how much time do students spend on homework daily

• Future Students
• Current Students
• Faculty/Staff

News and Media

• News & Media Home
• Research Stories
• School’s In
• In the Media

You are here

More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

More Stories

⟵ Go to all Research Stories

Get the Educator

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Stanford Graduate School of Education

482 Galvez Mall Stanford, CA 94305-3096 Tel: (650) 723-2109

• Contact Admissions
• GSE Leadership
• Site Feedback
• Web Accessibility
• Career Resources
• Faculty Open Positions
• Explore Courses
• Academic Calendar
• Office of the Registrar
• Cubberley Library
• StanfordWho
• StanfordYou

Improving lives through learning

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

• August 15 Mighty Cardinal Band attends summer camp to practice show
• July 17 International Thespian Festival
• June 15 Future Problem Solvers place second in Texas with community project
• May 28 Engi-near the finish line
• May 17 Love is in the air

Three Penny Press

Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

Your donation will support the student journalists of Bellaire High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

From a spark to an Edaburn

Lifelong friends

Future Problem Solvers place second in Texas with community project

HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Raymond Han

HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Mia Lopez

Mighty Cardinal Band attends summer camp to practice show

International Thespian Festival

Engi-near the finish line

Love is in the air

Comments (8).

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anonymous • Jul 16, 2024 at 3:27 pm

didnt realy help

Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

• Our Mission

What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

The way U.S. teens spend their time is changing, but differences between boys and girls persist

Teens today are spending their time differently than they did a decade ago. They’re devoting more time to sleep and homework, and less time to paid work and socializing. But what has not changed are the differences between teen boys and girls in time spent on leisure, grooming, homework, housework and errands, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Overall, teens (ages 15 to 17) spend an hour a day, on average, doing homework during the school year, up from 44 minutes a day about a decade ago and 30 minutes in the mid-1990s.

Teens are also getting more shut-eye than they did in the past. They are clocking an average of over nine and a half hours of sleep a night, an increase of 22 minutes compared with teens a decade ago and almost an hour more than those in the mid-1990s. Sleep patterns fluctuate quite a bit – on weekends, teens average about 11 hours, while on weekdays they typically get just over nine hours a night. (While these findings are derived from time diaries in which respondents record the amount of time they slept on the prior night, results from other types of surveys suggest teens are getting fewer hours of sleep .) 

Teens now enjoy more than five and a half hours of leisure a day (5 hours, 44 minutes). The biggest chunk of teens’ daily leisure time is spent on screens: 3 hours and 4 minutes on average. This figure, which can include time spent gaming, surfing the web, watching videos and watching TV, has held steady over the past decade. On weekends, screen time increases to almost four hours a day (3 hours, 53 minutes), and on weekdays teens are spending 2 hours and 44 minutes on screens.

Time spent playing sports has held steady at around 45 minutes, as has the time teens spend in other types of leisure such as shopping for clothes, listening to music and reading for pleasure.

Time spent by teens in other leisure activities has declined. Over the past decade, the time spent socializing – including attending parties, extracurriculars, sporting or other entertainment events as well as spending time with others in person or on the phone – has dropped by 16 minutes, to 1 hour and 13 minutes a day.

Teens also are spending less time on paid work during the school year than their predecessors: 26 minutes a day, on average, compared with 49 minutes about a decade ago and 57 minutes in the mid-1990s. Much of this decline reflects the fact that teens are less likely to work today than in the past; among employed teens, the amount of time spent working is not much different now than it was around 2005.

While the way teens overall spend their time has changed in a number of ways, persistent gender differences in time use remain. Teen boys are spending an average of about six hours a day in leisure time, compared with roughly five hours a day for girls – driven largely by the fact that boys are spending about an hour (58 minutes) more a day than girls engaged in screen time. Boys also spend more time playing sports: 59 minutes vs. 33 minutes for girls.

On the flip side, girls spend 10 more minutes a day, on average, shopping for items such as clothes or going to the mall (15 minutes vs. 5 minutes).

Teen girls also spend more time than boys on grooming activities, such as bathing, getting dressed, getting haircuts, and other activities related to their hygiene and appearance. Girls spend an average of about an hour a day on these types of tasks (1 hour, 3 minutes); boys spend 40 minutes on them.

Girls also devote 21 more minutes a day to homework than boys do – 71 minutes vs. 50 minutes, on average, during the school year. This pattern has held steady over the past decade, as the amount of time spent on homework has risen equally for boys and girls.

When it comes to the amount of time spent on housework, the differences between boys and girls reflect gender dynamics that are also evident among adults . Teenage girls spend 38 minutes a day, on average, helping around the house during the school year, compared with 24 minutes a day for boys. The bulk of this gap is driven by the fact that girls spend more than twice as much time cleaning up and preparing food as boys do (29 minutes vs. 12 minutes). There are not significant differences in the amount of time boys and girls spend on home maintenance and lawn care.

Girls also spend more time running errands, such as shopping for groceries (21 minutes vs. 11 minutes for boys).

In addition to these differences in how they spend their time, the way boys and girls feel about their day also differs in some key ways. A new survey by Pew Research Center of teens ages 13 to 17 finds that 36% of girls say they feel tense or nervous about their day every or almost every day; 23% of boys say the same. At the same time, girls are more likely than boys to say they get excited daily or almost daily by something they study in school (33% vs. 21%). And while similar shares of boys and girls say they feel a lot of pressure to get good grades, be involved in extracurricular activities or fit in socially, girls are more likely than boys to say they face a lot of pressure to look good (35% vs. 23%).

This analysis is based primarily on time diary data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which has been sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and annually conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2003. The ATUS produces a nationally representative sample of respondents, drawn from the Current Population Survey.

Most of the analyses are based on respondents in the 2003-2006 and the 2014-2017 ATUS samples (referred to in the text as “2005” and “2015”). Data regarding time use in the mid-1990s is based on 1992-1994 data from the American Heritage Time Use Survey (AHTUS). For all time points, multiple years of data were combined in order to increase sample size. Because time use among teens can vary so much between the summer and the school year, only data for September through June are used for these analyses. Although focused on the school year, the data also reflect time use during school holidays, such as spring break.

These time diaries track in detail how Americans spend their time, focusing on each respondent’s primary activity (i.e., the main thing they were doing) sequentially for the prior day, including the start and end times for each activity.

All data were accessed via the ATUS-X website made available through IPUMS .

• Age & Generations
• Gender & LGBTQ
• Generation Z
• Teens & Tech
• Teens & Youth

Gretchen Livingston is a former senior researcher focusing on fertility and family demographics at Pew Research Center .

