What do home assignments mean for college students?

Sometimes you do your homework sincerely on your own and submit it to the teacher on time and sometimes you copy it from elsewhere at the last moment and fortunately meet your deadline. And sometimes, you may not submit your assignments at all, and start thinking of excuses to be on the safe side when you meet the teacher in class.

So, whether you like it or not, you cannot escape the pressure you get from piles of assignments you’re given at college. Being an issue that’s talked about by almost all college goers, how significant do they think are assignments?

“We’re habituated to doing homework since our schooldays and I pretty much agree that doing so is as important in college life, too,” says Utsav Ranjit, 22.

A student pursuing Bachelor’s in Information Management (BIM) at St Xavier’s College at Maitighar, he opines that more often than not, students develop a habit to study when they are given pressure from college.



Utsav says he has no problem dedicating his time completing assignments. “If there’s no assignment, I tend to lose track of the progress of the chapters in class,” he says.

However, it disheartens him when the submission deadlines of different subjects’ assignments clash.

“We can’t concentrate on assignments we’re given if we have too much of work to do in a short period of time,” he says.

Another undergraduate student, Samikshya Kafle, 21, studying at National College in Baluwatar, also says that no matter how much pressurized she feels when she is given an assignment, she makes it a point to complete it in time.

“Even if it means doing it at the last moment, I complete it,” says Samikshya, who is also currently doing an internship and remains busy throughout the day after college.

“I usually don’t understand subjects like Mathematics by just listening to teachers in class. Such practical subjects need intense practice, and when we’re given homework, we tend to understand the subject better,” she says.

Samikshya adds, “Assignments can be helpful only if a student does it by understanding it clearly. Copying from the Internet or from someone else just for the sake of submitting it won’t do any help.”

Pragyan Raj Pokharel, 21, has similar opinions.

“A portion of our final evaluation is based on our assignments, so I usually do my homework sincerely and on time,” says the undergraduate student enrolled in Kathmandu Forestry College in Balkumari.

At college, they are given assignments after the completion of each chapter so they get to revise at home whatever they study in class, he informs. He adds, “It’s very useful during examinations as we won’t have to start mugging up everything in the last hour. We’ll have understood the major portions of the subject already while doing the assignments, that is, if we do the assignments sincerely.”

Pragyan opines that the free time after college is also properly utilized if students are given homework.

He also feels that doing homework and obeying the teachers mean showing them respect. “Doing assignment is a platform to learn more, which is what students go to college for,” he adds.

While Aashreeva KC, 20, a BBA student at Kathmandu College of Management in Gwarko, says that her likeliness of doing homework depends on what kind of tasks she is assigned.

“I feel bored to do homework that’s given on a daily basis by teachers on questions whose answers are found in textbooks,” she says, claiming that such assignments aren’t even helpful.

“But if the assignments are given in the form of group projects or reports on field visits, I feel excited to do them,” she shares, adding that she prefers doing only those assignments from which she can learn something new. “I like to explore my creativity and originality in assignments,” she shares.

“And if teachers don’t properly check the homework they assign the students or don’t return them their work with evaluation or don’t collect them at all, we’re totally discouraged to do assignments in future,” she observes.

Likewise, Durga Laxmi Hada, a teacher at Cosmos College of Management and Technology in Satdobato, says, “There are many students who don’t take studies seriously. So we give them homework so that they become a little more dedicated to studying.”

She also adds that giving homework is a way of testing the students’ sincerity. “However, many students do their assignments just for the sake of doing it, or some just copy it from their friends,” she observes.

She gives assignments to her students regularly. “It’s good to give homework to students. Providing notes alone won’t help much, so through assignments, they’ll get to learn a lot by themselves,” she opines.

Hada dislikes the idea that students are over pressurized with homework. “Teachers should make sure that they don’t overload the students with assignments and that reasonable deadlines are set. If the assignment load stresses the students, it will only degrade their performance,” she concludes.