Title: 
Optional Homework is Not Really Optional

Word Count:
640

Summary:
Many professors now find it the trend to assign optional homework for the students.  Read this that how it may hurt your academic career.


Keywords:
student, college, loan, loans, consolidation


Article Body:
Exams, midterms, or finals; call them whatever you want. They are all part of the hurdle in the education system that must be overcome if you wish to get your degree in whatever field you are studying under.  Many students either work diligently to prepare for the fateful day or they don't even bother at all because without a doubt they realize somewhere inside their conscience that no matter what attempt they might desperately engage in, the inevitable will still arrive right on time.

Failing an important exam is no laughing matter.  Many professors have the exams a huge part of the grade and failing it will lower your capability of reaching a higher grade.  So if your professor has the final exam worth thirty percent of your total grade and you end up failing it with a fifty percent the maximum grade now that you are able to receive is eighty five percent that is if you presume you got one hundred percent on all the previous assignments.

However studying for an exam may be a bit more challenging for the procrastination types.  As more and more professors are making it optional to do the homework that has been assigned, even though the students have been warned by the professor that it will be extremely difficult to pass the class without doing the homework, more and more students see this as an opportunity to get out and play.  Because they are out partying or whatever activity they my be engaging in rather than spending that time to do the so-called optional homework that has been assigned students who follow this poor choice of lifestyle should not find it surprising if their brain comes to a complete blank on the day of the exam.

Some professors also might drop the lowest score or give out a make-up exam to boost the poor performance of the class.  Other professors who give out insanely difficult exams where they expect the highest grade to be a fifty to sixty percent and have students who can't seem to understand the position they are in as a college student may use grading curves to balance the insane difficulty of the class.  So that fifty in your exam is in actuality a ninety percent however that two percent is still a failing grade and won't do you much good if you still choose that path.

So rather than using that disguised free time that the professors may have given you by announcing that the homework assigned is not mandatory, try not to fall for their deceiving schemes of trying to fail the entire class.  Though it may be a bit paranoid, it wouldn't be surprising if a professor out there was trying to actually completely fail an entire class otherwise a professor would never have to be under probation by the dean of that school in the risk of losing their jobs.  So if a homework assignment has been labeled as optional it would be wise of you if you still considered it as a mandatory assignment so that you can know where you stand in the class.

Many students who end up not doing the homework, mandatory or not, do not know where they stand in the class so they don't really know for sure if they understand the materials in the lectures.  Since they don't know where they stand in the material that has been taught they have no questions for the professors where then the professors then assume that everyone able to follow the lecture given when the truth of the matter is entirely the opposite.  Doing the homework can help you find out what you understand and don't understand so you know what questions you may need to ask to help you understand which ultimately helps you prepare for the upcoming exam.