U.S. adults under 30 have different foreign policy priorities than older adults

Across asia, respect for elders is seen as necessary to be ‘truly’ buddhist, teens and video games today, as biden and trump seek reelection, who are the oldest – and youngest – current world leaders, how teens and parents approach screen time, most popular.

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

How Much Homework Do American Kids Do?

Various factors, from the race of the student to the number of years a teacher has been in the classroom, affect a child's homework load.

In his Atlantic essay , Karl Taro Greenfeld laments his 13-year-old daughter's heavy homework load. As an eighth grader at a New York middle school, Greenfeld’s daughter averaged about three hours of homework per night and adopted mantras like “memorization, not rationalization” to help her get it all done. Tales of the homework-burdened American student have become common, but are these stories the exception or the rule?

A 2007 Metlife study found that 45 percent of students in grades three to 12 spend more than an hour a night doing homework, including the six percent of students who report spending more than three hours a night on their homework. In the 2002-2003 school year, a study out of the University of Michigan found that American students ages six through 17 spent three hours and 38 minutes per week doing homework.

A range of factors plays into how much homework each individual student gets:

Older students do more homework than their younger counterparts.

This one is fairly obvious: The National Education Association recommends that homework time increase by ten minutes per year in school. (e.g., A third grader would have 30 minutes of homework, while a seventh grader would have 70 minutes).

Studies have found that schools tend to roughly follow these guidelines: The University of Michigan found that students ages six to eight spend 29 minutes doing homework per night while 15- to 17-year-old students spend 50 minutes doing homework. The Metlife study also found that 50 percent of students in grades seven to 12 spent more than an hour a night on homework, while 37 percent of students in grades three to six spent an hour or more on their homework per night. The National Center for Educational Statistics found that high school students who do homework outside of school average 6.8 hours of homework per week.

Race plays a role in how much homework students do.

Asian students spend 3.5 more hours on average doing homework per week than their white peers. However, only 59 percent of Asian students’ parents check that homework is done, while 75.6 percent of Hispanic students’ parents and 83.1 percent of black students’ parents check.

Teachers with less experience assign more homework.

The Metlife study found that 14 percent of teachers with zero to five years of teaching experience assigned more than an hour of homework per night, while only six percent of teachers with 21 or more years of teaching experience assigned over an hour of homework.

Math classes have homework the most frequently.

The Metlife study found that 70 percent of students in grades three to 12 had at least one homework assignment in math. Sixty-two percent had at least one homework assignment in a language arts class (English, reading, spelling, or creative writing courses) and 42 percent had at least one in a science class.

Regardless of how much homework kids are actually doing every night, most parents and teachers are happy with the way things are: 60 percent of parents think that their children have the “right amount of homework,” and 73 percent of teachers think their school assigns the right amount of homework.

Students, however, are not necessarily on board: 38 percent of students in grades seven through 12 and 28 percent of students in grades three through six report being “very often/often” stressed out by their homework.

About the Author

More Stories

Are 'Tiger Moms' Better Than Cool Moms?

This Is What the New SAT Will Be Like

How much time should you spend studying? Our ‘Goldilocks Day’ tool helps find the best balance of good grades and  well-being

Senior Research Fellow, Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia

Professor of Health Sciences, University of South Australia

Disclosure statement

Dot Dumuid is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship GNT1162166 and by the Centre of Research Excellence in Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health funded by NHMRC GNT1171981.

Tim Olds receives funding from the NHMRC and the ARC.

University of South Australia provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

For students, as for all of us, life is a matter of balance, trade-offs and compromise. Studying for hours on end is unlikely to lead to best academic results. And it could have negative impacts on young people’s physical, mental and social well-being.

Our recent study found the best way for young people to spend their time was different for mental health than for physical health, and even more different for school-related outcomes. Students needed to spend more time sitting for best cognitive and academic performance, but physical activity trumped sitting time for best physical health. For best mental health, longer sleep time was most important.

It’s like a game of rock, paper, scissors with time use. So, what is the sweet spot, or as Goldilocks put it, the “just right” amount of study?

Read more: Back to school: how to help your teen get enough sleep

Using our study data for Australian children aged 11 and 12, we are developing a time-optimisation tool that allows the user to define their own mental, physical and cognitive health priorities. Once the priorities are set, the tool provides real-time updates on what the user’s estimated “Goldilocks day” looks like.

More study improves grades, but not as much as you think

Over 30 years of research shows that students doing more homework get better grades. However, extra study doesn’t make as much difference as people think. An American study found the average grades of high school boys increased by only about 1.5 percentage points for every extra hour of homework per school night.

What these sorts of studies don’t consider is that the relationship between time spent doing homework and academic achievement is unlikely to be linear. A high school boy doing an extra ten hours of homework per school night is unlikely to improve his grades by 15 percentage points.

There is a simple explanation for this: doing an extra ten hours of homework after school would mean students couldn’t go to bed until the early hours of the morning. Even if they could manage this for one day, it would be unsustainable over a week, let alone a month. In any case, adequate sleep is probably critical for memory consolidation .

Read more: What's the point of homework?

As we all know, there are only 24 hours in a day. Students can’t devote more time to study without taking this time from other parts of their day. Excessive studying may become detrimental to learning ability when too much sleep time is lost.

Another US study found that, regardless of how long a student normally spent studying, sacrificing sleep to fit in more study led to learning problems on the following day. Among year 12s, cramming in an extra three hours of study almost doubled their academic problems. For example, students reported they “did not understand something taught in class” or “did poorly on a test, quiz or homework”.

Excessive study could also become unhelpful if it means students don’t have time to exercise. We know exercise is important for young people’s cognition , particularly their creative thinking, working memory and concentration.

On the one hand, then, more time spent studying is beneficial for grades. On the other hand, too much time spent studying is detrimental to grades.

We have to make trade-offs

Of course, how young people spend their time is not only important to their academic performance, but also to their health. Because what is the point of optimising school grades if it means compromising physical, mental and social well-being? And throwing everything at academic performance means other aspects of health will suffer.

US sleep researchers found the ideal amount of sleep for for 15-year-old boys’ mental health was 8 hours 45 minutes a night, but for the best school results it was one hour less.

Clearly, to find the “Goldilocks Zone” – the optimal balance of study, exercise and sleep – we need to think about more than just school grades and academic achievement.

