Growing up, students are used to having homework most nights out of the week. As they get older, the workload seems to pile up, and sometimes it can seem unbearable. Many would say that homework is either not needed, or a waste of time, but this isn’t always true. There are many positive effects of homework along with the negative.

Although we may feel that homework isn’t helping us understand certain material, it is shown in class, on tests and quizzes, that the students who review material and do their homework are more likely to do better than the students that don’t do any school work outside of school hours. Harris Cooper, a professor at Duke University said, “Across five studies, the average student who did homework had a higher unit test score than the students not doing homework.” This proves that every little thing from reading over material or study guides will increase your test rates.

Despite the fact that homework increases scores, there are definitely some negative impacts of homework for many students. Many people, no matter the grade, say that homework causes them some amount of stress or anxiety. This is because “too much homework can result in lack of sleep, headaches, exhaustion, and weight loss. Excessive homework can also result in poor eating habits, with families choosing fast food as a faster alternative,” according to Oxford Learning. These effects can be more or less extreme depending on the student.

Mental health is becoming something that people are taking a lot more seriously nowadays. Healthline said that a study at Sanford proved that unreasonable amounts of homework in teens was being linked to physical disruptions like lowers immune system defenses and self-harm statistics but also mental troubles like depression and apprehensiveness/nervousness. Some examples of things that teens do to help with this are talking through their stresses, having breathing techniques, or having certain foods or beverages to help relieve stress. For example, drinking hot tea or eating some mints are shown to take some of the stress off your shoulders.

Every year, high schoolers seem to have a semester or quarter that looks to be more extreme than the others. Here are some tips to help homework become a little less of a burden. 

• Having a tutor to help you with subjects that don’t come as easy to you.
• Set up a time every day where you have a good amount of time to do work on any assignments that may be due soon.
• Limit after school activities that aren’t your top priority that takes away an excessive amount of time for studying.
• Don’t procrastinate! The more you push it off, the longer you wait to do it, which can make homework more stressful by the time you get around to doing it.
• Your environment is crucial to your attention span. If possible, locate yourself in a place with minimal distractions. Natural light can also help with focusing.

Homework is something that kids and teens all across the world have to do. It’s something that probably won’t change for a very long time, but learning how to control the stress that comes with it can help many people in their day to day lives.