Homework, Sigh

So if you check this blog regularly, which is very nice of you so thanks, you may have realised a massive gap between my last post and this one. That’s quite easily explainable; Homework Overload. Yes, it’s very much the same as last term, about six million assignments due every single day, maths test every week (such as next Friday) and whole tree’s worth of sheets and notes. I bet our school is a danger to the environment, but more importantly, I’ve decided to dedicate this post to:

HOMEWORK TIPS:

1. So to start, you need to identify what category your homework tasks fall into. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take a genius. There are only two categories: Long term, and short term.
Long term work includes: Projects, work taking over 1 week or 10hrs, all assignments, making posters, presentation preparation, research, and studying for tests,
Short term work includes: Worksheets, work with generally only 1 element, maths sums, short written works, essays, anything else that can be done or is due within a night or two.
Now that you know that, we can move on. Short-term work generally comes first for me, and is done in order of being due, then importance. Short-term homework shouldn’t take too long, but don’t skim over it either. Nicely done small tasks will make you appear ‘good’. On the other hand, long-term tasks need to be completely bit by bit, usually after short-term. Do something every day until you finish. It’s helpful to set an ‘at least time’, so you have a minimum amount of time allocated to the task. No maximum is really required, because if you get carried away you’ll end up finishing it faster.

2. Everyone needs priorities, so this is my order of importance: Food, water and oxygen (most important, obviously), compulsory or best ever activities (such as school or horse-riding), homework, optional activities, sleep. Okay, this probably won’t be the same as yours, and you might be thinking, sleep? I thought that was important. YES, sleeping is important, but when you have major geography tasks due the next day, you just can’t help but do it until one in the morning when you begin to think that you’ll either pass out or sleep over your computer (Not doing that again).
Anyway, my point is, list your priorities, rethink them, then think them again, and then do things accordingly. For example, sleep is probably a tad higher on my list.

3. Exceptions to the ‘always do homework’ rule is when the work is:

Useless repetition: Maths is a great example, over 100 questions each time of exactly the same thing over and over again can be tedious and pointless. It can be great practice, but if you know the work well, just do as much as you can. I usually use the abcdhlquyz method. It basically means do a few question, skip a few, and do some more.

Way too hard: In this case, try to do what you can, but ask a friend, sibling, parent, or nice teacher to help you. If you’re going to try using the teacher who set you the work, it would probably be good to email them or something beforehand, so if they say “why didn’t you tell me this earlier”, you can say, “I did”. Haha, or maybe not…

Set by a teacher who neither checks it nor cares: Probably not possible in most classes, but anyway, you should do the work though perhaps a bit lower on the priorities list.

So I’m not so good with homework, I just do it as soon as I get it and then hand it in. Seriously though, get it over with, and whatever you do afterward is heaps more fun. If you have anything to add, any 'sick' (haha, you know what I mean) tips, please comment!

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