Read more: 'It was the best five years of my life!' How sports programs are keeping disadvantaged teens at school

Looking for the Goldilocks Day

Based on our study findings , we realised the “Goldilocks Day” that was the best on average for all three domains of health (mental, physical and cognitive) would require compromises. Our optimisation algorithm estimated the Goldilocks Day with the best overall compromise for 11-to-12-year-olds. The breakdown was roughly:

10.5 hours of sleep

9.5 hours of sedentary behaviour (such as sitting to study, chill out, eat and watch TV)

2.5 hours of light physical activity (chores, shopping)

1.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (sport, running).

We also recognised that people – or the same people at different times — have different priorities. Around exam time, academic performance may become someone’s highest priority. They may then wish to manage their time in a way that leads to better study results, but without completely neglecting their mental or physical health.

To better explore these trade-offs, we developed our time-use optimisation tool based on Australian data . Although only an early prototype, the tool shows there is no “one size fits all” solution to how young people should be spending their time. However, we can be confident the best solutions will involve a healthy balance across multiple daily activities.

Just like we talk about the benefits of a balanced diet, we should start talking about the benefits of balanced time use. The better equipped young people and those supporting them are to find their optimal daily balance of sleep, sedentary behaviours and physical activities, the better their learning outcomes will be, without compromising their health and well-being.

• Mental health
• Physical activity
• Children's mental health
• Children and sleep
• Children's well-being
• children's physical health
• Sleep research

Casual Facilitator: GERRIC Student Programs - Arts, Design and Architecture

Senior Lecturer, Digital Advertising

Service Delivery Fleet Coordinator

Manager, Centre Policy and Translation

Newsletter and Deputy Social Media Producer

Interactive visualization requires JavaScript

Related research and data

• Country-level estimates of patience
• Country-level estimates of positive reciprocity
• Depression prevalence vs. self-reported life satisfaction
• Gender gap in leisure time
• Happiness inequality during periods of economic growth
• Happiness vs. life satisfaction
• How Europeans spend their time
• How important family is to people in life
• How important friends are to people in life
• How important leisure is to people in life
• How important politics is to people in life
• How important religion is to people in life
• How important work is to people in life
• Life satisfaction vs. CO₂ emissions per capita
• Life satisfaction vs. child mortality
• Life satisfaction vs. life expectancy
• Participation time by activity, per day
• Participation time in household and family care per day
• Participation time in leisure, social, and associative life per day
• Participation time in personal care per day
• People who report having friends or relatives they can count on
• Self-reported life satisfaction
• Self-reported life satisfaction vs. GDP per capita
• Share of people who say they are happy First & last waves
• Share of people who say they are happy
• Share of people who say they are satisfied with their life
• Share that feel safe walking alone around the area they live at night
• Time spent on leisure, social, and associative life per day
• Weekly hours dedicated to home production in the USA, by demographic group

Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone.

Help us do this work by making a donation.

How Much Time Do College Students Spend on Homework

by Jack Tai | Oct 9, 2019 | Articles

Does college life involve more studying or socializing?

Find out how much time college students need to devote to their homework in order to succeed in class.

We all know that it takes hard work to succeed in college and earn top grades.

To find out more about the time demands of studying and learning, let’s review the average homework amounts of college students.

HowtoLearn.com expert, Jack Tai, CEO of OneClass.com shows how homework improves grades in college and an average of how much time is required.

How Many Hours Do College Students Spend on Homework?

Classes in college are much different from those in high school.

For students in high school, a large part of learning occurs in the classroom with homework used to support class activities.

One of the first thing that college students need to learn is how to read and remember more quickly. It gives them a competitive benefit in their grades and when they learn new information to escalate their career.

Taking a speed reading course that shows you how to learn at the same time is one of the best ways for students to complete their reading assignments and their homework.

However, in college, students spend a shorter period in class and spend more time learning outside of the classroom.

This shift to an independent learning structure means that college students should expect to spend more time on homework than they did during high school.

In college, a good rule of thumb for homework estimates that for each college credit you take, you’ll spend one hour in the classroom and two to three hours on homework each week.

These homework tasks can include readings, working on assignments, or studying for exams.

Based upon these estimates, a three-credit college class would require each week to include approximately three hours attending lectures and six to nine hours of homework.

Extrapolating this out to the 15-credit course load of a full-time student, that would be 15 hours in the classroom and 30 to 45 hours studying and doing homework.

These time estimates demonstrate that college students have significantly more homework than the 10 hours per week average among high school students. In fact, doing homework in college can take as much time as a full-time job.

Students should keep in mind that these homework amounts are averages.

Students will find that some professors assign more or less homework. Students may also find that some classes assign very little homework in the beginning of the semester, but increase later on in preparation for exams or when a major project is due. 

There can even be variation based upon the major with some areas of study requiring more lab work or reading.

Do College Students Do Homework on Weekends?

Based on the quantity of homework in college, it’s nearly certain that students will be spending some of their weekends doing homework.

For example, if each weekday, a student spends three hours in class and spends five hours on homework, there’s still at least five hours of homework to do on the weekend.

When considering how homework schedules can affect learning, it’s important to remember that even though college students face a significant amount of homework, one of the best learning strategies is to space out study sessions into short time blocks.

This includes not just doing homework every day of the week, but also establishing short study blocks in the morning, afternoon, and evening. With this approach, students can avoid cramming on Sunday night to be ready for class.

What’s the Best Way to Get Help with Your Homework?

In college, there are academic resources built into campus life to support learning.

For example, you may have access to an on-campus learning center or tutoring facilities. You may also have the support of teaching assistants or regular office hours.

That’s why OneClass recommends a course like How to Read a Book in a Day and Remember It which gives a c hoice to support your learning. 

Another choice is on demand tutoring.

They send detailed, step-by-step solutions within just 24 hours, and frequently, answers are sent in less than 12 hours.

When students have on-demand access to homework help, it’s possible to avoid the poor grades that can result from unfinished homework.

Plus, 24/7 Homework Help makes it easy to ask a question. Simply snap a photo and upload it to the platform.

That’s all tutors need to get started preparing your solution.

Rather than retyping questions or struggling with math formulas, asking questions and getting answers is as easy as click and go.

Homework Help supports coursework for both high school and college students across a wide range of subjects. Moreover, students can access OneClass’ knowledge base of previously answered homework questions.

Simply browse by subject or search the directory to find out if another student struggled to learn the same class material.

