There is no thrill in waiting till the last minute to finish your homework. However, many college students still do it, not always for the thrill, but because of going on in their lives.
So with just a few hours remaining before the submission is due, what can you, a college student, do to complete your homework? You could copy it from a friend, but that is cheating. Not only is plagiarism unethical, but it can also get you in trouble.
In such circumstances, try doing these things.
Seek Help from Homework Assistance Platforms
Say you have less than four or five hours to turn in your homework. You cannot risk taking a chance and not getting the answer you are looking for. In such cases, your best bet is to seek help from a homework assistance and tutoring platform like SweetStudy (formerly HomeworkMarket).
The are provided by expert tutors. All the subjects and courses they offer solutions for have their own expert teachers. That ensures the high quality of the answers and solutions. With their guidance, you can complete your homework in just a couple of hours or less.
Google the Answers
When looking for the homework answers on Google, you need some serious luck. You will end up getting what you are looking for on the very first page if you are lucky. Otherwise, you can reach the end of the search results and still fail to find an appropriate answer.
Keep at least seven to eight hours at hand if you take this approach. The first one or two hours is spent Googling. The rest for finding an alternate way to get the right answers.
One major concern that comes with Googling your homework answers is that it can harm your final grades. A study by a Rutgers-New Brunswick psychology professor suggests that using Google will help you finish your homework. However, it will lead to long-term harm which includes a drop in your final grades. The study came to this conclusion by stating how more college students are getting fewer marks in their exams than their homework. This number increased from 14% in 2008 to 55% in 2017.
Revisit Your Class Notes and Lecture Slides
In case you can afford to spend five or six hours behind the homework, go through the and lecture slides. Having five or six hours to do your homework might seem enough at first, but it is not. It leaves you with just enough time to barely finish the work if you have no clue where to start. So in that time, you will not only have to figure out the questions but also answer them.
One of the advantages of looking through digital slides is that you can search for keywords. Using the search tool on Microsoft PowerPoint or whatever presentation software you are using, simply look up the keywords in your questions. Doing so will highlight all the parts in the presentation that contain those words or phrases. That will make sure you do not have to go through all the slides in the presentation.
Skim Through the Textbook
You will not always find the answer in your slides or class notes. So with 6 hours or more to spare, go ahead and skim through the book.
Skimming is the best way to read through any book. Not only will it save you time, but it can also be effective if you are doing it right.
Here is how you can effectively skim through the book.
- Make sure you know what you are looking for. That includes the keywords and key phrases from the question. Ideally, you should be knowing which topic or part of the chapter or book the question is from.
- Read the text both vertically and horizontally. That will help make the search process easier for you.
- Give the whole chapter a quick read before you skim (if you have the time). It is not mandatory though, especially when you are in a hurry.
- Always go through the first sentence of every paragraph properly. Doing so will give you a brief idea about what the paragraph’s topic might be about.
Get Your Friend to Help You
Approach your friend for help if you have 10 to 12 hours at hand before the deadline. You will have to spend at least two to three hours with them. In that time, your sole responsibility is to better understand the topic or questions.
Do not copy from your friend. As we mentioned at the start, that is never a good idea and can get you into a lot of trouble. However, you can always seek their help regarding it. There is no restriction in doing that.
A study (funded by the National Science Foundation) on college students at a university in Washington shows that working with your friends improves overall academic performance. Be it group projects or helping each other out with their homework. The more comfortable students are with one another, the better they can perform.
Your friend should not show you their work directly. They can guide you through the questions, and tell you how you can answer them. You can also ask them how they figured out the answer or what resources they used to do so.
So the next time you have a submission due in less than 12 hours, you know what to do.