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We know that homework can be a real drag. It’s time-consuming, and can be difficult to complete all on your own. So, what can you do if you’re struggling?

You might try looking online or in the app store! If you’ve already looked around you probably know that there are tons of homework sites for students and homework apps out there that all say they can help you improve your grades and pass your classes. But, can you trust them? And what are the best apps for homework help?

Below, we answer these questions and more about homework help apps–free and paid . We’ll go over: 

• The basics of homework help apps
• The cost of homework help apps
• The five best apps for homework help
• The pros and cons of using apps that help you with homework 
• The line between “learning” and “cheating” when using apps that help you with homework
• Tips for getting the most out of homework sites for students 

So let’s jump in!

The Basics About Apps that Help You With Homework–Free and Paid

The bottom line is, homework sites and homework apps are intended to help you complete your take-home assignments successfully. They provide assistance that ranges from answering questions you submit through a portal all the way to one-on-one tutoring, depending on the help you need! 

The big plus for both homework help apps and websites is that they usually offer help on-demand. So if you can’t make it to after school tutoring, or if you're studying late into the night (it happens!), you can still access the help you need! 

If you’re specifically looking for an answer to the question: “what is the best homework help website ?,” you can check out our article on those here! [LINK COMING SOON]

What’s the Difference Between a Homework Help Website and an App?

So if they’re both designed to give you a little boost with your take-home assignments, what makes homework apps and websites different from one another? First off, homework help websites are optimized to be used on a desktop, while apps are designed to be run natively on mobile devices. So depending on which devices you have access to, you may decide to use a website instead of an app…or vice versa! 

The other big difference between homework help apps and websites is that they sometimes offer different features. For instance, with the Photomath app, you’ll be able to submit photos of math problems instead of having to type everything out, which is easier to do by using an app on your phone. 

If you’re trying to decide whether to go with a website or app, the good news is that you may not have to. Some homework help websites also have companion apps, so you can have the best of both worlds!

What Makes a Homework Help App Worth Using

Apps that help you with homework should ideally help you actually learn the material you’re struggling with, and/or help you turn in your work on time. Most of the best apps for homework help allow you to ask questions and provide answers and explanations almost immediately. And like we mentioned earlier, many of these apps let you send a picture of a question or problem instead of writing it all out.

But homework help apps offer more than just quick answers and explanations for your assignment questions. They also offer things like educational videos, lectures, tutorials, practice tests and quizzes, math solving tools, proofreading services, and even Q&A with experts.

And the best part is, most offer these services 24/7! 

What You Should Look Out For

When it comes to homework help, there are lots–and we mean lots –of apps willing to prey on desperate students. Before you download any apps (and especially before you pay to sign up for any services), read reviews of the app to ensure you’re working with a legitimate company. 

Keep in mind: the more a company advertises help that seems like cheating, the more likely it is to be a scam. Actual subject matter experts aren’t likely to work with those companies. Remember, the best apps for homework help are going to help you learn the concepts needed to successfully complete your homework on your own. 

If you’re not sure if an app is legitimate, you can also check to see if the app has an honor code about using their services ethically , like this one from Brainly. (We’ll go over the difference between “homework help” and “cheating” in more detail a little later!) 

How Expensive Are Apps That Help You With Homework?

A word to the wise: just because a homework help app costs money doesn’t mean it’s a good service. And, just because a homework help app is free doesn’t mean the help isn’t high quality. To find the best apps, you have to take a close look at the quality and types of information they provide! 

Most of the apps out there allow you to download them for free, and provide at least some free services–such as a couple of free questions and answers. Additional services or subscriptions are then charged as in-app purchases. When it comes to in-app purchases and subscriptions for homework help, the prices vary depending on the amount of services you want to subscribe to. Subscriptions can cost anywhere from $2 to around $60 dollars per month, with the most expensive app subscriptions including some tutoring (which is usually only available through homework help websites.)

The 5 Best Apps for Homework Help

Okay, now that you’re up to speed on what these apps are and how they can help you, we’ll run you through the best five apps you can use. 

Keep in mind that even though we recommend all of these apps, they tend to excel at different things. We’ve broken these apps into categories so that you can pick the best one for your needs! 

Best Free Homework Help App: Khan Academy

• Price: Free!
• Best for: Practicing tough material 

While there are lots of free homework help apps out there, this is our favorite because it actually supports learning, rather than just providing answers. The Khan Academy app works like the website, and offers the same services. It’s full of information and can be personalized to suit your educational needs. 

After you download the app, you choose which courses you need to study, and Khan Academy sets up a personal dashboard of instructional videos, practice exercises, and quizzes –with both correct and incorrect answer explanations–so you can learn at your own pace. 

As an added bonus, it covers more course topics than many other homework help apps, including several AP classes.

Best Paid Homework Help App: Brainly

• Price: $18 for a 6 month subscription, $24 for a year 
• Best for: 24/7 homework assistance 

Brainly is free to download and allows you to type in questions (or snap a pic) and get answers and explanations from both fellow students and teachers. Plus, subject matter experts and moderators verify answers daily, so you know you’re getting quality solutions! The downside is that you’re limited to two free answers per question and have to watch ads for more if you don’t pay for a subscription. 

That said, their subscription fees average around only $2 per month, making this a particularly affordable option if you’re looking for homework help on a budget. Brainly subscriptions not only cover unlimited answers and explanations on a wide variety of school subjects (including Art and World Languages which aren’t always included in other apps), they also provide tutoring in Math and Physics!

Best App for Math Homework Help: Photomath

• Price: Free (or up to $59.99 per year for premium services) 
• Best for: Explaining solutions to math problems

This app allows you to take a picture of a math problem, and instantly pulls up a step-by-step solution, as well as a detailed explanation of the concept. Photomath subscription services also include animated videos that break down mathematical concepts–all the way up to advanced Calculus!--to help you better understand and remember them. 

The basic textbook solution service is free, but for an additional fee you can get extra study tools, access to one-on-one tutoring, and additional strategies for solving common math problems.

Best App for STEM and English Homework Help: Studypool

• Price: Varies; you’ll pay for each question you submit
• Best for: Science and English homework help in one app

When it comes to apps for science and English homework help, there aren’t lots of great resources out there, much less out there all in one place. While Grammarly is a good service for proofreading, SparkNotes has some decent summaries, and Khan Academy covers science, the best of the bunch if you need help with both subjects Studypool. Instead of using lots of different apps for STEM and English help, they’re combined together here! But while Studypool has great reviews, there are some downsides as well. 

The Studypool Q&A model is a little different than other homework help apps. After you create a free account, you ask questions, and tutors submit bids to answer them. You’ll be able to select the tutor–and price point–that works for you, then you’ll pay to have your homework question answered. You can also pay a small fee to access thousands of notes, lectures, and other documents that top tutors have uploaded.  

The downside to Studypool is that the pricing is not transparent . There’s no way to plan for how much your homework help will cost, especially if you have lots of questions! It’s also not clear how they choose their tutors, so you’ll need to be careful when you decide who you’d like to answer your homework questions. That said, if you only need a few questions answered per month, this could be cheaper than other monthly subscription services.

Best Homework Scheduling App: MyStudyLife

• Best for: Keeping track of your schedule and deadlines

If the reason you’re looking for homework help is less about finding answers to questions and more about needing assistance with organization and time-management , MyStudyLife is a great option. This is a cross-platform planner that allows you to store your class schedule, upcoming tests, and homework assignments in the cloud so you can access it all wherever you are, and on any device. 

One of the unique things about it is that it easily works for daily or weekly rotating class schedules that can get confusing, helping you keep track of when you need to finish your homework based on your changing schedule. You can get reminders for upcoming classes and assignments as well as past-due homework and any revisions you may need to do. It can even let you know when you need to start studying for a big test!

Best of all, you can actually schedule assignments and study sessions for multiple nights, and specify how much of the task you got done each night. That way you’ll know how much additional time you’ll need to spend! 

While homework apps might seem like magic, it's important to weigh the pros and cons before you commit to one. 

What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Homework Help Apps?

Homework help apps can be useful tools if you’re struggling in any of your classes. But there are a few problems you might run into if you don’t use them ethically and responsibly. 

Below we’ll cover some of the good and the not-so-good parts of using homework help apps to complete your take-home assignments.

3 Pros of Using Homework Help Apps

Let’s start with the pros of using apps for homework help.

Pro 1: All-Around Better Grades

This is undeniably the main pro and the reason apps that help you with homework are so popular with students. Not only can you potentially get better grades on individual assignments, because they help you learn tricky concepts, you can also earn better grades overall .

Just keep in mind that if you want better grades you have to actually learn the material you’re studying, not just find easy answers. So be sure to use apps that provide good explanations . That way you’ll have the mental tools you need to succeed on your class exams and on standardized tests for college. 

Pro 2: Flexibility

It’s hard to beat homework help that you can access anywhere you are from your mobile device. You can also get assistance whenever you need it since the best apps offer their services 24/7. This is especially useful for students who need to study during hours when their free school resources aren’t available because of extracurriculars, jobs, or family obligations. 

If you need convenient and flexible homework help or tutoring services to fit your schedule, apps can be your go-to resource. 