Related articles

NEW COURSE: How to Read a Book in a Day and Remember It

Call for Entries Parent and Teacher Choice Awards. Winners Featured to Over 2 Million People

All About Reading-Comprehensive Instructional Reading Program

Parent & Teacher Choice Award Winner – Letter Tracing for Kids

Parent and Teacher Choice Award Winner – Number Tracing for Kids ages 3-5

Parent and Teacher Choice Award winner! Cursive Handwriting for Kids

One Minute Gratitude Journal

Parent and Teacher Choice Award winner! Cursive Handwriting for Teens

Make Teaching Easier! 1000+ Images, Stories & Activities

Prodigy Math and English – FREE Math and English Skills

Recent Posts

• 5 Essential Techniques to Teach Sight Words to Children
• 7 Most Common Reading Problems and How to Fix Them
• Best Program for Struggling Readers
• 21 Interactive Reading Strategies for Pre-Kindergarten
• 27 Education Storybook Activities to Improve Literacy

Recent Comments

• Glenda on How to Teach Spelling Using Phonics
• Dorothy on How to Tell If You Are an Employee or Entrepreneur
• Pat Wyman on 5 Best Focus and Motivation Tips
• kapenda chibanga on 5 Best Focus and Motivation Tips
• Jennifer Dean on 9 Proven Ways to Learn Anything Faster

Our 62nd annual international Conference | february 27 - march 1, 2025 | orlando, florida

How Much Time Should Be Spent on Homework?

At the elementary level homework should be brief, at your child’s ability level and involve frequent, voluntary and high interest activities. Young students require high levels of feedback and/or supervision to help them complete assignments correctly. Accurate homework completion is influenced by your child’s ability, the difficulty of the task, and the amount of feedback your child receives. When assigning homework, your child’s teachers may struggle to create a balance at this age between ability, task difficulty and feedback. Unfortunately, there are no simple guiding principles.

We can assure you, however, that your input and feedback on a nightly basis is an essential component in helping your child benefit from the homework experience.

What is the recommended time in elementary school?

In first through third grade, students should receive one to three assignments per week, taking them no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. In fourth through sixth grade, students should receive two to four assignments per week, lasting between fifteen and forty-five minutes. At this age, the primarily goal of homework is to help your child develop the independent work and learning skills that will become critical in the higher grades. In the upper grades, the more time spent on homework the greater the achievement gains.

What is the recommended time in middle and high school?

For students in middle and high school grades there are greater overall benefits from time engaged in practicing and thinking about school work. These benefits do not appear to depend as much upon immediate supervision or feedback as they do for elementary students. In seventh through ninth grade we recommend students receive three to five sets of assignments per week, lasting between forty-five and seventy-five minutes per set. In high school students will receive four to five sets of homework per week, taking them between seventy-five and 150 minutes per set to complete.

As children progress through school, homework and the amount of time engaged in homework increases in importance. Due to the significance of homework at the older age levels, it is not surprising that there is more homework assigned. Furthermore, homework is always assigned in college preparatory classes and assigned at least three quarters of the time in special education and vocational training classes. Thus at any age, homework may indicate our academic expectations of children.

Regardless of the amount of homework assigned, many students unsuccessful or struggling in school spend less rather than more time engaged in homework. It is not surprising that students spending less time completing homework may eventually not achieve as consistently as those who complete their homework.

Does this mean that time devoted to homework is the key component necessary for achievement?

We are not completely certain. Some American educators have concluded that if students in America spent as much time doing homework as students in Asian countries they might perform academically as well. It is tempting to assume such a cause and effect relationship.

However, this relationship appears to be an overly simple conclusion. We know that homework is important as one of several influential factors in school success. However, other variables, including student ability, achievement, motivation and teaching quality influence the time students spend with homework tasks. Many students and their parents have told us they experience less difficulty being motivated and completing homework in classes in which they enjoyed the subject, the instruction, the assignments and the teachers.

The benefits from homework are the greatest for students completing the most homework and doing so correctly. Thus, students who devote time to homework are probably on a path to improved achievement. This path also includes higher quality instruction, greater achievement motivation and better skill levels.

Authors: Dr. Sam Goldstein and Dr. Sydney Zentall

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Wyoming.

Make a difference in your state by volunteering to start a state affiliate to help individuals with learning disabilities in your state.

Contact LDA of America at [email protected] to inquire about starting a state affiliate.

LDA of Wisconsin’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldaofwisconsin.org/

LDA of West Virginia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Email: [email protected]

LDA of Washington’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077791775467

Visit our Website: https://ldawa.org

LDA of Virginia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldava.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Vermont.

LDA of Utah’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldau.org/

Visit our website: https://www.ldau.org/

Phone: 801.553.9156

LDA of Texas’ mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDATexas/

Visit our Website: https://ldatx.org

LDA of Tennessee’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in South Dakota.

LDA of South Carolina’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofSC

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Rhode Island.

LDA of Pennsylvania’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldapa

Visit our website: https://ldaofpa.org

Phone: 412.212.7087

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Oregon.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Oklahoma.

LDA of Ohio’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://lda-oh.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in North Dakota.

LDA of North Carolina’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofNorthCarolina

Visit our Website: https://ldanc.org

LDA of New York’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldanys.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in New Mexico.

LDA of New Jersey’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofNJ/

Visit our website: https://ldanj.org

LDA of New Hampshire’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://nhlda.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Nevada.

LDA of Nebraska’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilityNE/

The Learning Disabilities Association of Montana (LDA-MT) is one of the state affiliates of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, as a nonprofit volunteer organization of parents, professionals, and adults with learning disabilities. Our mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education, and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldamontana.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Missouri.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Mississippi.

LDA of Minnesota’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAMinnesota/

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/ldaminnesota

Visit our Website: https://www.ldaminnesota.org/

Phone: 952.582.6000

LDA of Illinois’ mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063726155725

Visit our website: https://ldaillinois.org

Phone: 708.430.7532

The Learning Disabilities Association of Iowa is dedicated to identifying causes and promoting prevention of learning disabilities and to enhancing the quality of life for all individuals with learning disabilities and their families by:

• Encouraging effective identification and intervention,
• Fostering research, and
• Protecting the rights of individuals with learning disabilities under the law.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDA.Iowa

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/ldaofiowa

Visit our website: https://ldaiowa.org

Phone: 515.209.2290

LDA of Michigan’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAmichigan

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/LDAmichigan

Visit our Website: https://ldaofmichigan.org

Phone: 616.284.1650

The mission of LDA of Massachusetts is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Affiliate Contact: Kristen Lech Contact Email: [email protected]

LDA of Maryland’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldamd/

Visit our website: https://ldamd.org/

LDA of Maine’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldame

Visit our website: https://ldame.org

The Learning Disabilities Association of Louisiana (LDA-LA) is one of the state affiliates of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, as a nonprofit volunteer organization of parents, professionals, and adults with learning disabilities. Our mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education, and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofLouisiana/

LDA of Kentucky’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067524906403

Visit our Website: https://www.ldaofky.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Kansas.

