20081117

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Only a few students fully prepare for their classes each day and completely commit to taking advantage of homework to learn all they can from it. Only a few.

Countless students all over the nation prepare enough just to get by, and I am a living example of this fallacy. My history teacher randomly assigns days to give quizzes, and just today, I walked into the class knowing that there was a rather large possibility of a quiz. I borrowed a book from a neighbor, and I read the chapter summary with haste. I then scanned the chapter to look for bold words. I figured I had the quiz in the bag, should he assign it. This is a regular routine for me, and I usually pass the quiz with flying colors. My book smells horrendous (all of the history books do, fresh out of the plastic), and it hurts to read and study because of the stench, and procrastination and laziness also plays a huge role.

He passed out the quiz, and I looked at the questions and drew a blank. The teacher kept droning, "I'm just looking for evidence that you have read." And I couldn't fill in the blanks. I probably received a 30 for the quiz, and the week before, I received a 50.

I make pristine grades in that class, and the bad grades are enough to make me start to read every single night to be prepared for such quizzes, but to some students, bad grades aren't enough. Students don't prepare because there are no consequences to motivate them, but then some of them don't prepare because they seem to do fine in the class and many times, that is true.

I believe it is subjective to the person, but knowledge is a wonderful thing to obtain. And homework is especially important for your major. You need to retain this knowledge for potential careers. I think that professors should consider the well-being of the student and offer strict consequences for not helping themselves.

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