By Kristan Brooks
The popular notion that students are overburdened with homework may be a myth.
According to national research released earlier this month, the average daily time students in the United States spent on homework increased from 16 minutes in 1981 to slightly more than 19 minutes in 1997. Brookings Institution researchers found little appears to have changed since then.
'The students whose homework has increased in the past decade are those who previously had no homework and now have a small amount,' said Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, in a news release. The center based its research on two decades of time-use studies and surveys of students and parents.
At the university level, students may expect to spend more time studying.
BYU students are told to expect three hours of homework for every one hour spent in class, so a student taking 12 credit hours could expect to have as much as 36 hours a week -- six hours of homework six days a week.
Fifty students surveyed informally in the Wilkinson Student Center, however, only spend an average of two hours and 30 minutes each day doing homework.
'I usually only do the written homework,' said Rachel Hodges, 19, a sophomore from Escondido, Calif., majoring in psychology. 'If I''m not going to have to take a quiz over it, I usually wait until the test to read it.'
Shelley Spencer, 23, a senior from Salt Lake City, majoring in English, said it is all about prioritizing.
'I do about 80 percent of my homework, but I have to prioritize it according to how much time I have,' Spencer said. 'Sometimes it does not get done before class, but I try to eventually do it.'
Jeff Sokol, 21, a sophomore from Salt Lake City, majoring in paleontology, said he does 100 percent of his homework.
'But, I usually only have an hour and 45 minutes of homework a night,' Sokol said.
Finding a quiet place to study provides another challenge, students say.
Erin Thornhill, 20, a junior from Mesa, Ariz., majoring in print journalism, said the hardest place for her to study is where it should be the easiest -- the library.
'If I can get myself to sit down in a chair, then I can be productive,' Thornhill said. 'The social atmosphere is sometimes just too much, and I just can''t get myself to study.'
Katie Pugh, 21, a senior from Holladay, majoring in math education, heads into the library and immediately goes up to the fourth floor by the Learning Resource Center.
'I am usually at the library for two or three hours a day, but I usually only do a little over one hour of homework,' Pugh said. 'If I have to do some serious studying I know I can''t go to the fourth floor. It is just too social.'