LDA of Indiana’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofIndiana/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Idaho.

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Hawaii.

LDA of Georgia’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearningDisabilitiesAssociationofGeorgia/

Visit our website: https://ldaga.org

LDA of Florida’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAFlorida/

Visit our website: https://lda-florida.org

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in the District of Columbia.

LDA of Connecticut’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAofCT

Visit our Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ldaofconnecticut/

LDA of Delaware’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Affiliate Contact: Fern Goldstein

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldadelaware/

Visit our Website: https://ldadelaware.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Colorado.

LDA of California’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldacalifornia.org

Affiliate Contact: EunMi Cho

LDA of Arkansas’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldarkansas/

Visit our website: https://lda-arkansas.org

LDA of Arizona’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Visit our website: https://ldaofarizona.org

LDA of Alabama’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education and advocacy.

Find Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDAAlabama/

Visit Our Website: https://ldaalabama.org/

LDA of America does not currently have an active state affiliate in Alaska.

How Much Homework Is Enough? Depends Who You Ask

• Share article

Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education ( Viking)—the latest book by author and speaker Sir Ken Robinson (co-authored with Lou Aronica), published in March. For years, Robinson has been known for his radical work on rekindling creativity and passion in schools, including three bestselling books (also with Aronica) on the topic. His TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” holds the record for the most-viewed TED talk of all time, with more than 50 million views. While Robinson’s latest book is geared toward parents, it also offers educators a window into the kinds of education concerns parents have for their children, including on the quality and quantity of homework.

The amount of homework young people are given varies a lot from school to school and from grade to grade. In some schools and grades, children have no homework at all. In others, they may have 18 hours or more of homework every week. In the United States, the accepted guideline, which is supported by both the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, is the 10-minute rule: Children should have no more than 10 minutes of homework each day for each grade reached. In 1st grade, children should have 10 minutes of daily homework; in 2nd grade, 20 minutes; and so on to the 12th grade, when on average they should have 120 minutes of homework each day, which is about 10 hours a week. It doesn’t always work out that way.

In 2013, the University of Phoenix College of Education commissioned a survey of how much homework teachers typically give their students. From kindergarten to 5th grade, it was just under three hours per week; from 6th to 8th grade, it was 3.2 hours; and from 9th to 12th grade, it was 3.5 hours.

There are two points to note. First, these are the amounts given by individual teachers. To estimate the total time children are expected to spend on homework, you need to multiply these hours by the number of teachers they work with. High school students who work with five teachers in different curriculum areas may find themselves with 17.5 hours or more of homework a week, which is the equivalent of a part-time job. The other factor is that these are teachers’ estimates of the time that homework should take. The time that individual children spend on it will be more or less than that, according to their abilities and interests. One child may casually dash off a piece of homework in half the time that another will spend laboring through in a cold sweat.

Do students have more homework these days than previous generations? Given all the variables, it’s difficult to say. Some studies suggest they do. In 2007, a study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that, on average, high school students spent around seven hours a week on homework. A similar study in 1994 put the average at less than five hours a week. Mind you, I [Robinson] was in high school in England in the 1960s and spent a lot more time than that—though maybe that was to do with my own ability. One way of judging this is to look at how much homework your own children are given and compare it to what you had at the same age.

Many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all.

There’s also much debate about the value of homework. Supporters argue that it benefits children, teachers, and parents in several ways:

• Children learn to deepen their understanding of specific content, to cover content at their own pace, to become more independent learners, to develop problem-solving and time-management skills, and to relate what they learn in school to outside activities.
• Teachers can see how well their students understand the lessons; evaluate students’ individual progress, strengths, and weaknesses; and cover more content in class.
• Parents can engage practically in their children’s education, see firsthand what their children are being taught in school, and understand more clearly how they’re getting on—what they find easy and what they struggle with in school.

Want to know more about Sir Ken Robinson? Check out our Q&A with him.

Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson

Ashley Norris is assistant dean at the University of Phoenix College of Education. Commenting on her university’s survey, she says, “Homework helps build confidence, responsibility, and problem-solving skills that can set students up for success in high school, college, and in the workplace.”

That may be so, but many parents find it difficult to help their children with subjects they’ve not studied themselves for a long time, if at all. Families have busy lives, and it can be hard for parents to find time to help with homework alongside everything else they have to cope with. Norris is convinced it’s worth the effort, especially, she says, because in many schools, the nature of homework is changing. One influence is the growing popularity of the so-called flipped classroom.

In the stereotypical classroom, the teacher spends time in class presenting material to the students. Their homework consists of assignments based on that material. In the flipped classroom, the teacher provides the students with presentational materials—videos, slides, lecture notes—which the students review at home and then bring questions and ideas to school where they work on them collaboratively with the teacher and other students. As Norris notes, in this approach, homework extends the boundaries of the classroom and reframes how time in school can be used more productively, allowing students to “collaborate on learning, learn from each other, maybe critique [each other’s work], and share those experiences.”

Even so, many parents and educators are increasingly concerned that homework, in whatever form it takes, is a bridge too far in the pressured lives of children and their families. It takes away from essential time for their children to relax and unwind after school, to play, to be young, and to be together as a family. On top of that, the benefits of homework are often asserted, but they’re not consistent, and they’re certainly not guaranteed.

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs.

Sign Up & Sign In

Analyzing ‘the homework gap’ among high school students

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, michael hansen and michael hansen senior fellow - brown center on education policy , the herman and george r. brown chair - governance studies diana quintero diana quintero former senior research analyst, brown center on education policy - the brookings institution, ph.d. student - vanderbilt university.

August 10, 2017

Researchers have struggled for decades to identify a causal, or even correlational, relationship between time spent in school and improved learning outcomes for students. Some studies have focused on the length of a school year while others have focused on hours in a day and others on hours in the week .

In this blog post, we will look at time spent outside of school–specifically time spent doing homework–among different racial and socio-economic groups. We will use data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to shed light on those differences and then attempt to explain those gaps, using ATUS data and other evidence.

What we know about out-of-school time

Measuring the relationship between out-of-school time and outcomes like test scores can be difficult. Researchers are primarily confounded by an inability to determine what compels students to choose homework during their time off over other activities. Are those who spend more time on homework just extra motivated? Or are they struggling students who need to work harder to keep up? What role do social expectations from parents or peers play?

