>"How do you even schedule all of these classes? "</p>
<p>“I dont go to some of them. … For some of the courses I’m taking, I learned about half of the material in high school, or in another related course. …most of the time they’re not going to talk about something I don’t already understand. If they do, I’ll just read about it in the textbook, so I can pick up the material from other sources.”</p>
<p>For a kid like this, going to class would limit his options. Now he is an extreme example, but the point is, apparently, no one objects to this approach.</p>