Pro 3: Individualized Learning

Sometimes the kind of learner you are doesn’t match your teacher’s style of teaching. Or maybe the pace of a class is a little too fast or too slow for your tastes. Homework apps can help by allowing you to learn at your own speed and in ways that support your own learning style. 

You can use their features, such as educational videos, 24/7 conversations with experts and peers, and tutorials to review concepts you may have forgotten. These apps can also let you dive deeper into topics or subjects you enjoy! With homework help apps, you get to choose what you need to learn and how you learn it.

3 Cons of Using Homework Help Apps

Next, let’s look at the cons of homework help apps. 

Con 1: Questionable Info 

Unfortunately there are lots of less-than-reliable homework help apps out there. They might not hire actual experts in their fields to provide answers and create study tools, or they rely on user-submitted answers that they don’t verify. In those cases, you might not be getting the accurate, thorough, and up-to-date answers you need to really learn.

In addition to the possibility of running into plain-old wrong answers, even the best apps sometimes just won’t have a specific answer you need. This could be because you’re enrolled in an advanced class the app doesn’t really cover or because of the algorithm or chatbot a particular app uses. 

If that’s the case , your best bet will likely be to talk to your teacher or a free tutor (if your school provides them) to get help answering your question.

Con 2: Information Overload

While having tons of information at your fingertips can be helpful, the sheer amount and variety of videos, tutorials, expert answers, and resources a homework app provides can be overwhelming . It’s also easy to get sucked into a research rabbit-hole where you learn new things but don’t actually get your work done. This is especially true for students who tend to be easily distracted.

Additionally, you may be learning to do things differently than you’ve learned them in class , which could cause problems. For example, if your math teacher asks you to solve a problem one way, but you learned to do it differently through an app, you could get confused come test time! 

Con 3: Cutting Corners

There are a lot of apps out there that bill themselves as “the best app for cheating.” They allow users to type in a question or take a picture, then instantly provide an answer without any explanation of the material. Many of these are scams or provide unreliable answers, but not all. Some apps are legitimate and provide quick and easy answers that could allow you to do your whole homework assignment in minutes. 

The problem is that even though taking shortcuts on homework to save time is tempting, it can keep you from really learning. The point of practicing concepts and skills is so you develop them and can access them whenever you need to. This is especially true if skills build on one another, like in a math or English class. 

Sometimes s truggling with an assignment or question, trying, failing, then trying again until you succeed can help you learn difficult material. If you don’t let yourself really try, and instead take too many shortcuts, you may end up behind.

When Does “Help” Become “Cheating”?

When it comes to using homework help apps, sometimes the difference between “help” and “cheating” is really clear. For example, if you’re using an app to get answers while you’re taking a test, that’s definitely cheating . But what if you’re struggling with a math problem and need to know the correct answer so you can work backwards to learn the process? Is that “cheating” or is it “help?” 

The truth is, not everyone agrees on when “help” crosses the line into “cheating .” If you’re not sure, you can always check with your teacher to see what they think about a particular type of help you want to get. That said, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is to make sure that the assignment you turn in for credit is authentically yours . It needs to demonstrate your own thoughts and your own current abilities. Remember: the point of every homework assignment is to 1) help you learn something, and 2) show what you’ve learned. 

So if you’re relying on an app to do all of the work for you, there’s a good chance using it might constitute cheating. 

Think of it this way: say you’re studying for an upcoming math test, and are stumped by a few of the questions on the study guide. Even though you’ve tried and tried, you can’t seem to get the right answer because you can’t remember the steps to take. Using an app to explain the steps as you’re studying is “help.” Using the app to get answers so you can make a good homework grade is “cheating.” 

The same is true for other subjects: brainstorming essay ideas with others or looking online for inspiration is “help” as long as you write the essay yourself. Having someone read it and give you feedback about what you need to change is also “help,” provided you’re the one that makes the changes later. 

But copying all or part of an essay you find online or having someone write (or rewrite) the whole thing for you would be “cheating.” Ultimately, if you’re not generating your own work or learning to produce your own answers, it’s probably cheating. 

5 Tips for Finding the Best Homework Help App for You

If you’re serious about using a homework help app, our expert tips can help you pick one that’s right for you and your budget!

#1: Decide What Tools You Need to Succeed 

While most apps offer Q&A services, the best apps provide study tools to help you learn the material you need to learn . 

For instance, if you’re a visual learner, you might need an app that provides lots of videos. If you learn best by reading, an app that provides lots of in-depth written resources might be better for you. Or, if you learn best by actually doing things, look for an app that provides practice tests and quizzes, along with explanations for correct and incorrect answers.

Before committing to an app, take a quick survey of the tools they offer users to make sure they meet your unique learning needs. 

#2: Decide Which Subjects You Need to Study

Not all homework apps are created equal. One might provide tutoring in math and science, but no proofreading services to help you with writing. Another might be perfect for American History, but what you really need help with is your Spanish class. So, before you can decide which app is best for you, make sure to create a list of the subjects you need the most help in.

#3: Do Your Research

As we’ve said before, there are tons of homework apps in the app store to choose from, and the most important thing you can do is research what they offer students. Services, prices for those services, and subjects that the apps cover all vary, so it’s important that you look into your options. We’ve compiled our all-around favorite (and reliable) apps here, but it’s still a good idea to do your own research to find out what might meet your individual needs best.

#4: Learn Why People Like and Dislike the App

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “buyer beware?” It means that the person buying something should check for quality before actually handing over their money. This applies to both free and paid homework apps, but especially those that actually cost money.

Before you download anything, be sure to read the user reviews . While all apps will have both positive and negative reviews, you want to look for one that has more positive than negative. And if you’re considering paying for a service, be sure that users think it’s worth the price overall!

#5: Budget Yourself

If you find a paid app that provides the learning tools you need, covers the subjects you need to study, and that has good reviews overall, set a budget to pay for it before you hit that “install” button. The costs for paid homework apps vary, and especially if you’re using one that requires you to pay for individual questions or services, the prices can add up quickly. So make sure there’s money for it in your budget before you commit!

What’s Next?

If you’re not quite sure why you’re struggling with homework, or want to know how you can do your homework as quickly as possible , check out this list of 15 expert homework tips and tricks to make your life a little bit easier!

Effective studying requires the right balance of concentration, understanding, retention and rest. So if you need help striking that balance, read these 16 tips for better study habits in both the short and long-term.

Getting good grades is about more than just answering questions correctly on your assignments. It also requires planning ahead and participation. In this article we cover the academic survival strategies that can help you throughout high school .

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Why is homework important?

Why Is Homework Important: Beyond Class and Embracing Learning

Homework is important for several reasons, as it plays a crucial role in enhancing students' learning and educational experience. Here are some key reasons why homework is valuable:

• Reinforces Learning : Homework helps reinforce what was taught in class, allowing students to practice and apply knowledge, ensuring a deeper understanding and retention of the material.
• Promotes Discipline and Time Management : Regular homework assignments teach students to manage their time effectively, develop self-discipline, and prioritize tasks, which are valuable skills beyond the classroom.
• Encourages Independence and Responsibility : Completing homework independently fosters self-reliance and personal responsibility for one's learning, preparing students for the self-directed learning required in higher education and the workplace.
• Provides Feedback : Homework offers teachers a way to assess students' understanding and progress, allowing them to identify areas where students may need extra help and adjust their teaching strategies accordingly.
• Enhances Critical Thinking and Problem Solving : Homework often involves tasks that require critical thinking and problem-solving, skills that are crucial for academic and life success.
• Engages Parents in Their Child's Education : Homework gives parents insight into what their children are learning in school and the opportunity to engage in their child's education, supporting learning at home.
• Prepares for Upcoming Classes : Homework can be used to introduce new material, preparing students for future lessons and enabling more effective use of classroom time.

Overall, homework is a critical tool in the educational process, supporting learning and personal development in numerous ways.

Ever wondered why teachers seem to love piling on homework? The real reasons why assignments have such an amazing impact on your future might surprise you.

In this article, we’re discovering how homework isn’t just busywork — it’s an essential player when it comes to skyrocketing your comprehension of class material, refining your ability to tackle problems, and establishing a sturdy foundation for academic success. 

By the time we’re done, you’re going to be seeing homework in a different light. So, let's find out why homework is important.

Benefits of Homework

Homework facilitates problem-solving skills, provides students with an additional chance to revisit classroom content, enables parents to understand school teachings, and instills a sense of responsibility in students regarding their education.

If you're asking yourself, "Why is homework good for me?" There are numerous reasons why it can be very beneficial in the long run. Challenging work allows us to grow, after all. Let's look at all its benefits.

Completing Homework Encourages Students To Keep Learning

For some students, learning is not just an obligation but can be enjoyed as well. The acceptance of life-long learning can be fostered by homework, and if the teacher manages to engage their students, they’ve set the stage for the students. Let’s take a look at why homework is important:  

• Improves memory and retention: It increases the potential for students to remember class material since they have to revisit it.
• Increases the potential for practical use of knowledge: By understanding the lesson’s materials in more depth, students might apply what they know with more ease.

Helps Develop Skills and Good Habits

Doing your homework can help you develop the necessary skills and habits needed to do challenging work and to keep progressing and ultimately growing as a person. This is why the importance of homework can't be overlooked. 