Previous studies have examined the impact of this outside time use on educational outcomes for students. A 2007 study using data from Berea College in Kentucky identified a causal relationship between hours spent studying and a student’s academic performance through an interesting measure. The researchers took advantage of randomly assigned college roommates, paying attention to those who came to campus with a video game console in tow. They hypothesized students randomly assigned to a roommate without a video game console would study more, since all other factors remained equal. That hypothesis held up, and that group also received significantly higher grades, demonstrating the causal relationship.

Other research has relied on data collected through the American Time Use Survey, a study of how Americans spend their time, and shown the existence of a gender gap and a parental education gap in homework time. Other studies have looked at the relationship between holding a job and student’s time use in discretionary activities , like sleep, media consumption, and time spent on homework. We are curious about out-of-school differences in homework time by race and income.

Descriptive statistics of time use

We began with a general sample of 2,575 full-time high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 from the ATUS, restricting the sample to their answers about time spent on homework during weekdays and school months (September to May). Among all high school students surveyed (those that reported completing their homework and those that did not), the time allocated to complete homework amounted to less than an hour per day, despite the fact that high school teachers report they assign an average of 3.5 hours of homework per day.

To explore racial or income-based differences, in Figure 1, we plot the minutes that students reporting spending on homework separately by their racial/ethnic group and family income. We observed a time gap between racial groups, with Asian students spending the most time on homework (nearly two hours a day). Similarly, we observe a time gap by the students’ family income.

We can also use ATUS data to isolate when students do homework by race and by income. In Figure 2, we plot the percentage of high school students in each racial and income group doing homework by the time of day. Percentages remain low during the school day and then expectedly increase when students get home, with more Asian students doing more homework and working later into the night than other racial groups. Low-income students reported doing less homework per hour than their non-low-income peers.

Initial attempts to explain the homework gap

We hypothesized that these racial and income-based time gaps could potentially be explained by other factors, like work, time spent caring for others, and parental education. We tested these hypotheses by separating groups based on particular characteristics and comparing the average number of minutes per day spent on homework amongst the comparison groups.

Students who work predictably reported spending less time on educational activities, so if working disproportionately affected particular racial or income groups, then work could help explain the time gap. Students who worked allocated on average 20 minutes less for homework than their counterparts who did not work. Though low-income students worked more hours than their peers, they largely maintained a similar level of homework time by reducing their leisure or extracurricular activities. Therefore, the time gap on homework changed only slightly with the inclusion of work as a factor.

We also incorporated time spent taking care of others in the household. Though a greater percentage of low-income students take care of other household members, we found that this does not have a statistically significant effect on homework because students reduce leisure, rather than homework, in an attempt to help their families. Therefore, this variable again does not explain the time gaps.

Finally, we considered parental education, since parents with more education have been shown to encourage their children to value school more and have the resources to ensure homework is completed more easily. Our analysis showed students with at least one parent with any post-secondary degree (associate or above) reported spending more time on homework than their counterparts whose parents do not hold a degree; however, gaps by race still existed, even holding parental education constant. Turning to income levels, we found that parental education is more correlated with homework time among low-income students, reducing the time gap between income groups to only eight minutes.

Societal explanations

Our analysis of ATUS could not fully explain this gap in time spent on homework, especially among racial groups. Instead, we believe that viewing homework as an outcome of the culture of the school and the expectations of teachers, rather than an outcome of a student’s effort, may provide some reasons for its persistence.

Many studies, including recent research , have shown that teachers perceive students of color as academically inferior to their white peers. A 2016 study by Seth Gershenson et al. showed that this expectations gap can also depend on the race of the teacher. In a country where minority students make up nearly half of all public school students, yet minority teachers comprise just 18 percent of the teacher workforce, these differences in expectations matter.

Students of color are also less likely to attend high schools that offer advanced courses (including Advanced Placement courses) that would likely assign more homework, and thus access to rigorous courses may partially explain the gaps as well.

Research shows a similar, if less well-documented, gap by income, with teachers reporting lower expectations and dimmer futures for their low-income students. Low-income students and students of color may be assigned less homework based on lower expectations for their success, thus preventing them from learning as much and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy .

In conclusion, these analyses of time use revealed a substantial gap in homework by race and by income group that could not be entirely explained by work, taking care of others, or parental education. Additionally, differences in educational achievement, especially as measured on standardized tests, have been well-documented by race and by income . These gaps deserve our attention, but we should be wary of blaming disadvantaged groups. Time use is an outcome reflecting multiple factors, not simply motivation, and a greater understanding of that should help raise expectations–and therefore, educational achievement–all around.

Sarah Novicoff contributed to this post.

Related Content

Michael Hansen, Diana Quintero

October 5, 2016

Sarah Novicoff, Matthew A. Kraft

November 15, 2022

September 10, 2015

K-12 Education

Governance Studies

Brown Center on Education Policy

Douglas N. Harris

August 13, 2024

Rachel M. Perera, Jon Valant, Katharine Meyer

August 12, 2024

Kelly Rosinger, Robert Kelchen, Justin Ortagus, Dominique J. Baker, Mitchell Lingo

August 9, 2024

• Entertainment
• Investigations
• Latest Headlines
• Robert Telles Trial
• Top 100 Restaurants
• Things To Do In Vegas
• What Are They Hiding?
• Election 2024
• Israel at War
• 2024 Election
• Clark County
• Nation and World
• Science and Technology
• Road Warrior
• Las Vegas Weather
• East Valley
• North Las Vegas
• Summerlin/Centennial Hills
• Remembering Oct. 1, 2017
• Deborah Wall
• Natalie Burt
• Remembering Jeff German
• Police Accountability
• Alpine Fire
• 100 Years of Growth
• Dangerous Driving
• Raiders News
• Golden Knights
• UNLV Football
• UNLV Basketball
• Nevada Preps
• Sports Betting 101
• Las Vegas Sportsbooks
• On TV/Radio
• MMA and UFC
• Casinos & Gaming
• Entrepreneurs
• Real Estate News
• Business Press
• Sheldon Adelson (1933-2021)
• Debra J. Saunders
• Michael Ramirez cartoons
• Victor Joecks
• Richard A. Epstein
• Victor Davis Hanson
• Drawing Board
• Homicide Tracker
• Faces of Death Row
• Kats’ Cool Hangs
• Arts & Culture
• Home and Garden
• Las Vegas Hiking Guide
• RJ Magazine
• Today’s Obituaries
• Submit an obit
• Dealer News
• Classifieds
• Place a Classified Ad
• Provided Content
• Real Estate Millions
• Internships
• Service Directory
• Transportation
• Merchandise
• Legal Information
• Real Estate Classifieds
• Garage Sales
• Contests and Promotions
• Best of Las Vegas
• Nevada State Bank
• Verizon Business
• Touro University
• P3 Health Partners
• Find My Forever
• Ignite Funding
• Travel Nevada
• Subscriptions
• Newsletters
• Advertise with Us

• >> Local
• >> Education

How much time should students spend doing homework?

