How much homework is too much?

[Mirc]

I haven't done any homework at anything except French and Biology in the past 3 years or so.

Yeah, our school system is a joke. Way too many hours at school and all is just a waste of time.

Has he stayed up until 10 p.m. working on assignments?

10 PM? With our system, I often get home at 10 PM from school... sometimes at the end of the year when I have to learn at home (I don't consider that homework, as I don't have to write anything or solve problems) I stay until 3 AM to learn.

 

[silver 2039]

In the beginning of the year I have 2-4 hours of homework a night.

I have 6-8 hours of homework a night toward the middle and end of the year. At that point I might do 40 hours of hw a week normally staying up until 12 am-1 am.

School started 2 days ago and my homework today for instance is:

An essay on William Blake's The Tyger due Fri
World Literature Assignment Final due Sept 4 (20% final grade)
Math Presentation of Chapter 3 Tuesday (15 mins)
Read Bio Textbook P.1-4 take notes
Read TOK textbook P. 94-124
Economics Commentary First Draft due sometime next week Mon I think

But then again...I did make the choice to do the IB....I just wish I knew what was involved when I decided to do it.

 

[MrCynical]

Its been a few years since I left school, but I never really saw the point of homework there. More than 90% of it was plain busywork - the pupil didn't want to do it, the teacher didn't want to mark it, and no one learnt anything from it excep there was a strange insistence that it had to be done because it always had been (as this was an acceptable argument in isolation).

In terms of glaringly obvious time wasting "making notes" on a section of a textbook that the pupil has a copy of - in other words paraphrase a couple of pages - was fairly high on the list. The kind of work expected bore no resemblence to the collecting of salient points that is the only real purpose fo taking notes in this fashion.

Similarly in the sciences, there was no point in me doing thirty identical problems, all of which use the same formula, so that the only "challenge" was hitting the right numbers on the calculator.

Homework as it stands, at least in this country (UK), has lost any purpose it had. The only excuse presented is that it has always been there - so what? Even the more honest teachers admit its a waste of time for all concerned.

 

[Truronian]

I never did homework at home, I was good enough to either get away with not doing it or to do it in the free time I had at school. I finfished school with flying colours... although its got me into a bad habit of doing much less than everyone else at uni. I managed in the fisrt year but this coming one is going to tough unless I get my act together.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I'm not against homework, but one shouldn't have to spend 8 freakin' hours trying to do it all. Moreover I'm referring to college homework (programming in particular). I guess some programs just really don't want to work, even though I've spent many hours working on the logic and design beforehand.

Well, at least that's what happened when I took classes in another language. I'm hoping that may change, even a slight bit, now that I'm taking VB 2005. Which is soon going to be outdated, and I'll have to learn VB 2008. Gotta love technology :suicide:

A joke (best way to describe it) running in the IT Section of our college is this: If you're making a career in the IT field, you'll be institutionalized by the time your 40.

--------------------------------------------

On homework in general:
I believe that the more homework a teacher assigns, the lazier they are. If they assign problems 2-50 all, they can just sit back on their youknowwhats and make it look like they're doing something important at their desks. I grant you practicing what you have learned is very important in making sure that info sticks, but excessive homework=teacher laziness.

 

[Integral]

Moreover I'm referring to college homework (programming in particular). I guess some programs just really don't want to work, even though I've spent many hours working on the logic and design beforehand.

I took a programming class in C++ over the summer...long hours cursing at the compiler. "84 errors? What the heck? Oh, I mixed up the extraction and insertion operators on line 37...ok, fix'd....wait, now it's 197 errors? Gah!"

Yep, no more programming for me.

Homework:

Busywork needs to be bombed. Problem sets are usually not a problem, because the only way you learn math, physics, or chemistry is to actually do the problems! But excessive homework is useless.

I think that about an hour each day is sufficient for high school math and science. English and history should be confined to papers and readings. The languages, of course, require constant effort (at least for me).

Ideally, there would be no more than, say, 3 hours of homework per weekday night in HS.

Integral

 

[downtown]

I find it baffling how much homework you guys say you have. Clearly, its because you don't know how to manage time very well. There is simply no way that a higher school has a legit 8 hours of homework a night.

Thats one thing that I learned in High School, that REALLY served me well in college...the ability to manage my time. I took a pretty demanding high school curriculum (advanced classes, APs), worked, had extraciriculars, a fall sport, and a girlfriend. If I didn't learn to juggle those things, at least two of them would fall crashing to the ground.

