When it comes to sitting down and looking at the list of homework for the night, what goes through a student’s mind on which one they should complete first? Which test should they study for?

When you have classes in math, science, english, and history, there are plenty of options to choose from, and it can seem like a random decision. But it should not be as simple as that.

There are many different factors into which assignments get done first for students. One of the most prominent being the difficulty of the homework. This includes how long the student thinks the work will take, whether the content of the work is confusing or not, or how well the student has done on previous assignments. 

A common thought process is to get the harder work done first, and then finish with the lighter stuff.  It appears that homework is no different. 

NPHS junior Charlie Rooney said: “I prioritize stuff like math, science, and history because those are harder to maintain a good grade, compared to other classes that I can relax in while still scoring high on assignments.”

But Rooney is not the only student who puts their harder classes forward.

Junior David Gaeta said: “Most of the time I prioritize my primary classes such as math, science, history, and language arts over electives and languages. I also focus more on honors classes since they are often more difficult.”

Prioritizing Honors and AP classes ahead of regular classes is an interesting strategy. It follows with the idea that getting the harder classes and working over with first is efficient, but can also positively affect one’s GPA. 

When taking into consideration weighted GPA, getting better grades in your Honors classes will help significantly more than doing so in regular classes. This will obviously look better for colleges in the future. 

Every student may have their own way of ranking which homework assignment they get done first. But it is good to take into consideration other methods that could potentially be more effective and efficient.