When you are a university student, going to your professor’s office hours is an important part of your intellectual journey. A good time to go is early in the term before other students from all of your professor’s classes start showing up for help with papers. By going early in the term, you will have the chance to casually discuss ideas from lectures that are still opaque to you. But more than that, you will likely have rich and casual conversation based on your intellectual interests or an interpretation of a text that you are reading in your class. Pragmatically, it will give you a head start on your papers. Also, when your professors know you personally, they will probably take an interest in helping you down the line in your academic career.

However, you should not wait until university to make use of your teachers’ office hours. Going to office hours can be a game changer for you in many ways:

1. Getting help from a teacher enables you to tackle what is challenging for you, step by step. A weekly visit will clear up any problems before they become so big that you do poorly in the course.

2. If you are struggling with a subject, you may develop a psychological block to doing the work. If you like your teacher and they are willing to help you, it can make a challenging subject less frightening. For example, I never really liked math, but I had a Geometry teacher I really connected with, and suddenly I found myself enjoying math for the first time.

3. Meeting with a teacher regularly can help you discover talents and opportunities. Let’s say you are just learning to write stories in English. There is only so much a teacher will tell you in the comments section. When you visit them and talk to them about writing, you may be inspired to write more and your stories will be better when you are inspired. You are already on your way to developing a talent.

4. When you meet regularly with a teacher, you make learning a part of your life. No longer are you just a face in a crowded room. Instead, you will start seeing yourself as part of a learning community. You are not merely a student being graded by a teacher, but a human conversing with another human about ideas that matter to you.