When you have a paper, unplug the computer from the internet, and write the paper. When you have to read, read! When you write/browse CFC/do other . .. .. .. ., you really do take forever doing homework.

I learned this, and I've never had to come anywhere close to pulling an all nighter. I've had to stay up past midnight ONCE, my freshman year in college.

 

[carmen510]

Well, my homework in elementary school took only about 15 minutes. (Whereas, it took up to one hour for my classmates)

Projects usually took 1 hour for me (And who knows for my classmates)

What's even more hilarious, is that I don't even try, yet I still get good marks.

 

[mrt144]

2 hours out of class for every hour in class.

 

[Integral]

When you have a paper, unplug the computer from the internet, and write the paper. When you have to read, read! When you write/browse CFC/do other . .. .. .. ., you really do take forever doing homework.

Very true. I found that browsing CFC while writing a paper reduced efficiency from 2 pages/hour to 0.5 pages/hour. I had to force myself to disconnect Internet access just to be able to write.

2 hours out of class for every hour in class.

In college. Less for HS.

Integral

 

[mrt144]

i dont ankowledge people in high school.

 

[Mirc]

On homework in general:
I believe that the more homework a teacher assigns, the lazier they are. If they assign problems 2-50 all, they can just sit back on their youknowwhats and make it look like they're doing something important at their desks. I grant you practicing what you have learned is very important in making sure that info sticks, but excessive homework=teacher laziness.

Agreed. That's exactly the conclusion I've come to.

 

[CaptainF]

I find it baffling how much homework you guys say you have. Clearly, its because you don't know how to manage time very well. There is simply no way that a higher school has a legit 8 hours of homework a night.

Thats one thing that I learned in High School, that REALLY served me well in college...the ability to manage my time. I took a pretty demanding high school curriculum (advanced classes, APs), worked, had extraciriculars, a fall sport, and a girlfriend. If I didn't learn to juggle those things, at least two of them would fall crashing to the ground.

When you have a paper, unplug the computer from the internet, and write the paper. When you have to read, read! When you write/browse CFC/do other . .. .. .. ., you really do take forever doing homework.

I learned this, and I've never had to come anywhere close to pulling an all nighter. I've had to stay up past midnight ONCE, my freshman year in college.

I agree with this, even though when I actually do have homework I struggle with it...a little.

 

[Shadylookin]

I got the most amount of homework during middle school. A legit 2-4 hours worth each day. high school was pretty light on the homework after my freshman year. it all paid off though because my senior year was spent napping and I was honestly able to not to any work once the bell to leave rang.

However I think schools shouldn't assign homework other than brief reading. The average student is in school 7-8 hours a day and many are involved in after school extra-circulars. if a teacher can't make due with the alloted class time then it's probably the fault of the teacher and shouldn't be the responsibility of the student to bear the burden.

of course college is an entirely different matter since it's your choice to go, and it's pretty unheard of to actually spend 35-40 hours in lecture per week.

 

[civverguy]

Kids these days do too much homework and not enough housework.

I agree with that.
I do have a lot of homework but I try to finish homework as fast as possible in as least time as possible. I don't really try hard on my homework but I still manage to do pretty well. (3.9 GPA average for last year) Sometimes I might even do homework for one period during other periods when the teacher isn't noticing so I'll finished some work before I get home.

 

[Perfection]

High high school GPAs are for tools.

 

[JZ_UK]

...I'll show you how much home work is too much homework when I crack half way through the Legal Practice Course and explode taking 2/3rds to the whole class with me...

Honestly, I've no idea how much home work is enough at any level of education... I do know that I really should have done more throughout every level of education thus far... oh well, theres always tomorrow lol

 

[Ansar]

Luckily, I manage to do my homework - or some of it - in Study Hall.

What a nice elective.

 

[The Yankee]

Sometimes I got a ton of work in elementary school. Once when I was quite ill and missed nearly two entire months, I was dumped with all the homework from that time and was told it was due in a week. Took me all night every night....God that was hellish. Hundreds of the same stupid math problems (what's the point of having an addition assignment of 50 questions for one night?) amongst other things. And I was only eight years old!

 

[azzaman333]

Any decent teacher will be able to teach the subject matter without having to set any more than 15 minutes of homework to be done by next lesson.

Also, just because the teachers can't teach efficiently doesn't mean that required assesment tasks should be required to be done for homework.