How much homework should I do each night?...

You’ll be discovering with your high school, that this is a popular question!
I guess there is no definitive answer for this question as every school is different and certainly each year level has different homework expectations. So the following are merely GUIDELINES — NOT THE FINAL WORD! (I can just see some of you now quoting this book as a reason you didn’t complete that assignment that you’ve had ALL term to work on!)

In your first year of high school, you are certainly not expected to go like a bull at a gate and spend five hours at your desk each night, completing pages and pages of homework. I always say a useful guideline for first year of high school is between 30–45 minutes per night. This is not to be confused with a statement like, ‘I haven’t done any homework for the past three weeks and now have about 120 hours worth of homework and I’m only in first year’.

For higher year levels, the homework expectations usually increase each year.
For second year, you might be completing up to an hour and it may increase for the next few years. Usually, in your senior school years, particularly your final year, you’ll be expected to complete a couple of hours each night. This is because you need to complete many more assignments and work requirements and there is much more study that needs to be completed for final exams.

Top homework tips... Set aside a specific, designated area that you will be able to complete homework at each night Ensure you have the right tools you’ll need Establish a routine: Try and stick to the same time each night — routine soon becomes habit! Keep it simple! Try and complete simple and reasonable small homework tasks on the day they are set for each subject. That way, they won’t build up and you are less likely to forget to complete them. Homework folder. Use a homework folder to carry work to and from school. That way, you won’t have to lug home ten folders and 50 text books. (There’s more detail about this in the next chapter.) Don’t procrastinate! Putting off work that needs to be done is the ultimate time waster — it just stresses you out anyway, so just sit down and get it done!!

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