Listen up, y’all. If you haven’t been to at least one of your professor’s office hours, then you are not being the best student you can be. Actually, you just aren’t being the best human you can be. This post will tell you why OHs are good to go to, if you want to boost your grade, as well as your boost your general well-being.

The most obvious reason for going to see your professor or TA outside of class is to get help. Being in college is harder than being in high school, and you may find that you need extra explanation, in order to understand concepts covered during lecture. For this reason, office hours are a boon for the confused student. Talking to professors after class can be difficult because they are often mobbed and need to leave to let the other class begin their lecture. In office hours, your professor is yours. At least for five minutes until it’s the next student’s turn.

The real reason you should be going to office, though, is not to get out-of-class help but to get out-of-class handshakes, eye contact, and free candy. It is totally a proven fact that after going to office hours, you enjoy your class way more. I promise. Just going into OH to meet and chat up your professor, shows you that he or she is just a person who happens to be over-the-top passionate about asteroids or French culture or whatever. You look forward to going to class because you can imagine the personality of the lecturer. They become a whole person, not just a figure that spews out information. It’s like when you talk to someone over the phone and then you meet them in person and suddenly,  you see that the voice you  heard over the phone, is coming out an actual being. It completes your mental representation of your professor.

Plus remember how I said free candy? Well from time to time if you are lucky,  your professor will have a snack for you! My Earth Without Moon teacher gave me this delish Mexican seed candy, and we sat and chatted about art and space and how good candy is. My TA, for History of Electronic Dance Music, gave me grapes and we talked about grading and music and giggled (mostly giggled).

Bottom line: go to office hours, not only to get help on assignments and concepts, but also to meet and mingle with the stellar teaching staff of UCLA. Seriously, you will not regret it.