Sorry, but homework really does matter.

Annoying, yes. Boring, usually. Important for your academic success? Very much so.

See below for some important reasons why you probably should be doing your homework.

1. Grades

[wpex Read more]

• There is no single other larger measurement of your high school experience than your GPA. It opens or closes doors and will never change once you have graduated (or not).
• There are many more important things in high school than grades, but, in general, nothing has as much impact upon your future.
• Doing homework on time leads to better grades. [/wpex]

2. Having done your homework makes the next class time more meaningful, more understandable and less boring

[wpex Read more]

• If you don’t do your homework, you will most often not know what the teacher is doing in class the next day.
  • Teachers teach to the students who do their homework.
  • The rest of the students get left behind and lost.
• When your teacher assigns homework it is for two purposes:
  1. To reinforce something taught in class through “independent practice” by the students
  2. To expose students to something that will be discussed and reinforced in class.
• Doing your homework helps you to identify what you do and do not know.
  • Doing your homework helps you to identify your needs.
  • Always ask questions about the homework in class. This serves two important purposes:
    1. It shows your teacher you did your work (grades up).
    2. It helps you to clarify your understanding and ability to do the work you need for a high grade.
• If you do your homework late or at the end of the quarter, you won’t be learning, you won’t much improve your test grades, and you will have missed the feedback-cycle of:

[/wpex]

3. Doing homework leads to more overall learning

[wpex Read more]

• Homework is practice. You don’t get good at something without practice.
  • Even if it seems easy and irrelevant, it is still practice and practice has enormous benefits:
    1. It creates a habit of just doing your work and helps to break procrastination cycles
    2. It can only help you, just like how one more time in sports increases performance, your brain, memory, and willpower benefit from repetition.
• Doing homework (on time) leads to more learning which leads to better grades.
• In general, learning is probably one of the least impactful pieces of the high school experience on your life. I can’t remember much of anything that I learned in high school.
• However, you will learn a few things in high school that will have a huge impact on your life, that are life-changing.
• Doing your homework gives you exposure to learning and enables you to have success in a subject that you may not have known at age 15 was important to you at age 25.[/wpex]

4. Homework tells you what your teacher wants you to learn and / or do, especially on tests

[wpex Read more]

• Teachers give homework for some good and some bad reasons. Too bad you’re not the teacher, so you can’t decide.
• So, instead of judging your homework, listen to your teacher through the homework and the expectations it sets from your teacher.
• Teachers use test questions for homework and homework for test questions. They do it because 1) it’s fair to students, allowing them to practice what will be on the test; and 2) teachers are lazy.[/wpex]

5. Doing your homework helps you getting through bad classes and teachers

[wpex Read more]

• Many students blame teachers for their grades. Let’s agree that there are bad teachers and boring, worthless classes and homework. A couple things:
  1. You don’t pay your teacher’s salary. Your teacher gets paid whether you do your homework or not.
  2. Doing your homework punishes your teacher, because the easiest thing to grade for a teacher is nothing. Get revenge on your teacher and do your homework
• The less you do your homework, the worse the class will become. And your grades.
• Homework helps make class more meaningful, and thus more relevance.
• Homework is part of a circular process of classroom success. If you break that cycle by not doing your homework, you lose, because you get a bad grade.
• Say this five times really fast:
  • “The more work I do the more I learn, the more I learn the more work I can do and I get better grades.”[/wpex]

 

Overall,

• Doing your homework = better grades
• Doing your homework = class is more relevant
• Doing your homework = you learn
• Doing your homework = breaking procrastination cycles

If you want to improve your grades, try on some homework! Just get started and it won’t be so bad.

Look, I know it sucks to have to do stupid things you don’t want to do. I get it. But look at your grades. If they’re not where they could be, then let’s talk about doing some more homework.

Let me know if I can help.

– Michael