When a teenager arrives home from school in the afternoon, the last thing he or she wants to worry about is homework. After all, there’s TV to be watched, friends to hang out with and maybe even a job to fulfill.

However, recent research from the University of Oviedo in Spain indicates homework needn’t take up an entire night. In fact, researchers found the perfect amount of time per day for homework was just one hour.

The study, which looked at more than 7,000 students living in Spain approximately 13 years old, found a positive correlation between the amount of homework a student completed and the level of the child’s understanding — and that optimal level was achieved in one hour.

But don’t get too excited too quickly.

Researchers say such results aren’t fully conclusive. The authors note that though they found a correlation between an hour of studying and the optimal level of learning, it doesn’t necessarily translate to better test results.

As a matter of fact, a variety of other studies indicate otherwise.

According to a 2012 article published in The Guardian , a study from the Department for Education in the UK found that children who put in two to three hours a night of homework were more likely to get better grades in school.

The study found that one of the main determinants of a student’s attitude toward homework came from the influence of the school. When students were expected to do thorough homework, they were likely to spend more time completing it.

“That’s one of the reasons Indian and Chinese children do better,” said Pam Sammons , an education professor at Oxford University. “They tend to put more time in. It’s to do with your effort as well as your ability.”

Sammons noted that homework doesn’t need to occupy an entire night, but there are benefits to spending a few extra minutes on assignments.

“What we’re not saying is that everyone should do large amounts,” said Sammons. “But if we could shift some of those who spend no time or half an hour into doing one to two hours.”

And perhaps you’ve heard the popular saying of “10 minutes per night per grade” coined by researcher Harris Cooper. Cooper recommends 10-20 minutes of homework per night beginning in first grade, then an additional 10 minutes added for each grade level after that.

But even though there may not be a one-size-fits-all recommendation, it is possible that too much studying can be detrimental. Just last year, research from Stanford University reported that high school students’ grades were negatively affected when they spent too much time with homework.“Any student who is doing more than three and a half hours of homework a night is actually at risk for higher stress levels and poor mental and physical health,” said Denise Pope , a senior lecturer in Stanford’s School of Education who participated in the study.

Kevin Raiford has previously alleged that he was ousted from the program after he resisted a state senator’s efforts to get him to give federal money to unqualified companies.

Police have apprehended a suspect in their investigation of three reports of robberies targeting students near Clark County School District high schools.

A mother has filed a lawsuit against the Clark County School District and the family of a child she says physically and verbally assaulted her son on a school bus.

The CCSD survey will be used to determine desired characteristics for the next superintendent after former Superintendent Jesus Jara resigned this year.

Beam Hall — closed to the public since three professors were shot and killed Dec. 6 — reopened with new security features and armed officers.

As 300,000 Clark County students started school, they experienced increased safety and security initiatives, new facilities and fresh books.

The kick off of the 2024-25 school year in Southern Nevada was marked with the addition of crossing guards for the first time at many of the middle schools throughout the area.

Green Valley High School journalism teacher Eric Johnston, 48, is remembered during a memorial service.

Another school year starts Monday in Clark County, and that means children will be making their way to and from school and school zones will again be in effect during the morning and afternoon.

The new school year kicks off after a summerlong effort by the Clark County School District to hire teachers, get a handle on chronically absent students and improve school safety.

Get the Reddit app

No matter what course you are taking, we are a community that helps students earn college credit!

How much time do you spend on homework a day?

I'm a junior in high school taking 4 AP classes(AP Lang, APUSH, AP chem, and AP Environmental Science ) and 3 honors classes(CS3, a class after AP-CSA, Engineering Science, and pre-cal).

Outside of school, I swim for a non-school affiliated club 4 times a week. During the week, I have 3 practices that take me away from my desk for 5 hours. I tend to take an hour long nap between school and swimming practice and do homework afterward.

Since I cannot sit down at my desk till 10 pm, it usually takes me until 2 am to do my homework. My mom is getting increasingly concerned about my sleep schedule and accuses me of not optimizing my time management.

In summary, my question is: Is taking 4 hours to complete homework reasonable for my current school schedule?

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

• College Prep & Testing
• College Search
• Applications & Admissions
• Alternatives to 4-Year College
• Orientation & Move-In
• Campus Involvement
• Campus Resources
• Homesickness
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Transferring
• Residential Life
• Finding an Apartment
• Off-Campus Life
• Mental Health
• Alcohol & Drugs
• Relationships & Sexuality
• COVID-19 Resources
• Paying for College
• Banking & Credit
• Success Strategies
• Majors & Minors
• Study Abroad
• Diverse Learners
• Online Education
• Internships
• Career Services
• Graduate School
• Graduation & Celebrations
• First Generation
• Shop for College
• Academics »

Student Study Time Matters

Vicki nelson.

Most college students want to do well, but they don’t always know what is required to do well. Finding and spending quality study time is one of the first and most important skills that your student can master, but it's rarely as simple as it sounds.

If a student is struggling in class, one of the first questions I ask is, “How much time do you spend studying?”

Although it’s not the only element, time spent studying is one of the basics, so it’s a good place to start. Once we examine time, we can move on to other factors such as how, where, what and when students are studying, but we start with time .

If your student is struggling , help them explore how much time they are spending on schoolwork.

How Much Is Enough?

Very often, a student’s answer to how much time they spend hitting the books doesn’t match the expectation that most professors have for college students. There’s a disconnect about “how much is enough?”

Most college classes meet for a number of “credit hours” – typically 3 or 4. The general rule of thumb (and the definition of credit hour adopted by the Department of Education) is that students should spend approximately 2–3 hours on outside-of-class work for each credit hour or hour spent in the classroom.

Therefore, a student taking five 3-credit classes spends 15 hours each week in class and should be spending 30 hours on work outside of class , or 45 hours/week total.

When we talk about this, I can see on students’ faces that for most of them this isn’t even close to their reality!

