As any class starts drawing to a close, no matter how enthralled I am with the topic — whether it’s the teacher or the cute boy sitting a row in front of me — I am always eager for it to be over. I assume this is a universal feeling among students. Unfortunately, there seems to be a near-universal action associated with this eagerness to get out of class: packing up before the bell rings.

In smaller classes, this is not as much of a problem. The sound of papers rustling and backpacks being zipped is not too distracting. I also think the close physical proximity of the students to the professor is enough to deter most students from being too disrespectful. This same principle does not apply to large lecture classes, where the 100-plus students provide a cloak of anonymity to those wishing to be rude to both the teacher and the other students.

In all of the large classes I have been in, it is like clockwork: About five minutes before the end of the period, the clack, clack, clack of desks being flipped down starts to echo throughout the room. It starts off as a few isolated incidents, but before long, other students follow suit. If it were only one person packing up, then it wouldn’t be so bad, but when the majority of the class starts putting away their books, zipping their bags, flipping their desks and whispering to their neighbors, the noise is enough to drown out the teacher.

Other than the fact that such behavior is abominably rude, it also presents another problem that directly affects both the early-packer-uppers and the rest of the pupils: The last five minutes of a lecture are often the most important.

In these few minutes, the teacher often recaps the whole lecture, thereby reiterating the main points — aka test material — or opens up the floor for questions. Either the recapitulation or the answering of questions helps to cement the concepts and information that were presented during the lecture. Packing up early is a disservice to those students who are still trying to listen. It is also usually in the closing minutes of class that the teacher says what the readings or homework assignments are. Call me crazy, but to me, knowing the assignments is the most crucial part of the class.

Let us sidestep briefly into some math. If five minutes are essentially lost at the end of a class that meets five times a week for 50 minutes, then 25 minutes of class time would be lost a week. With a 10-week quarter, that translates into 250 minutes, or four hours and 10 minutes. This means that for someone taking three five-credit classes, a grand total of 12 hours and 30 minutes is lost per quarter. That is a lot of wasted class time. Tuition is not exactly a small amount of money. My class time being lost or wasted because other students decide that class should end five minutes early translates into me losing money that I could really use.

I am not sure why people think it is okay to be packing up and making noise before class is out. It is unbelievably rude to the teacher, who is still talking, and to the other students, who are still listening. If you are one of these notorious people, you might want to change your ways. Otherwise, you might find me turning around with my palm extended: That’s right, I want a refund.

Reach columnist Jenessa Markland at opinion@dailyuw.com.