Why school homework is never enough

[zZneo]

Most of us know that completing School homework is never enough to help a student excel in an exam. Of course, there are some students who can score well without any non-school work. But they are the exceptions.


To understand why schoolwork is insufficient, it is good to look at why would a student get an exam question wrong.

There are 2 questions that you can ask:
1. How difficult is this question?
2. How familiar is this question?

For question 1, it is basically asking how many concepts and/or cognitive skills are required to solve an exam question. The more concepts or skills needed, the less likely a student will get it correct.

Question 2 is asking how many times has the student been exposed to this question before? The more times, the higher chance to get it correct.

Most teachers will not set an exam paper which everyone can get high marks for. They will set some difficult questions and some unfamiliar questions. And unfamiliar questions will not come from worksheets the teacher or the school has given out.

That’s why school homework is never enough and what this means to parents/tutors/students is that at least SOME practice of questions from non-school sources are needed.

[janet88]

During our time, after getting homework done, our ‘job’ is done.

Won’t fail exams, but not necessary excel.

Now, getting school homework done is NOT going to pass exams.
I see the homework given, basically worksheets or activity book.
For comprehension OE, I doubt students are taught how to answer questions. Questions given for Science for eg, are so ‘tip of iceberg’. Maths require practice. It’s just 1 question for 1 type of method. Sorry to rant.