This might sound a little odd but it’s true.
Most students get caught up in trying to look like a good student. They don’t focus on success. They focus on going through the motions of a good student instead of the things that actually help their grades.
When teachers imagine a good student, they imagine the kind of student that does their homework. This isn’t a completely unrealistic image of a good student.
Most good students hand in the majority of their homework. That being said, many high scoring students skip stuff.
Always handing in your homework may help you create the look of a high scoring student but it can be counter productive for getting higher grades.
Homework is sometimes worth the time investment. Sometimes, homework is not worth the time investment. The smart student knows the difference between these times and takes action appropriately.
Low Impact Homework – Throw It Out
Some teachers give a lot of homework. Other teachers hardly give any of it.
Here’s the kicker though: Teachers that give more homework are devaluing each individual assignment.
If homework is worth 20% of your final class grade then if your teacher gives 10 homework assignments, each of those homework assignments is worth 2% of your final class grade. If the teacher gives 100 homework assignments then each assignment is worth ⅕%.
The more homework a teacher gives you, the less important that homework will be in your final score for the class.
Here is a dilemma you should consider:
Imagine you only have time to complete one assignment but need to complete two.
How do you pick which assignment is more important?
You should usually do the assignment from the teacher that assigns less homework.
You need to account for the final grade percentage to be 100% sure.
Once this aspect of homework sinks in, you might notice that teachers that give you lots of homework get less and less irritating. They may add busy work to your day but throwing away a fraction of a percent on your final grade to skip it, might be worth it.
Know The Value And Produce Explosive Results
A little earlier in this article I mentioned one of the other major factors to pay attention to in class.
Teachers list the factors that will account for your final grade on most class syllabuses. For example, a teacher might list homework as 20% of your grade and tests as 80%. Use these weights to set your own priorities.
If homework is a small percentage of your final grade then it matters significantly less if you actually do the homework or not.
Many teachers make homework a tiny percentage of your final grade while still giving homework every single night. In those situations, don’t worry about doing your homework for your grade’s sake.
There may be other reasons to do it like test prep. When you don’t have a clear reason to do the work then skip it. Instead, focus on test prep (or whatever else is important for your final grade.)
If homework is a large percentage of your final grade then it matters more if you do your homework.
In those cases, you do it. Making homework a priority can take up more time outside of school. Fortunately, knowing that allows you to slack off more when it comes to other stuff.
These priorities work between different classes too. If you don’t have enough time to complete your homework then you should pick the highest priority homework and do it well.
When you have a tight schedule, you might want to rush through everything. Then you’re stuck handing in crappy work.
When a teacher allows late work, rushing work is a mistake. Even if you lose a couple points for it, you can make up for it with quality. It may be better to hand in low priority work late than on time and rushed.
Naturally, by doing all your work you can gain the most points. It works in theory because you get to assume you’re a machine that doesn’t hate doing low priority work.
Reality is more complicated than that. Most students do better when they sacrifice the low priority work and focus well on the high priority work.
When To Actually Do Your Work Anyway
There are times when, despite a homework assignment being low priority, you should still do it.
If the homework helps you prepare for tests then you should consider doing it anyway. This is particularly true if you don’t feel comfortable in the class.
Homework lets you practice the things you need to know.
It may not always be worth the points but it can give you a good idea of what answers your teacher will be looking for on a test.
This, to some extent, applies to reading assignments.
Teachers don’t typically test whether students actually did their reading or not. Following through with the class reading can have a large impact on the students understanding of later work. Doing the reading assignments may not always be required for points but that leaves the student in a very tricky position.
I wouldn’t recommend it. I say that we this caveat: I almost always skipped reading assignments and still scored near the top of my class.
Sometimes your homework will ask you questions that emphasize the same points. This is particularly true of math textbooks. A teacher might assign 30 problems but half those problems will be nearly identical with different numbers. You might only want to focus on problems that give you trouble and skip questions that you know you can figure out.
What You Need To Know To Crush Class
Doing homework might make you look like a good student but it’s not always the best way to actually improve your grades.
You should consider skipping your homework if:
1. It’s low value.
Your homework may be low value if:
- It’s one of many many assignments.
- The homework isn’t worth much on your syllabus.
2. It doesn’t help with test prep.
If it does help with test prep, consider only doing unique aspects of the assignment (and skip repetitive aspects.)
3. You have better things to do.
Better things can just be more fun things. It’s about how much you value everything. Homework doesn’t have to always come in front of fun. The smart thing is to make the decision consciously.
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Leave Procrastination In The Dust! Never EVER let it stop you again.
Doing stuff is easy – sometimes, right?
You only procrastinate the stuff that sucks. You don’t say, “Ahhh… I’ll read that text from my crush later.” Nope. Now… Any pause is intentional and coordinated to respond better.
Here is the problem with academics:
You probably think most academic stuff sucks – at least a little. (Especially compared to other things you could be doing.)
And the thing is:
FORCING YOURSELF TO STUDY JUST MAKES IT WORSE!
You’re slowly hardening your association of school and being miserable.
You need to create positive associations with academics. You want your brain to be getting hyped up and positive when you’re thinking about studying and giving into this internal oligarchical instinct to force yourself to studying – ain’t helpin’.
