by Victoria Montgomery

Created on: January 16, 2009

The "homework blues" is almost every student's favorite song. Most students would rather be anywhere else. The local mall sounds good or even your brother's basketball game. Children will do almost anything to avoid doing math or science or even vocabulary homework.

It's not any better in college either. You can't avoid homework. You can procratinate, but you can't hidefrom it. It's waiting like the proverbial monster in the closet. It'll get you in the end. It's those annoying little things at the end of the semester called grades that seem to be so imprtant that make homework so stressful. Someone somewhere thinks you need to be proficient in whatever subject you are studying.

Take algebra for instance. All those rational and irrational numbers just get all jumbled up on the page and then there is that scientific notation stuff. Or radical equations. Yuck. And don't even get me started with those algebra word problems. How do you figure those out, anyway? I'd rather be pulling weeds.

So what do you do to keep from going crazy or at least get decent grades. It takes self-discipline, I know. But getting distracted is too easy to do. There's always something more interesting to look at or listen to or do. Sometimes it seems like it takes forever to solve a simple problem. They say that homework isn't that bad but I have yet to meet anyone who just loves it.

For me the best thing for homework is to find a quiet area with few distractions. If the television is going, I can't do homework. I even have to turn off the radio. I need quiet or I'm distracted too easily. This is unlike my husband, who used to listen to the radio or watch tv while doing homework, I wish I was so lucky.

I read up about study habits since mine were so rusty. (I hadn't been to school in 20 years.)Basically I leared that you need a quiet space with limited distractions. Um, yeah. I figured that one out already. The other tips were things like use a desk and not the bed, review yesterdays material before starting new homework, take frequent breaks (not every five minutes), and chew gum. Yeah, I said chew gum. Apparently it can help you keep a steady pace when studying. Who knew?

So with these tips in mind, I'm hoping this semester won't be such a chore when it comes to homework. I don't love homework, but as it's necessary for me to pass my algebra class I guess it stands to reason that I will make the effort. I hear persistence and patience help too. I'm going to work on those.

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