What’s more important – to do your homework or to sleep? Probably every person said or thought “I hate homework” at least once. Even if you are a diligent student and strive to get all knowledge offered, doing almost every task and successfully completing all tests. This feeling of despair is inevitable and hardly avoidable at times of assignment overloads and especially during the finals week. The next question naturally arises – is all this homework business necessary, is it as important as teachers are trying to present? Practicing in class often seems quite enough, and the fact that most tasks are routine and thus boring adds fuel to the fire. Do we need homework?

What’s the use of homework

The ultimate goal of homework and all this school and college hustle is to learn something, to get knowledge and skills. And a very broad bunch of those, involving not only academic information but also social skills, communication, etc. Homework implies reviewing the information you’ve obtained in class, helps to digest new facts and improve understanding. Also studying on your own develops thinking and ability to make conclusions and decisions.

To be good at something you need to practice a lot, training is more important than talents or whatever. As it goes with playing musical instruments or sports, the same thing is with math, writing essays, etc. By the way, if you need motivation for doing tasks, check our post devoted to motivation.

Not all homework is useful

We all know perfectly that doing something you don’t want to do is either extremely boring, or hard to bear, tiresome and what not. If homework only brings some information and other people’s opinions and doesn’t require your own thoughts and conclusions (that is, all the answers are found in textbook, you get only multiple choice questions, etc.), there’s little use of it. Some experts say most homework is pointless (click here to view the full article). If you don’t apply obtained information in your daily life (ok, somewhere outside school at least) it’ll slip out of your mind very quickly without a notice. Moreover, doing too much homework can lead to disastrous consequences, such as sleeping disorders, depression, etc.

However, old saying warns: no pain, no gain. Of course, it’d be great if homework and later work for a living is a never ending exciting game bringing fun and pleasure. Though, in reality this is a rare case, if possible at all. The crucial point is your attitude and, of course, proper choice of job according to your inclinations.

Homework is not equally important in different countries

Importance of homework is not the same in different countries around the world. The key point is that some educational systems are based on doing a lot of tasks at home, while others do just as well almost without it. Researches have not yet reached final conclusion, can we go without homework or not. Along with that, spending extra hours on homework is linked to higher scores on PISA math exam (more information). Each extra hour a week is said responsible for 18 points at test. Not bad, eh? This doesn’t mean you need to drop off everything, cancel night sleep and spend all your time learning. Such tactics will yield reverse results as desired. However, consider proper time management and prioritizing as a way to improve your learning habits and thus life. Not all homework is important and necessary, the main word here is “work”. Work with your head instead of just working hard.

Though, if things go extremely bad and homework gets to you, address us and we’ll immediately help you.