• Helps you learn time management: Since homework is usually done outside of school, students will learn how to manage their time and studying time, which will seep into their ability to manage their time in general.
• Helps students become more organized: Organizing what you’ve learned to produce well-thought responses that can also be applied practically will become crucial in your day-to-day life.
• Helps foster discipline and responsibility: If students want to become successful, not just in the eyes of society but for their personal achievements as well, they must be disciplined and have to take on responsibilities.

Connects School and Home

“Why is homework necessary?” you ask. For starters, it bridges school and home life. Parents are the vital link between schools and students becoming college and career-ready. 

And parent engagement is more powerful than any other form of involvement or support at school. It strengthens the vital educational triangle uniting parents, home, and school. 

Prepares High School Students for The Future

You can become more resilient and adaptable to challenges in your life. You’ll most likely feel more prepared when these challenges come. What’s more, you can become a better problem-solver and can improve your analytical and critical thinking skills in the long run. This is why homework is beneficial.

Helps Develop A Growth Mindset and Time Management Skills

If you're still wondering, "Why is homework important?" Then, you should know that it can help you foster a growth mentality. What does this mean? Instead of feeling victimized by challenges, failures, and other difficulties, you'll develop a mindset where you view these things as opportunities to grow. At the end of the day, these difficulties can be your best teachers.

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Homework: Tips and Tricks

Now that we've taken a look at all the reasons why homework is beneficial to your growth and life let's take a look at some tips you can apply to your homework sessions. If you're still having issues, you can always send a " do my homework " request on Studyfy to get expert help. ‍

To effectively tackle homework, consider these strategies: take regular breaks to refresh, collaborate with friends for support, create a conducive homework area, actively engage in homework discussions, minimize distractions, adhere to a homework timetable, form a study group, organize a dedicated study space, prepare all necessary materials in advance, listen to instrumental music to maintain focus, reward yourself for completing tasks, practice efficient time management, and leverage available resources for assistance.

1. Create A Study Space : Moving on from finding out why homework is good, the first tip to make homework sessions easier is to create a dedicated study space. By doing this, you can potentially trick your mind into focusing better in that said space.

2. Establish A Routine : Create a homework schedule and stick to it. By doing this, you're freeing up your time by prioritizing your responsibilities first. It might be hard at first, but it's work sticking by. Moreover, if you're curious, you can take a look at who invented homework and why , and you might get some inspiration from knowing this.

3. Prioritize The Difficult Tasks in Homework Assignments : Continuing why should students have homework and homework tips, another great tip is to tackle difficult homework first. This gives you enough time to complete them, ensuring you meet your deadlines. It also frees up your time and speeds up the process.

4. Make Use of Apps : Apps like Quizlet and Evernote can help streamline your sessions. You can note down reasons on, "How is homework beneficial?" to help you get motivated or simply note down important notes from class and more.

5. Break Tasks Up : For lengthier and more complex tasks, you can simply break them up into smaller and more doable portions. Need more reasons on why is homework good for students so you can learn how to motivate yourself to do homework even more? Keep reading, and you’ll know all there is to know about homework and how to finish it easier.

6. Get Help : How does homework help students when a task is too difficult? Difficulty motivates us to try harder. However, if you feel like you're stuck, don't be afraid to seek out help. You can ask teachers, friends, and your parents for extra guidance.

7. Employ Study Methods : Use study methods like summarizing, memory flashcards, and quizzing yourself. "Why is homework beneficial?" It helps you apply problem-solving skills effectively, just like these 3 methods.

8. Free Yourself From Distractions : One of the reasons why homework is good is it teaches you to focus and to cut off distractions. A habit that applies to anything in life. Free up your study space from all potential distractions, like phones, tablets, and TV.

9. Prioritize Health and Sleep : "Why is homework helpful?" For starters, if you prioritize your work, you are obligated to also take care of your health and get enough sleep. By doing so, you can focus and work better. Good habits produce more good habits.

10. Find Your Purpose : The last tip, but not the least important, is finding out your "Why." Find out why you want to work hard. Instead of summing it up to, "I want to get into a good school" or "I want to make a lot of money as an adult," find a deeper purpose as to why you should be diligent.

Maybe you're doing it for self-improvement, or maybe you want to change the world for the better. You can potentially get to know yourself better, and you realize this is why we should have homework.

Did you like our Homework Post?

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What are the reasons why students should have homework?

As we've already seen, homework helps foster better cognitive abilities, train discipline, and prepare students for what's coming.

If you're still struggling with your homework, you can get physics homework help and help for other subjects, too, on Studyfy. It's alright to have difficulties, if you try to improve, results will surely show up.     

How can parents help with homework?

Homework is important, therefore you should ask your parents for help and further motivation if needed. They can offer help when necessary and let you solve problems on your own to foster independence. They can create a space where learning is easy and there are no disturbances.

Can too much homework be counterproductive?

While the benefits of homework are plenty, too much homework can be counterproductive. If this is the case, you can directly talk to your teachers and negotiate with them. If you have tests you need to study for, it can help to have less homework.

Too much homework creates unnecessary stress, no matter how good your time management skills are. Yes, homework improve academic achievement, but excessive homework, especially for younger students, doesn't reinforce learning.

Do the study tips this article has mentioned help?

Yes, they do. It's become apparent that to memorize large amounts of information, it is better to break them down into parts. As for the rest of the advice, it will improve most students' learning efficiency. You should still try to find out which methods work best for you.                                                                          

If you need more guidance, you can get math homework help and help for other subjects as well on Studyfy. Gain insights and advice from an expert today.

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Student Opinion

Should We Get Rid of Homework?

Some educators are pushing to get rid of homework. Would that be a good thing?

By Jeremy Engle and Michael Gonchar

Do you like doing homework? Do you think it has benefited you educationally?

Has homework ever helped you practice a difficult skill — in math, for example — until you mastered it? Has it helped you learn new concepts in history or science? Has it helped to teach you life skills, such as independence and responsibility? Or, have you had a more negative experience with homework? Does it stress you out, numb your brain from busywork or actually make you fall behind in your classes?

Should we get rid of homework?

In “ The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong, ” published in July, the Times Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang argues that homework may be imperfect, but it still serves an important purpose in school. The essay begins:

Do students really need to do their homework? As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. But I also imagine that some of my students never would have done their basic reading if they hadn’t been trained to complete expected assignments, which would have made the task of teaching an English class nearly impossible. As a parent, I would rather my daughter not get stuck doing the sort of pointless homework I would occasionally assign, but I also think there’s a lot of value in saying, “Hey, a lot of work you’re going to end up doing in your life is pointless, so why not just get used to it?” I certainly am not the only person wondering about the value of homework. Recently, the sociologist Jessica McCrory Calarco and the mathematics education scholars Ilana Horn and Grace Chen published a paper, “ You Need to Be More Responsible: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities .” They argued that while there’s some evidence that homework might help students learn, it also exacerbates inequalities and reinforces what they call the “meritocratic” narrative that says kids who do well in school do so because of “individual competence, effort and responsibility.” The authors believe this meritocratic narrative is a myth and that homework — math homework in particular — further entrenches the myth in the minds of teachers and their students. Calarco, Horn and Chen write, “Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

Mr. Kang argues:

But there’s a defense of homework that doesn’t really have much to do with class mobility, equality or any sense of reinforcing the notion of meritocracy. It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. Even if we could perfectly equalize opportunity in school and empower all students not to be encumbered by the weight of their socioeconomic status or ethnicity, I’m not sure what good it would do if the kids didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom, regardless of a student’s background, which is why, I imagine, Calarco, Horn and Chen found that most teachers weren’t thinking in a structural inequalities frame. Holistic ideas of education, in which learning is emphasized and students can explore concepts and ideas, are largely for the types of kids who don’t need to worry about class mobility. A defense of rote practice through homework might seem revanchist at this moment, but if we truly believe that schools should teach children lessons that fall outside the meritocracy, I can’t think of one that matters more than the simple satisfaction of mastering something that you were once bad at. That takes homework and the acknowledgment that sometimes a student can get a question wrong and, with proper instruction, eventually get it right.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Should we get rid of homework? Why, or why not?

Is homework an outdated, ineffective or counterproductive tool for learning? Do you agree with the authors of the paper that homework is harmful and worsens inequalities that exist between students’ home circumstances?

Or do you agree with Mr. Kang that homework still has real educational value?

When you get home after school, how much homework will you do? Do you think the amount is appropriate, too much or too little? Is homework, including the projects and writing assignments you do at home, an important part of your learning experience? Or, in your opinion, is it not a good use of time? Explain.

In these letters to the editor , one reader makes a distinction between elementary school and high school:

Homework’s value is unclear for younger students. But by high school and college, homework is absolutely essential for any student who wishes to excel. There simply isn’t time to digest Dostoyevsky if you only ever read him in class.

What do you think? How much does grade level matter when discussing the value of homework?

Is there a way to make homework more effective?

If you were a teacher, would you assign homework? What kind of assignments would you give and why?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

A conversation with a Wheelock researcher, a BU student, and a fourth-grade teacher

“Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives,” says Wheelock’s Janine Bempechat. “It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.” Photo by iStock/Glenn Cook Photography

Do your homework.

If only it were that simple.

Educators have debated the merits of homework since the late 19th century. In recent years, amid concerns of some parents and teachers that children are being stressed out by too much homework, things have only gotten more fraught.

