LIS students, do you feel like a lot of your courses are repetitive?

I'm currently taking two summer courses in my Master's program, and one of them is about reference services. I'm in no way saying that being a reference librarian or providing reference services isn't something you need to study to this extent, but we are being assigned multiple chapters and articles to read each week, and they all seem to say the same thing.

I understand that graduate professors assign these readings with the intention that you are critically skimming the articles and chapters, but it's so much to review for them all to say the same things. Does anyone else experience this in their programs? If there are any librarians, what's your advice on getting through these types of courses? Does anyone actually find LIS textbooks / subject matter books that you can order through ALA helpful?

FYI, I'm halfway done with my program so far.