I think the worst part of being a college junior is the hours of homework. The classes are more advanced; the instructors cover the material much more quickly. On top of that, this is the year where most of us begin working part time jobs, serving internships, and having social lives that are more active. I know that when I was a junior in college it was very common for me to come in after midnight because I had just worked a double shift. I would want to go to sleep because I was just exhausted, but I could not do that. Why? Because I always had an hour or more of homework to do. Nothing is more miserable than staying up all night trying to finish a huge pile of schoolwork all the while knowing that you will not be getting any sleep. Haven't we all done that? Haven't we all looked at the clock and realized that even if we finished right then and fell asleep immediately, we'd only get three hours of sleep? Of course it all becomes a vicious circle. I stayed up all night doing my homework, and then I was too tired to focus in class. And after being too tired to focus in class, I would have to stay up all night again doing homework. In order to break this vicious pattern, I set a few rules for myself. It is not a perfect system, but it helped me to get homework finished faster, and to make sure I got the important stuff finished first. Thee “rules” may help you too.

Find a Studious Friend

The first step that I took was to look at my circle of friends to see if anybody could help me out with my homework struggles. I found a couple of people who fit the bill. One was a guy I hung out with on the weekends, and I also took a Biology class with him. I knew he was a straight “A” student, and I knew he was a whiz at taking notes. We had studied together a couple of times, and I had seen his notes. Somehow he always knew exactly what to copy down. I knew that one of my big slowdowns with homework was that I had to slog through my disorganized notes. So, I approached him and offered to let him use my Netflix password if I could Xerox his notes every week. That shaved down a little bit of time. The other was a girl from my 3-D design class. She had a lot of trouble with the in class work, especially when we made clay models. I offered to help her with that, if she would help me with the written parts of my project. Thus, rather than having to polish up a finished report, I just sent her the rough outline, and she sent it back to me completely finished. So, that was two classes where I no longer had as much homework every night. Can't find a friend on campus? I know there are companies online that will help with notes and will do your essays and reports for you.

Make a Sacrifice

One thing I definitely learned as a junior in college is that I cannot work miracles. Some days there simply is not enough time. This is when I would prioritize my homework. I would begin working on the tasks that I absolutely had to complete and put off those that could wait, or that I could afford to lose points on, if those assignments were turned in late. Obviously it is not an ideal situation, and it is not one that I would recommend that anyone use on a regular basis. However, in a pinch it has its place.

Titles, Bullet Points, and Chapter Questions

I learned that if I was pressed for time, reading entire chapters just took too much time. What I would do is read the chapter headings, look at any bullet points, study graphs and pictures, read captions, and then I would start at the back of the chapters with the questions. I would read the questions and then look up the answers. If anybody wants to try this at home, don't waste time looking for answers in the book. That takes way too much time. Look the questions up on Google. That's what I did. Half of the time I ended up finding answers that had been posted directly from the text book that I was using. Also, I would like to make a point about the beauty of used textbooks. There is nothing better than opening a textbook and finding notes in the margins and answers to questions written in the book itself. This technique worked so well for me, in fact, that I began using it all of the time. It helped me to retain information, and it helped me to perform better on tests.

College is all about balance, prioritizing, and making smart choices. When it comes to homework, getting smart about these three things will get you through!