Chill the internal dictator for a moment…
A big secret: You need to STOP forcing yourself to study so much.
But, if you’re not forcing yourself then how are you going to see those killer straight-a’s that you’re always pining over?
It’s not difficult but it can sound weird to unfamiliar eyes.
Get your copy of my book about How To Get Happier Straight A’s.
It only costs $4.99 (and if these strategies don’t work like magic like it has for thousands of other students then you can get a full refund.)
Oh my.. the flashbacks are coming in.
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In such a case,don’t do the homework and the teacher will be automatically upset
Very important point you just made.
It does come down to a teacher by teacher situation. Some teachers will be bothered by this. The general rule – Don’t brag. Don’t tell people you’re not doing something because it’s worthless. Just quietly avoid it. If the teacher seems sensitive about it then – instead of skipping it, just symbolically complete it but don’t worry about answering anything correct. If the assignment isn’t going to affect your grade – the difference between an F and a skip is virtually irrelevant.
If you’re only skipping a handful of assignments (in my experience) the teacher’s barely even ask about it.
(I’ve actually told some teachers upon their probing. Those teachers usually are pretty friendly about it. I don’t recommend taking the chance though (just in case.)
I was able to find good info from your articles.
I support the idea of a worry less life. Assignments promote worries, not education.Assignment submission is irrational, superstitious non sense that has been debunked and discredited.All schools must ban assignments. Schools which fail to ban assignments shall not be supported by the State. Here is why. Assignment submissions are designed to dis – empower the State and to encourage organized crime. The idea is that A´s and B´s will be working for C´s and F´s. That means, F´s and C´s will receive all the money and A and B are going to have to go on searching for a job. One of school´s most important duties is to ensure that absolutely no course is allowed to give any assignment. Assignments take things out of hand. Teachers do not want to grade them. Nobody wants to do them. Nobody wants to review them. So one day one teacher noticed that one of her students was being realistic choosing not to do any assignment that day. So the teacher copied that, and then pasted that onto the assignments of all the other students. All the other teachers then copied this particular teacher´s negative assignment review. Consequently we do not have any successfully submitted assignment today. All because in the 1980s some teacher was stupid enough to waste time on one of them to grade it. Assignments never amount to anything. They never result in any student having any job. Consequently they must be banned. We are in school to learn to learn. We are not in school to be told how badly we are doing at an assignment. If teachers cannot see that there should not be any school. I have had my A´s and B´s during assignment submission, only to become convinced that in the end, all assignments are aimed towards C´s and F´s, to lower the student morale. A lowered morale results in more organized crime. Drugs flow to the street and become overpriced and people are killed, all because of a stupid assignment. Are assignments that are less worth than a street drug really worth completing? Is telling a student they failed on an assignment really more worth than an A or a B? Can teachers please stop giving students more assignments? Yes they can and here is how they can do it. If we understand that assignments are the business of religion, we see where these assignments are taking us. The teacher community that claims they did all the assignments but which never really did is like a cult. It is looking for like minded individuals to kick them out before they join ranks and become members. That way there is no real competition. Trying to complete one assignment after another is self – defeating. It does not really amount to anything, because nobody wants them in the first place. Teachers do not want to grade them, students do not want to do them, and they seem to be there just for decorative purposes, not for helping anyone have or even keep a job. Teachers who fail to see this, should not teach in schools. School is about learning, it should not be a prison. If enough people see that, organized crime will decrease. Assignments are seen as a corporate thing. Thousands of students do them, millions fail, and billions are told they are failing themselves. So if we are all going to stop failing ourselves, and start to really take these courses seriously, we should focus on practicing our muscles, and take these stupid, meaningless assignment out of school. That means banning teachers from mentioning this biased term during the curriculum. That means rewarding teachers who do not feature assignments as part of their course.
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Be honest. Don’t be cocky or blow your teacher off. Go to him before the class begins and tell him you simply couldn’t get it done. Tell him you had too much work, you had to study for a huge exam, you were exhausted or feeling unwell, or you didn’t understand the assignment. Show that you don’t feel good about not doing your homework. He may give you an extension or tell you not to worry about it this time.
I was about to disagree until I read the last section. Although some teachers assign busy work, the purpose of homework is to ensure that you understand the subject that was taught in class. Most teachers only have 50 – 80 minutes to teach a subject that can be very complex. But I also agree with turning work in late. If you don’t understand the material, there was ultimately no benefit to the homework. Even if you get a few points taken off, you should take the time to truly do the work rather than get that .2 point
I hate it when professors are giving too many assignments in a span of one week. It would be okay if those are stimulating enough to keep me interested, but unfortunately it’s not. That is why I often found myself skipping some of it. I am actually doing what was stated on this article. If I know that assignments are of small quantity, I do them, because I know that each of them is equivalent to a high percentage of my total grade, but if they become too many, I just do the ones I think is important enough to be considered ‘a must’ to do.
For some reason, I find it hilarious that the homework from teachers that seem obsessed over constantly giving it is not that important. Makes sense that one big assignment is worth more than one out of 20.
I think that it’s absolutely necessary to do homework if it prepares for a big test coming up, but otherwise it might be okay to skip it, or come back to it when studying.