“Homework is complicated,” says developmental psychologist Janine Bempechat, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development clinical professor. The author of the essay “ The Case for (Quality) Homework—Why It Improves Learning and How Parents Can Help ” in the winter 2019 issue of Education Next , Bempechat has studied how the debate about homework is influencing teacher preparation, parent and student beliefs about learning, and school policies.

She worries especially about socioeconomically disadvantaged students from low-performing schools who, according to research by Bempechat and others, get little or no homework.

BU Today  sat down with Bempechat and Erin Bruce (Wheelock’17,’18), a new fourth-grade teacher at a suburban Boston school, and future teacher freshman Emma Ardizzone (Wheelock) to talk about what quality homework looks like, how it can help children learn, and how schools can equip teachers to design it, evaluate it, and facilitate parents’ role in it.

BU Today: Parents and educators who are against homework in elementary school say there is no research definitively linking it to academic performance for kids in the early grades. You’ve said that they’re missing the point.

Bempechat : I think teachers assign homework in elementary school as a way to help kids develop skills they’ll need when they’re older—to begin to instill a sense of responsibility and to learn planning and organizational skills. That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success. If we greatly reduce or eliminate homework in elementary school, we deprive kids and parents of opportunities to instill these important learning habits and skills.

We do know that beginning in late middle school, and continuing through high school, there is a strong and positive correlation between homework completion and academic success.

That’s what I think is the greatest value of homework—in cultivating beliefs about learning and skills associated with academic success.

You talk about the importance of quality homework. What is that?

Quality homework is engaging and relevant to kids’ lives. It gives them autonomy and engages them in the community and with their families. In some subjects, like math, worksheets can be very helpful. It has to do with the value of practicing over and over.

What are your concerns about homework and low-income children?

The argument that some people make—that homework “punishes the poor” because lower-income parents may not be as well-equipped as affluent parents to help their children with homework—is very troubling to me. There are no parents who don’t care about their children’s learning. Parents don’t actually have to help with homework completion in order for kids to do well. They can help in other ways—by helping children organize a study space, providing snacks, being there as a support, helping children work in groups with siblings or friends.

Isn’t the discussion about getting rid of homework happening mostly in affluent communities?

Yes, and the stories we hear of kids being stressed out from too much homework—four or five hours of homework a night—are real. That’s problematic for physical and mental health and overall well-being. But the research shows that higher-income students get a lot more homework than lower-income kids.

Teachers may not have as high expectations for lower-income children. Schools should bear responsibility for providing supports for kids to be able to get their homework done—after-school clubs, community support, peer group support. It does kids a disservice when our expectations are lower for them.

The conversation around homework is to some extent a social class and social justice issue. If we eliminate homework for all children because affluent children have too much, we’re really doing a disservice to low-income children. They need the challenge, and every student can rise to the challenge with enough supports in place.

What did you learn by studying how education schools are preparing future teachers to handle homework?

My colleague, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, at the University of California, Davis, School of Education, and I interviewed faculty members at education schools, as well as supervising teachers, to find out how students are being prepared. And it seemed that they weren’t. There didn’t seem to be any readings on the research, or conversations on what high-quality homework is and how to design it.

Erin, what kind of training did you get in handling homework?

Bruce : I had phenomenal professors at Wheelock, but homework just didn’t come up. I did lots of student teaching. I’ve been in classrooms where the teachers didn’t assign any homework, and I’ve been in rooms where they assigned hours of homework a night. But I never even considered homework as something that was my decision. I just thought it was something I’d pull out of a book and it’d be done.

I started giving homework on the first night of school this year. My first assignment was to go home and draw a picture of the room where you do your homework. I want to know if it’s at a table and if there are chairs around it and if mom’s cooking dinner while you’re doing homework.

The second night I asked them to talk to a grown-up about how are you going to be able to get your homework done during the week. The kids really enjoyed it. There’s a running joke that I’m teaching life skills.

Friday nights, I read all my kids’ responses to me on their homework from the week and it’s wonderful. They pour their hearts out. It’s like we’re having a conversation on my couch Friday night.

It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Bempechat : I can’t imagine that most new teachers would have the intuition Erin had in designing homework the way she did.

Ardizzone : Conversations with kids about homework, feeling you’re being listened to—that’s such a big part of wanting to do homework….I grew up in Westchester County. It was a pretty demanding school district. My junior year English teacher—I loved her—she would give us feedback, have meetings with all of us. She’d say, “If you have any questions, if you have anything you want to talk about, you can talk to me, here are my office hours.” It felt like she actually cared.

Bempechat : It matters to know that the teacher cares about you and that what you think matters to the teacher. Homework is a vehicle to connect home and school…for parents to know teachers are welcoming to them and their families.

Ardizzone : But can’t it lead to parents being overbearing and too involved in their children’s lives as students?

Bempechat : There’s good help and there’s bad help. The bad help is what you’re describing—when parents hover inappropriately, when they micromanage, when they see their children confused and struggling and tell them what to do.

Good help is when parents recognize there’s a struggle going on and instead ask informative questions: “Where do you think you went wrong?” They give hints, or pointers, rather than saying, “You missed this,” or “You didn’t read that.”

Bruce : I hope something comes of this. I hope BU or Wheelock can think of some way to make this a more pressing issue. As a first-year teacher, it was not something I even thought about on the first day of school—until a kid raised his hand and said, “Do we have homework?” It would have been wonderful if I’d had a plan from day one.

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Senior Contributing Editor

Sara Rimer A journalist for more than three decades, Sara Rimer worked at the Miami Herald , Washington Post and, for 26 years, the New York Times , where she was the New England bureau chief, and a national reporter covering education, aging, immigration, and other social justice issues. Her stories on the death penalty’s inequities were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and cited in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision outlawing the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. Her journalism honors include Columbia University’s Meyer Berger award for in-depth human interest reporting. She holds a BA degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan. Profile

She can be reached at [email protected] .

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 81 comments on Does Homework Really Help Students Learn?

Insightful! The values about homework in elementary schools are well aligned with my intuition as a parent.

when i finish my work i do my homework and i sometimes forget what to do because i did not get enough sleep

same omg it does not help me it is stressful and if I have it in more than one class I hate it.

Same I think my parent wants to help me but, she doesn’t care if I get bad grades so I just try my best and my grades are great.

I think that last question about Good help from parents is not know to all parents, we do as our parents did or how we best think it can be done, so maybe coaching parents or giving them resources on how to help with homework would be very beneficial for the parent on how to help and for the teacher to have consistency and improve homework results, and of course for the child. I do see how homework helps reaffirm the knowledge obtained in the classroom, I also have the ability to see progress and it is a time I share with my kids

The answer to the headline question is a no-brainer – a more pressing problem is why there is a difference in how students from different cultures succeed. Perfect example is the student population at BU – why is there a majority population of Asian students and only about 3% black students at BU? In fact at some universities there are law suits by Asians to stop discrimination and quotas against admitting Asian students because the real truth is that as a group they are demonstrating better qualifications for admittance, while at the same time there are quotas and reduced requirements for black students to boost their portion of the student population because as a group they do more poorly in meeting admissions standards – and it is not about the Benjamins. The real problem is that in our PC society no one has the gazuntas to explore this issue as it may reveal that all people are not created equal after all. Or is it just environmental cultural differences??????

I get you have a concern about the issue but that is not even what the point of this article is about. If you have an issue please take this to the site we have and only post your opinion about the actual topic

This is not at all what the article is talking about.

This literally has nothing to do with the article brought up. You should really take your opinions somewhere else before you speak about something that doesn’t make sense.

we have the same name

so they have the same name what of it?

lol you tell her

totally agree

What does that have to do with homework, that is not what the article talks about AT ALL.

Yes, I think homework plays an important role in the development of student life. Through homework, students have to face challenges on a daily basis and they try to solve them quickly.I am an intense online tutor at 24x7homeworkhelp and I give homework to my students at that level in which they handle it easily.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

You know what’s funny? I got this assignment to write an argument for homework about homework and this article was really helpful and understandable, and I also agree with this article’s point of view.

I also got the same task as you! I was looking for some good resources and I found this! I really found this article useful and easy to understand, just like you! ^^

i think that homework is the best thing that a child can have on the school because it help them with their thinking and memory.

I am a child myself and i think homework is a terrific pass time because i can’t play video games during the week. It also helps me set goals.

Homework is not harmful ,but it will if there is too much

I feel like, from a minors point of view that we shouldn’t get homework. Not only is the homework stressful, but it takes us away from relaxing and being social. For example, me and my friends was supposed to hang at the mall last week but we had to postpone it since we all had some sort of work to do. Our minds shouldn’t be focused on finishing an assignment that in realty, doesn’t matter. I completely understand that we should have homework. I have to write a paper on the unimportance of homework so thanks.

homework isn’t that bad

Are you a student? if not then i don’t really think you know how much and how severe todays homework really is

i am a student and i do not enjoy homework because i practice my sport 4 out of the five days we have school for 4 hours and that’s not even counting the commute time or the fact i still have to shower and eat dinner when i get home. its draining!

i totally agree with you. these people are such boomers

why just why

they do make a really good point, i think that there should be a limit though. hours and hours of homework can be really stressful, and the extra work isn’t making a difference to our learning, but i do believe homework should be optional and extra credit. that would make it for students to not have the leaning stress of a assignment and if you have a low grade you you can catch up.

