system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Any tips to not feel dumb during philosophy lectures?

hey guys,

I am a fourth year philosophy major, and I don't know if it is zoom lecture that is throwing me off, my Hard of hearingness, the accent of both of my professors, the fact that I am studying in a different time zone (3am philosophy lectures yay), the fact that I went from Lower division courses, to "medium devision courses", to Upper devision courses but I cannot seem to focus. Every twenty minutes I just kinda zone out and then when it comes time to time to write my paper I get confused. All my classmate seems so smart, like the professor gives a whole monologue and than my classmates are like: "well let me add something, complete analysis with terms I have never heard of". I never had major trouble with my philosophy classes before, sometimes I would not understand a primary text, but  my lectures would clear it up. 

Any tips?
gpt
You are not alone in experiencing this kind of thing.  In order of things you can reasonably affect:

1. Try to force yourself into a specific set of note-taking habits
2. Beg the professor for links to lecture recordings (preferably with transcripts) for use later
3. Beg the professor for their lecture notes or, at least, an outline of the lecture prior to the session
4. Beg your professor to take more inter-class breaks (especially if the lecture is for more than an hour)

ETA: If your hard-of-hearingness is documented, then there are lots of ADA protections.  It is possible to do CC in Zoom, but professors can't easily do it by themselves (as someone has to live caption).  Your college's access office would be responsible for making that happen, but if your access office is having trouble providing this option then you should for sure let your professor know that you need help here.