Waiting

A lot of times a syllabus will tell you how long you have to wait for a late professor, instructor, or teacher before you can assume that class in canceled. What they don't tell you is how long you have to wait before you start actually learning things. You know why they don't tell you that? Because as a graduate student - the responsibility for learning rests with you.

You need to read the syllabus to figure out what other reading you might need to do to understand concepts and topics. You need to learn to read the syllabus to determine if the books in the bookstore are the same ones as the ones the faculty member is using for the course. You need to read the syllabus in case there is something hidden in there the faculty member wants you to respond to to make sure you read the syllabus. You need to read the syllabus to figure out what kinds of projects or assignments you might want to do that could align with your assistantship or future work or research. You need to learn to read the syllabus in case...

You know - I guess you just need to learn to read the syllabus.

And ask questions.

And take responsibility for your learning because sometimes you might not have good teachers. Also sometimes teachers don't have good students. Some of the faculty wait around for that to happen to instead of doing more work to inspire people in the classroom. But you know how long faculty have to wait around for good students to show up? The ENTIRE semester. 

Also, most graduate students are awesome.