Studies show that homework improves student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college. Research published in the High School Journal indicates that students who spent between 31 and 90 minutes each day on homework “scored about 40 points higher on the SAT-Mathematics subtest than their peers, who reported spending no time on homework each day, on average.” On both standardized tests and grades, students in classes that were assigned homework outperformed 69% of students who didn’t have homework. A majority of studies on homework’s impact – 64% in one meta-study and 72% in another – showed that take home assignments were effective at improving academic achievement. Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) concluded that increased homework led to better GPAs and higher probability of college attendance for high school boys. In fact, boys who attended college did more than three hours of additional homework per week in high school.

So how are your measuring student achievement? That’s the real question. The argument that doing homework is simply a tool for teaching responsibility isn’t enough for me. We can teach responsibility in a number of ways. Also the poor argument that parents don’t need to help with homework, and that students can do it on their own, is wishful thinking at best. It completely ignores neurodiverse students. Students in poverty aren’t magically going to find a space to do homework, a friend’s or siblings to help them do it, and snacks to eat. I feel like the author of this piece has never set foot in a classroom of students.

THIS. This article is pathetic coming from a university. So intellectually dishonest, refusing to address the havoc of capitalism and poverty plays on academic success in life. How can they in one sentence use poor kids in an argument and never once address that poor children have access to damn near 0 of the resources affluent kids have? Draw me a picture and let’s talk about feelings lmao what a joke is that gonna put food in their belly so they can have the calories to burn in order to use their brain to study? What about quiet their 7 other siblings that they share a single bedroom with for hours? Is it gonna force the single mom to magically be at home and at work at the same time to cook food while you study and be there to throw an encouraging word?

Also the “parents don’t need to be a parent and be able to guide their kid at all academically they just need to exist in the next room” is wild. Its one thing if a parent straight up is not equipped but to say kids can just figured it out is…. wow coming from an educator What’s next the teacher doesn’t need to teach cause the kid can just follow the packet and figure it out?

Well then get a tutor right? Oh wait you are poor only affluent kids can afford a tutor for their hours of homework a day were they on average have none of the worries a poor child does. Does this address that poor children are more likely to also suffer abuse and mental illness? Like mentioned what about kids that can’t learn or comprehend the forced standardized way? Just let em fail? These children regularly are not in “special education”(some of those are a joke in their own and full of neglect and abuse) programs cause most aren’t even acknowledged as having disabilities or disorders.

But yes all and all those pesky poor kids just aren’t being worked hard enough lol pretty sure poor children’s existence just in childhood is more work, stress, and responsibility alone than an affluent child’s entire life cycle. Love they never once talked about the quality of education in the classroom being so bad between the poor and affluent it can qualify as segregation, just basically blamed poor people for being lazy, good job capitalism for failing us once again!

why the hell?

you should feel bad for saying this, this article can be helpful for people who has to write a essay about it

This is more of a political rant than it is about homework

I know a teacher who has told his students their homework is to find something they are interested in, pursue it and then come share what they learn. The student responses are quite compelling. One girl taught herself German so she could talk to her grandfather. One boy did a research project on Nelson Mandela because the teacher had mentioned him in class. Another boy, a both on the autism spectrum, fixed his family’s computer. The list goes on. This is fourth grade. I think students are highly motivated to learn, when we step aside and encourage them.

The whole point of homework is to give the students a chance to use the material that they have been presented with in class. If they never have the opportunity to use that information, and discover that it is actually useful, it will be in one ear and out the other. As a science teacher, it is critical that the students are challenged to use the material they have been presented with, which gives them the opportunity to actually think about it rather than regurgitate “facts”. Well designed homework forces the student to think conceptually, as opposed to regurgitation, which is never a pretty sight

Wonderful discussion. and yes, homework helps in learning and building skills in students.

not true it just causes kids to stress

Homework can be both beneficial and unuseful, if you will. There are students who are gifted in all subjects in school and ones with disabilities. Why should the students who are gifted get the lucky break, whereas the people who have disabilities suffer? The people who were born with this “gift” go through school with ease whereas people with disabilities struggle with the work given to them. I speak from experience because I am one of those students: the ones with disabilities. Homework doesn’t benefit “us”, it only tears us down and put us in an abyss of confusion and stress and hopelessness because we can’t learn as fast as others. Or we can’t handle the amount of work given whereas the gifted students go through it with ease. It just brings us down and makes us feel lost; because no mater what, it feels like we are destined to fail. It feels like we weren’t “cut out” for success.

homework does help

here is the thing though, if a child is shoved in the face with a whole ton of homework that isn’t really even considered homework it is assignments, it’s not helpful. the teacher should make homework more of a fun learning experience rather than something that is dreaded

This article was wonderful, I am going to ask my teachers about extra, or at all giving homework.

I agree. Especially when you have homework before an exam. Which is distasteful as you’ll need that time to study. It doesn’t make any sense, nor does us doing homework really matters as It’s just facts thrown at us.

Homework is too severe and is just too much for students, schools need to decrease the amount of homework. When teachers assign homework they forget that the students have other classes that give them the same amount of homework each day. Students need to work on social skills and life skills.

I disagree.

Beyond achievement, proponents of homework argue that it can have many other beneficial effects. They claim it can help students develop good study habits so they are ready to grow as their cognitive capacities mature. It can help students recognize that learning can occur at home as well as at school. Homework can foster independent learning and responsible character traits. And it can give parents an opportunity to see what’s going on at school and let them express positive attitudes toward achievement.

Homework is helpful because homework helps us by teaching us how to learn a specific topic.

As a student myself, I can say that I have almost never gotten the full 9 hours of recommended sleep time, because of homework. (Now I’m writing an essay on it in the middle of the night D=)

I am a 10 year old kid doing a report about “Is homework good or bad” for homework before i was going to do homework is bad but the sources from this site changed my mind!

Homeowkr is god for stusenrs

I agree with hunter because homework can be so stressful especially with this whole covid thing no one has time for homework and every one just wants to get back to there normal lives it is especially stressful when you go on a 2 week vaca 3 weeks into the new school year and and then less then a week after you come back from the vaca you are out for over a month because of covid and you have no way to get the assignment done and turned in

As great as homework is said to be in the is article, I feel like the viewpoint of the students was left out. Every where I go on the internet researching about this topic it almost always has interviews from teachers, professors, and the like. However isn’t that a little biased? Of course teachers are going to be for homework, they’re not the ones that have to stay up past midnight completing the homework from not just one class, but all of them. I just feel like this site is one-sided and you should include what the students of today think of spending four hours every night completing 6-8 classes worth of work.

Are we talking about homework or practice? Those are two very different things and can result in different outcomes.

Homework is a graded assignment. I do not know of research showing the benefits of graded assignments going home.

Practice; however, can be extremely beneficial, especially if there is some sort of feedback (not a grade but feedback). That feedback can come from the teacher, another student or even an automated grading program.

As a former band director, I assigned daily practice. I never once thought it would be appropriate for me to require the students to turn in a recording of their practice for me to grade. Instead, I had in-class assignments/assessments that were graded and directly related to the practice assigned.

I would really like to read articles on “homework” that truly distinguish between the two.

oof i feel bad good luck!

thank you guys for the artical because I have to finish an assingment. yes i did cite it but just thanks

thx for the article guys.

Homework is good

I think homework is helpful AND harmful. Sometimes u can’t get sleep bc of homework but it helps u practice for school too so idk.

I agree with this Article. And does anyone know when this was published. I would like to know.

It was published FEb 19, 2019.

Studies have shown that homework improved student achievement in terms of improved grades, test results, and the likelihood to attend college.

i think homework can help kids but at the same time not help kids

This article is so out of touch with majority of homes it would be laughable if it wasn’t so incredibly sad.

There is no value to homework all it does is add stress to already stressed homes. Parents or adults magically having the time or energy to shepherd kids through homework is dome sort of 1950’s fantasy.

What lala land do these teachers live in?

Homework gives noting to the kid

Homework is Bad

homework is bad.

why do kids even have homework?

Comments are closed.

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Exercises on Conditional Sentences (Mix)

Type i or type ii.

Complete the Conditional Sentences. Decide whether to use Type I or II.

• If you do your homework now, we go will go would go went to the cinema in the evening.
• If we order will order would order ordered the book now, we will have it tomorrow.
• If I had more money, I buy will buy would buy bought a bigger car.
• If I meet will meet would meet met my favourite movie star, I would ask him for an autograph.
• I call will call would call called you if I need your help.
• I would go swimming if the weather is will be would be were better.
• If he doesn't have won't have wouldn't have didn't have time tomorrow, we will meet the day after.
• If I were you, I don't know won't know wouldn't know didn't know what to do.
• If we don't order the tickets soon, there aren't won't be wouldn't be weren't any tickets left.
• She does not say will not say would not say did not say that if she were your friend.

