[debatem1]

What's unfair about office hours? At least at my school they were posted in advance and available to any student at no charge.

[olalonde]

It's not the office hours themselves that felt unfair, but the way some students got privileged hints about upcoming exams.

[red-iron-pine]

how often did you actually go to these hours?

put another way, they showed up and asked questions and got info -- and you didn't. that's not privilege, that's effort

[olalonde]

I'm not talking about getting more in-depth explanations or clarifications about class material, I'm talking about: "If I were you, I would really focus on that exercise on page 47 (wink wink). Also, just skip chapter 4 (wink wink)". This creates a scenario where a student with genuine subject mastery can actually be outscored by someone who simply got the hints.

To answer your question, I don't recall ever going to "office hours", as I was generally a top student with minimal effort and an autodidact, but I learned about it through friends. Having parents who are both professors also gave me a front-row seat to how common this was.