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How to Avoid Getting in Trouble for Not Doing Your Homework

Last Updated: March 7, 2024

This article was co-authored by Alicia Oglesby . Alicia Oglesby is a Professional School Counselor and the Director of School and College Counseling at Bishop McNamara High School outside of Washington DC. With over ten years of experience in counseling, Alicia specializes in academic advising, social-emotional skills, and career counseling. Alicia holds a BS in Psychology from Howard University and a Master’s in Clinical Counseling and Applied Psychology from Chestnut Hill College. She also studied Race and Mental Health at Virginia Tech. Alicia holds Professional School Counseling Certifications in both Washington DC and Pennsylvania. She has created a college counseling program in its entirety and developed five programs focused on application workshops, parent information workshops, essay writing collaborative, peer-reviewed application activities, and financial aid literacy events. This article has been viewed 98,829 times.

Homework generally isn’t that much fun. But it generally is a requirement that has a pretty decent-sized impact on your grade, so if you want (or need) to do well in a class, getting the homework done is a big deal. So what happens if you forget to do one of the assignments? You have a few options; the first and best is, of course, to not to forget to do it in the first place. But if that’s not an option, there are a few other measures you can take to try to get out of a homework scrape. Read on to find out more.

Using Good Judgment

• Explain why you didn’t do the homework--maybe you forgot about the assignment, got home late, fell asleep, etc. Don’t sugarcoat your reason, but do use some discretion; if you didn’t do your homework because you were at an all-night kegger, keep your reason general (ie, “I didn’t get home until late”) rather than overly specific (ie, “I was too busy doing keg stands”).
• Apologize. After giving your reason, sincerely apologize. Don’t gloss over this part--the sincerity of your apology will impact how likely your teacher is to want to help you. If you don't feel comfortable talking to the teacher directly, feel free to send them an email or leave them a note.
• Explain that it won’t happen again--and make sure it doesn’t. Let your teacher know that this was a rare instance of you lapsing on a responsibility and that you’ll be careful that it doesn’t happen again. And--this part is important--keep your word. If you make forgetting your homework habitual, your teacher will not only stop believing your excuses, they’ll rapidly become less sympathetic to your apologies.
• Ask for another day to finish the assignment. The best case scenario here is that your teacher will grant you extra time to complete the assignment and won’t penalize you for turning it in past the original deadline. More likely, though, your teacher will offer to let you turn in the assignment late, for partial credit. Don’t gripe about or be ungrateful for partial-credit--it will make it less likely that your teacher will extend you a similar opportunity in the future.

• Ask the teacher to help you understand the assignment and to let you have another chance at completing it. This both buys you more time and has the added benefit of getting you one-on-one homework help as well.

• If the story’s creative or amusing enough, your teacher might cut you some slack simply because you didn’t give them one of the same boring excuses they always hear.
• For example, maybe it just so happened that your parents went out last night and left you with a family friend who turned out to be a clairvoyant and burned all of your homework because he looked into the future and saw that if he didn’t destroy it all your cat would rip your homework to shreds while you slept and you would breathe in a fatal amount of air-borne paper bits and choke to death.

Avoiding Bad Excuses

• It should be obvious, but don’t use “the dog ate my homework.” You might as well not even bother coming up with an excuse at all.
• Don’t just say “I lost it” unless you can come up with a believable set of extenuating circumstances to explain how it got lost. Saying it just got lost randomly is pretty transparent.

• Instead of blaming the printer or your laptop, etc., explain that you had trouble when you were trying to print (or whatever) the homework right before class but that you’ll email it to your teacher by the end of the day. You can buy more time with that, and quickly type it up.
• Just be sure you actually do send it to them by the end of the day--preferably by 5 pm. [2] X Research source

• First, since it’s your responsibility, not theirs, to make sure you’re up-to-date on assignments, this excuse is pretty much like telling the teacher that it was your own fault.
• Second, because, from your teacher’s point of view, an entire classroom of other students managed to find out about and do the homework, so it clearly isn’t as hard as you’re making it out to be. [3] X Research source
• And finally, the ignorance excuse won’t work because when you’re absent, your teacher expects that you’ll find out everything you missed. If didn’t, your teacher will again see it as your own fault.

Avoiding the Situation in the First Place

• Start by writing down every assignment and its due date as soon as it’s assigned.
• Be sure to write all of your assignments down in the same place so you don’t miss any or have to go on a desperate search every time you want to know what’s due. A day planner, dedicated homework notebook, or scheduling app are all good options.

• Whenever you get an assignment, estimate how long it will take to complete and set aside the necessary time accordingly.
• If it’s an assignment that will take several days or even several weeks, set aside as many blocks of time as you’ll need to complete it over that span of time.

• Don’t procrastinate on homework--don’t let yourself play video games or chat on Facebook until you’ve finished your night’s assignments.
• Do the harder assignments first. Getting the harder work out of the way first is a more efficient and rewarding use of your time.

• If you have a study-hall period, a free period, a few minutes between classes, a 10-15 minute bus ride home, etc., use that time to work on homework. Sure, you’d rather be talking to friends or playing on your phone, but if you want to have your homework done, you’ll need to actually take the time to do it. [4] X Research source

• Start by approaching the teacher. Explain your difficulties and ask for their help. That’s what your teachers are there for, after all--to help you learn. (And if they show any reluctance to help, remind them of this fact.) They’re the best source of help since they’re the ones making and grading the homework, and having the help of an insider is often invaluable.
• Get help from a classmate. If your teacher isn’t able to give as much help as you need, supplement their help with help from a classmate who understands the material and is doing well in the class. If you aren’t sure who that might be, ask your teacher for suggestions.
• Get a tutor. Many schools offer free peer-tutoring services that can be a significant help. Ask your teacher or an administrator whether such services are available. If not, consider looking into hiring a tutor. There are a number of professional tutoring services to choose from, or you might try hiring a local college student for tutoring help.

• Even if you think you’re a great multi-tasker, trying to do homework while also texting, catching up on Facebook, and tweeting about how much you hate homework is actually hurting you more than helping you get through the process.
• Moreover, though multitasking can be an asset for some activities, it isn’t an asset when studying. When you’re multitasking, your mind leaves your current train of thought (like, say, trigonometry) and takes up a new train (maybe texting a friend about tomorrow’s plans), and the result is that you end up doing worse on both.
• Find a quiet, distraction-free space to do your studying. The better you’re able to concentrate, the better you’ll do on your work and the more quickly you’ll get through it. Put away or turn off anything you know will distract you (your phone, Facebook alerts, whatever). [6] X Research source
• If you find yourself being distracted by thoughts of other things you should or want to be doing, keep a piece of paper next to you where you can write down those thoughts as they come up. Don’t dwell on them, just write them down and know you can get back to them later. [7] X Research source
• Set small goals and reward yourself when you achieve them. For example, set a goal to study for 15-20 minutes straight and then reward yourself with a small treat when you do so. [8] X Research source

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• ↑ http://www.brighthubeducation.com/study-and-learning-tips/51078-10-most-common-homework-excuses/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html?view=ptr
• ↑ http://success.oregonstate.edu/learning-corner/learning-college/concentration-distractions

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30 Things You Could Be Doing Right Now BESIDES Studying for Finals

You weren’t planning on doing your homework today anyway. Don’t lie to me, I know you. I’ve been you. Here are a bunch of things you could be doing instead, so at least you’re doing something :

2. Watch YouTube videos of guinea pigs running mazes even though you’ve already seen most of them.

3. Realize you’re just going to be watching the same YouTube videos over and over again for the rest of your life until you die.

4. Craft scenarios in your head that will never happen in real life.

5. Drink enough water.

6. Watch a TED talk.

7. Answer all those texts you’ve been more or less “forgetting” to answer. Immediately receive more texts as a result of this. Realize that this is the curse of modern technology: replying to texts always leads to more texts. Ignore them and go lie down.

8. Clean your room. Your whole room. Yes, even that spot under the bed you always miss.

9. Put away the mountain of clothes you have steadily allowed, over the course of many weeks, to accumulate on The Chair.

10. Google your homework, see that it’s not on Yahoo Answers, and give up entirely.

11. Take a nap even though you don’t really need one and it’s just going to ruin your sleep schedule.

12. Go on a personal journey.

13. Clear out your gmail inbox. Feel better about yourself for having accomplished this grueling but ultimately pointless task.

14. Play dead, just to see what your dog does.

15. Remember every terrible, awkward thing you have ever done in your life.

16. Consider exercising and then don’t.

17. Check your phone. Something’s bound to be happening on that thing.

18. Script conversations in your head so that you can be angry later when they don’t happen that way.

19. Read the Wikipedia entry on Australia’s Emu War .

20. Read the Wikipedia entry on nihilism .

21. Read the Wikipedia entry on the Gävle goat , which is a giant goat made of straw. (The fun part is that it is constantly being set on fire.)

22. Basically descend into the rabbit hole of Wikipedia binge-reading. Emerge seven hours later, a husk of your former self.

23. Just kind of move your textbooks and study supplies from one location to another. See if this does anything.

24. Close all your tabs.

25. Catch up on your shows.

26. Make a mental note to catch up on your shows, then start five new shows and hate yourself for it.

27. Overanalyze all of it. Just all of it.

28. Go on WebMD and make the wholly misguided decision to search for anything and everything that could be wrong with you. Confront your own mortality. Contemplate the abyss. Realize we are all just whiling away our time before the grave.

29. Surrender to the void.

30. Eat a snack.

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Thinking solar? Make sure you do your homework

Roughly eight percent of US homes now have solar panels.

And even more homeowners are considering the switch.

But before you sign a contract, know the pros and cons, because some buyers end up having to pay for years and years and never see the promised savings.

Angela Thompson was excited when her elderly brother signed on to purchase rooftop solar panels after a salesman promised he would save money on his electric bill.

But her jaw dropped when she looked at the contract her brother signed.

"He doesn't have enough income to cover it," Thompson said.

She said the salesperson got her brother to agree to $129 a month for nearly two and a half decades, paying $37,000 in total, including $15,000 in interest.

"They want him to pay for 25 years," Thompson said.

But her brother is 83 years old, meaning he is supposed to pay until he is 108 years old.

CNET: Be sure to do your homework

Andrew Blok is an editor at CNET . Unfortunately, he has seen this before.

He said the top selling points for solar include savings, environmental benefits and boosted reliability.

But Blok said it’s a bad idea to rush your decision.

That's where it's easy to sign a bad contract that can wipe out your savings.

"Talk to multiple installers," he said. "Don't go with your first quote."

Next, he said do your research.

That means reading reviews online and even asking your neighbors.

“Their first-hand experience is super valuable," Blok said.

He said if you're paying cash, "don't pay all of it until your system is installed and operating.”

Finally, he said to check for savings from the government.

“You can get a 30% tax credit on the investment,” he said.

Check homeowner's guide

Garrett Nilsen is the deputy director of the Solar Energy Technologies office at the US Department of Energy.

Their website features the Homeowner's Guide to Going Solar.

“Read through the whole thing and understand the process," Nilsen said.

If solar feels like a good fit, he said this is the perfect time to flip the switch.

But as Angela Thompson and her brother learned, a bad loan can lock you in for years.

That's why you need to ask a lot of questions before signing a solar contract.

“It's not going to save him any money at all," Thompson said.

That way you don’t waste your money.

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'Bring Your Toothbrush': Ex-Judge Warns Trump About Jail Time

A former judge has a warning for Donald Trump: bring your toothbrush, because a jail cell is probably in your future. Via Raw Story:

Retired California Superior Court Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, during an appearance on CNN on Sunday, was asked about Trump's recent decision to attack the family of the judge in the former president's criminal case. In one instance, Trump posted multiple photos of the judge's daughter. Cordell said Trump, "just like a child, has to be told what he cannot do no matter how obvious like, you don't threaten people, you don't threaten judges, you don't threaten family members. (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=6e68be0f-666a-4f9f-a109-6bb52f458823'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "6e68be0f-666a-4f9f-a109-6bb52f458823" }).render("50181ec0e7454b3ebd59b39e4c97cdfb"); }); "So Judge Merchan I believe should immediately expand the gag order to include himself and his family members and include D.A. Bragg and his family members," she said. "I tell you I fail to understand why judges do not include themselves and their family members in these gag orders. They haven't done so. Their lives and the lives of their families have been subjected to death threats, all because of Donald Trump's words, and that kind of speech is not protected by the First Amendment." The host then asks her what happens "when" Trump breaks the gag order. "When and not if, I think you're right, Omar, when he steps across that gag order line, and I do hope it will be expanded," she said she has "only one response: bring your toothbrush, Donald Trump, because you're going to sit in a jail cell for a while."

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

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What Gag Order? Trump Takes Another Shot At The Judge

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Cash-strapped Trump is now selling $60 Bibles, U.S. Constitution included

Rachel Treisman

Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., during a controversial 2020 photo-op. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., during a controversial 2020 photo-op.

Former President Donald Trump is bringing together church and state in a gilded package for his latest venture, a $60 "God Bless The USA" Bible complete with copies of the nation's founding documents.

Trump announced the launch of the leather-bound, large-print, King James Bible in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday — a day after the social media company surged in its trading debut and two days after a New York appeals court extended his bond deadline to comply with a ruling in a civil fraud case and slashed the bond amount by 61%.

"Happy Holy Week! Let's Make America Pray Again," Trump wrote. "As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible."

Consider This from NPR

Why trump's persecution narrative resonates with christian supporters.

The Bible is inspired by "God Bless the USA," the patriotic Lee Greenwood anthem that has been a fixture at many a Trump rally (and has a long political history dating back to Ronald Reagan). It is the only Bible endorsed by Trump as well as Greenwood, according to its promotional website .

The Bible is only available online and sells for $59.99 (considerably more expensive than the traditional Bibles sold at major retailers, or those available for free at many churches and hotels). It includes Greenwood's handwritten chorus of its titular song as well as copies of historical documents including the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance.

"Many of you have never read them and don't know the liberties and rights you have as Americans, and how you are being threatened to lose those rights," Trump said in a three-minute video advertisement.

"Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast."

'You gotta be tough': White evangelicals remain enthusiastic about Donald Trump

Trump critics on both sides of the aisle quickly criticized the product, characterizing it as self-serving and hypocritical.

Conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes slammed him for "commodifying the Bible during Holy Week," while Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota critiqued him for "literally taking a holy book and selling it, and putting it out there in order to make money for his campaign."

Trump says the money isn't going to his campaign, but more on that below.

Klobuchar added that Trump's public attacks on others are "not consistent with the teachings of the Bible," calling this "one more moment of hypocrisy." Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser for anti-Trump Republican PAC the Lincoln Project, called it "blasphemous ."

And former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, trolled Trump with a social media post alluding to his alleged extramarital affairs.

"Happy Holy Week, Donald," she wrote. "Instead of selling Bibles, you should probably buy one. And read it, including Exodus 20:14 ."

Christianity is an increasingly prominent part of his campaign

Trump has made a point of cultivating Christian supporters since his 2016 presidential campaign and remains popular with white evangelicals despite his multiple divorces, insults toward marginalized groups and allegations of extramarital affairs and sexual assault.

And his narrative of being persecuted — including in the courts — appears to resonate with his many Christian supporters.

Trump has increasingly embraced Christian nationalist ideas in public. He promised a convention of religious broadcasters last month that he would use a second term to defend Christian values from the "radical left," swearing that "no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration."

He made similar comments in the Bible promotional video, in which he warned that "Christians are under siege" and the country is "going haywire" because it lost religion.

What to know about the debut of Trump's $399 golden, high-top sneakers

"We must defend God in the public square and not allow the media or the left-wing groups to silence, censor or discriminate against us," he said. "We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and back into what will be again a great nation."

Trump himself is not known to be particularly religious or a regular churchgoer. He long identified as Presbyterian but announced in 2020 that he identified as nondenominational .

A Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month found that most people with positive views of Trump don't see him as especially religious, but think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like their own.

Trump said in the promotional video that he has many Bibles at home.

"It's my favorite book," he said, echoing a comment he's made in previous years. "It's a lot of people's favorite book."

The Impact Of Christian Nationalism On American Democracy

Trump's relationship to the Bible has been a point of discussion and sometimes controversy over the years.

In 2020, amid protests over George Floyd's murder, he posed with a Bible outside a Washington, D.C., church, for which he was widely criticized. U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops had tear-gassed peaceful protesters in the area beforehand, seemingly to make way for the photo-op, though a watchdog report the following year determined otherwise .

That same year, a clip of a 2015 Bloomberg interview, in which Trump declines to name his favorite — or any — Bible verse resurfaced on social media and went viral.

Bible sales are unlikely to solve Trump's financial problems

An FAQ section on the Bible website says no profits will go to Trump's reelection campaign.

"GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign," it says.

However, the site adds that it uses Trump's name, likeness and image "under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC."

Trump is listed as the manager, president, secretary and treasurer of CIC Ventures LLC in a financial disclosure from last year.

Here's what happens if Trump can't pay his $454 million bond

Trump's sales pitch focuses on bringing religion back to America.

"I want to have a lot of people have it," he said at one point in the video. "You have to have it for your heart and for your soul."

But many are wondering whether Trump has something else to gain from Bible sales while facing under mounting financial pressure.

There's his presidential reelection campaign, which has raised only about half of what Biden's has so far this cycle. Trump acknowledged Monday that he "might" spend his own money on his campaign, something he hasn't done since 2016.

There's also his mounting legal expenses, as he faces four criminal indictments and numerous civil cases. Trump posted bond to support a $83.3 million jury award granted to writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation case earlier this month, and was due to put up another $454 million in a civil fraud case this past Monday.

Trump is on the verge of a windfall of billions of dollars. Here are 3 things to know

His lawyers had said last week that they had approached 30 companies for help making bond, but doing so was a "practical impossibility" — prompting New York's attorney general to confirm that if Trump did not pay, she would move to seize his assets . On Monday, the appeals court reduced the bond amount to $175 million and gave Trump another 10 days to post it.

Trump has evidently been trying to raise money in other ways.

The day after the civil fraud judgment was announced, he debuted a line of $399 golden, high-top sneakers , which sold out in hours . The company behind his social media app, Truth Social, started trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday, which could deliver him a windfall of more than $3 billion — though he can't sell his shares for another six months.

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Meaning of do your homework in English

Do your homework.

• batten down the hatches idiom
• break someone in
• bug-out bag
• build (someone/something) up
• get/have your ducks in a row idiom
• gird your self idiom
• roll up your sleeves idiom
• set something up
• set the scene/stage idiom

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having no legal force

Sitting on the fence (Newspaper idioms)

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The IRS Owes $1B in Refunds to 940,000 Taxpayers from 2021. How to Claim Your Money

Are you owed a refund from 2021? File now because it won't be here for long.

After three years, the IRS turns over any unclaimed tax refunds to the US Treasury.

The IRS could owe you money from your 2020 tax return -- including for the  2020 Recovery Rebate Credit -- and the unclaimed refund is set to disappear in a bit less than  two months . If you didn't file taxes in 2021 because you didn't think you qualified, you forgot or you simply didn't want to deal with the stress of filing , the IRS could be holding onto some money for you. The average unpaid refund amount is $932. But the IRS won't be hanging on to these funds for much longer. 

According to the IRS , it is holding more than $1 billion in unclaimed money for almost 940,000 taxpayers from 2020. If you're one of the many taxpayers who never claimed their 2020 refund, you don't have much time left to act. By law, the IRS keeps these unclaimed tax refunds for three years. The agency usually transfers the money to the US Treasury after the deadline passes to claim your refund. 

Usually, tax payers have three years from the end of the tax season they didn't claim their refund. However, this year is a bit different. Back in 2021, the deadline to file your taxes was extended until May 17, 2021, which means that you have until May 17, 2024, if you want to claim any missing money. 

Online tax software can help you complete your tax return to claim a tax refund for 2021 (you can also use your  phone to scan your important tax documents ), but you can't file 2021 returns electronically. You must file prior-year tax returns on paper. To do that, you'll need to print and mail your 2020 tax return for 2021 to a specific regional IRS office, depending on where you live.

Read on to learn about how to claim your 2020 tax refund, including what to do if you're missing old forms, and where to mail your 2020 tax return.

For more, learn how to file your taxes for free and how to track the status of this year's refund .

When is the IRS deadline to claim a tax refund from 2020?

By law, the IRS is required to hold on to unclaimed income tax refunds for three years, and filers have a three-year window from the original due date to claim their refunds. If you don't file to claim your tax refund after three years, the money becomes the property of the US Treasury, and you won't be able to get it back.

What is the due date this year? Back in 2021, the IRS extended the tax deadline from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021, due to continued financial strain from the  COVID-19 pandemic , so if you want to claim your missing money, you'll need to file 2020's return by May 17, 2024. 

Since tax returns for prior years cannot be filed electronically, you'll need to ensure that your 2021 return is addressed to the proper IRS regional office and postmarked by that May 17 date for most taxpayers. 

What is the Recovery Rebate Credit? 

Think back to 2020 and 2021, you'll likely remember the three economic impact payments, more commonly known as stimulus checks, that were sent out. While many received the full amount of their economic impact payments, it's possible that you could be missing all or part of one or more of those payments. 

Enter the recovery rebate credit. If you missed one or more of your economic impact payments or didn't get the full amount you were owed, you could have indicated this on your 2020 and 2021 tax returns, and the government would pay you the money you were owed. If you missed out on all or part of your stimulus check payments in 2020 and you didn't file your 2020 tax return, you have until May 17, 2024, to claim your missing money. If you only missed out on 2021's Economic Impact Payment and didn't file your 2021 return, you have until April 15, 2025, to file your return and claim your missing money.

How can I find out if the IRS has an unclaimed tax refund for me?

There's no easy way for taxpayers to discover whether or not they're missing tax refund money from 2021. The only way to learn if the IRS is holding an old refund for you is to file a return for that year.

The IRS  Where's My Refund tool can't help; it only reports the refund status of those who've already filed their taxes.

However, you can find out the amount of your missing recovery rebate credit. According to the IRS , you'll need the tax years and amounts of the economic impact payments you received so you can calculate your recovery rebate credit. After you've found the necessary information, you can either plug the information into your tax preparation software of choice or you can use the Form 1040 Recovery Rebate Credit Worksheet to calculate how much you are owed. 

To find the amount of your economic impact payments, you can either check your IRS online account or one of the several mailed notices the IRS sent with the amounts of the payments. The mailed notices are Notice 1444 (for the first Economic Impact Payment which was delivered in 2020), Notice 1444-B (for the second Economic Impact Payment which was delivered in 2020) and Notice 1444-C (for the third Economic Impact Payment delivered in 2021). 

How can I claim my 2020 income tax refund from the IRS?

To claim a refund for 2020, you will need to submit your 2020 tax return through the mail. Most tax software publishers keep their prior years' software available for three years. Tax software can help you complete IRS Form 1040 and all the other required forms and schedules, but it cannot e-file for you. You'll need to print, sign and properly address the printed tax return, which needs to be postmarked no later than May 17, 2024 for most tax filers.

To file an old 2020 tax return, you'll need to mail it to a specific regional IRS center listed on the last page of this year's   IRS Form 1040 instructions (these instructions are from last year's filing season, but the addresses of the regional IRS centers are still valid). The address you need to use depends on the state or US territory in which you live.

The IRS notes that the agency may continue to hold your 2020 tax refund if you have not filed tax returns for 2021 and 2022.

What documents do I need to file my 2020 income tax return?

You can find the tax forms for 2020 on the IRS  forms page . If you're missing a W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 from 2019, the IRS recommends you request a copy from your employer or bank.

You can also order a free wage and income  transcript from the IRS and then use the information from the transcript to file your tax return. To download an instant transcript, you'll need to create an online IRS account if you don't already have one.

Can my unclaimed refund be kept by the IRS to cover tax debt?

If you think you were due a refund from 2021 but you don't receive one after you file your old tax return, all or part of your tax refund may have been offset , meaning it was used to pay past-due federal tax, state income tax, state unemployment compensation debts, child support, spousal support or other federal debts such as student loans.

Tax refund offsets that cover past-due federal taxes are managed by the IRS, and you should receive a notice from the agency explaining the offset. All other refund offsets are handled by the Bureau of Fiscal Services' Treasury Offset Program , which should also send you a notice if your tax refund was used to pay debts.

If you don't believe you owe back federal taxes and receive an offset notice from the IRS, you can call the agency at 800-829-1040 for more information. For all other debt-related tax return offsets, you can call the Treasury Offset Program at 800-304-3107 to find out more details.

Music | Record Store Day is this month; here are some…

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Music | record store day is this month; here are some jazz recommendations, most record stores are independent now, unless you purchase your vinyl at target.

Record Store Day returns to independent outlets on Saturday, April 20. Most record stores are independent now, unless you purchase your vinyl at Target. It’s a day designated to encourage you to deplete your wallet in exchange for limited-edition rarities, but it’s been said such an activity can be therapeutic.

Who am I to argue? I understand the excitement surrounding the possession of a rare object, especially if that object transports you. This year’s Record Store Day features a treasure trove of archival jazz-related releases, and a few of genuine historic significance. The following titles will also be available on CD as of April 26 if, like me, you remain committed to that format.

Pianist Art Tatum is underacknowledged at this point in music history, and that’s a shame. He played in a stunning, authoritative style, and his recordings have always been a joy to take in. Curator Zev Feldman (involved in a large percentage of archival finds lately) has unearthed three LPs worth of excellent material for “Jewels In The Treasure Box” on the Resonance Records label.

Tatum’s legendary technical prowess is on display throughout, and even if you’re not a student of jazz piano, these recordings, made at the Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club in 1953, are delightful. “Jewels” should prove to be one of the most satisfying musical history lessons of the year, and it’s miraculous that jazz this full of life has been unearthed more than 70 years after it was put to recording tape.

In 1959, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins was thrilling audiences all over the world with his luminous virtuosity. He must have been considered something of a rebel due to his decision to work without a pianist in the band, which freed him up to explore unorthodox spaces. The legendary sessions on “Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings” (also on Resonance) have been floating around illicitly for decades, and it’s good to have them all collected in an authorized four LP set.

This is exciting music. Working with bassist Henry Grimes and three rotating drummers, Rollins seems to effortlessly project invention at every turn. I did a sonic comparison to the bootleg versions of this material, and these tapes have been cleaned up nicely, particularly when it comes to Rollins’ searing tenor runs. There are also terrific liner notes detailing this period in his exceptional career, with forthright commentary from the man himself, who has allegedly hung up his saxophone but is still thriving at the age of 93.

Also worth seeking out for aficionados of these artists: the expansive and warm “Atlantis Lullaby” from woodwind king Yusef Lateef (he must never be forgotten!) as well as “The Mighty Warriors” from a pair of geniuses, Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy. And, hey, even though there are countless live Sun Ra dates available on vinyl, “At The Showcase: Live In Chicago 1976-1977” really stands out in its off-kilter intensity. Ra is my favorite synthesizer player of all time.

Best of luck in your Record Store Day endeavors.

More jazz this month: Guitarist John Scofield plays Dazzle April 4-5 in support of his heartfelt, covers-heavy new album, “Uncle John’s Band.” Also at Dazzle this month: saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his group on April 11, and one-time Miles Davis sideman Kenny Garrett , a formidable talent on alto sax, April 18-19. … Singer Marion Powers pays tribute to Billie Holiday at Denver’s Nocturne on April 7 and 14. … Pink Martini plays Boettcher Concert Hall on April 19. … The multiple Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider brings her orchestra to the Newman Center on May 3.

Bret Saunders is a Boulder-based radio DJ and jazz afficionado. 

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