According to one survey conducted by the National Survey of Student Engagement, most college students spend an average of 10–13 hours/week studying, or less than 2 hours/day and less than half of what is expected. Only about 11% of students spend more than 25 hours/week on schoolwork.

Why Such a Disconnect?

Warning: math ahead!

It may be that students fail to do the math – or fail to flip the equation.

College expectations are significantly different from the actual time that most high school students spend on outside-of-school work, but the total picture may not be that far off. In order to help students understand, we crunch some more numbers.

Most high school students spend approximately 6 hours/day or 30 hours/week in school. In a 180 day school year, students spend approximately 1,080 hours in school. Some surveys suggest that the average amount of time that most high school students spend on homework is 4–5 hours/week. That’s approximately 1 hour/day or 180 hours/year. So that puts the average time spent on class and homework combined at 1,260 hours/school year.

Now let’s look at college: Most semesters are approximately 15 weeks long. That student with 15 credits (5 classes) spends 225 hours in class and, with the formula above, should be spending 450 hours studying. That’s 675 hours/semester or 1,350 for the year. That’s a bit more than the 1,260 in high school, but only 90 hours, or an average of 3 hours more/week.

The problem is not necessarily the number of hours, it's that many students haven’t flipped the equation and recognized the time expected outside of class.

In high school, students’ 6-hour school day was not under their control but they did much of their work during that time. That hour-or-so a day of homework was an add-on. (Some students definitely spend more than 1 hour/day, but we’re looking at averages.)

In college, students spend a small number of hours in class (approximately 15/week) and are expected to complete almost all their reading, writing and studying outside of class. The expectation doesn’t require significantly more hours; the hours are simply allocated differently – and require discipline to make sure they happen. What students sometimes see as “free time” is really just time that they are responsible for scheduling themselves.

Help Your Student Adjust to College Academics >

How to Fit It All In?

Once we look at these numbers, the question that students often ask is, “How am I supposed to fit that into my week? There aren’t enough hours!”

Again: more math.

I remind students that there are 168 hours in a week. If a student spends 45 hours on class and studying, that leaves 123 hours. If the student sleeps 8 hours per night (few do!), that’s another 56 hours which leaves 67 hours, or at least 9.5 hours/day for work or play.

Many colleges recommend that full-time students should work no more than 20 hours/week at a job if they want to do well in their classes and this calculation shows why.

Making It Work

Many students may not spend 30 or more hours/week studying, but understanding what is expected may motivate them to put in some additional study time. That takes planning, organizing and discipline. Students need to be aware of obstacles and distractions (social media, partying, working too many hours) that may interfere with their ability to find balance.

What Can My Student Do?

Here are a few things your student can try.

• Start by keeping a time journal for a few days or a week . Keep a log and record what you are doing each hour as you go through your day. At the end of the week, observe how you have spent your time. How much time did you actually spend studying? Socializing? Sleeping? Texting? On social media? At a job? Find the “time stealers.”
• Prioritize studying. Don’t hope that you’ll find the time. Schedule your study time each day – make it an appointment with yourself and stick to it.
• Limit phone time. This isn’t easy. In fact, many students find it almost impossible to turn off their phones even for a short time. It may take some practice but putting the phone away during designated study time can make a big difference in how efficient and focused you can be.
• Spend time with friends who study . It’s easier to put in the time when the people around you are doing the same thing. Find an accountability partner who will help you stay on track.
• If you have a job, ask if there is any flexibility with shifts or responsibilities. Ask whether you can schedule fewer shifts at prime study times like exam periods or when a big paper or project is due. You might also look for an on-campus job that will allow some study time while on the job. Sometimes working at a computer lab, library, information or check-in desk will provide down time. If so, be sure to use it wisely.
• Work on strengthening your time management skills. Block out study times and stick to the plan. Plan ahead for long-term assignments and schedule bite-sized pieces. Don’t underestimate how much time big assignments will take.

Being a full-time student is a full-time job. Start by looking at the numbers with your student and then encourage them to create strategies that will keep them on task.

With understanding and practice, your student can plan for and spend the time needed to succeed in college.

Get stories and expert advice on all things related to college and parenting.

Table of Contents

• Rhythm of the First Semester
• Tips from a Student on Making It Through the First Year
• Who Is Your First‑Year Student?
• Campus Resources: Your Cheat Sheet
• Handling Roommate Issues

• Study Time Matters
• The Importance of Professors and Advisors
• Should My Student Withdraw from a Difficult Course?

• Essential Health Conversations
• A Mental Health Game Plan for College Students and Families
• Assertiveness is the Secret Sauce
• Is Your Student at Risk for an Eating Disorder?

• Learning to Manage Money
• 5 Ways to Begin Career Prep in the First Year
• The Value of Outside Opportunities

Housing Timeline

Don't Miss Out!

Get engaging stories and helpful information all year long. Join our college parent newsletter!

Powerful Personality Knowledge: How Extraverts and Introverts Learn Differently

College Preparedness: Recovering from the Pandemic

A Day in the Online Life of a Student

We're living in ultra-connected times, and Jack and Jane College Student have access to a lot of technology, not all of it having a clear academic or pedagogical purpose. Recent research indicates nearly one-fourth of adults in America report being online almost constantly, and this proportion is higher for younger adults (18–29 years old). 1   Gaming systems, streaming media devices, and voice-activated personal assistants threaten to suck up valuable time and bandwidth that could otherwise be spent on more academic and intellectual pursuits. Although it might be tempting to think students while away the hours posting on Instagram, binge-watching Netflix, or racking up experience points in World of Warcraft , our data suggest otherwise. Indeed, the typical student is pretty serious about doing the work of being a student.

When we asked them to approximate how much time they spend engaged in online activities in a typical day, overall, students said they devote more time to homework and research online than they do to social media, streaming video, gaming, or other online activities (see figure 8). While the typical student may spend about as much time online doing homework or research as on other online activities, almost half (40%) of students reported spending between 3 and 4 hours a day working online; these results were largely similar across Carnegie class, ethnicity, and gender. The typical student spends about half that amount of time—between 1 and 2 hours—on social media (37% of respondents) and streaming video (36% of respondents). About a third of students (32%) spend less than 1 hour per day on other online activities. The majority of students told us they do not game online, but those who do game are predominantly male. In addition, students who do more homework and research online also tend to be women.

These results highlight the important role connectivity plays in both students' academic work and leisure interests; but more importantly, these findings suggest that much of students' time online is spent on activities related to their coursework. These data are especially salient when we bear in mind that the majority of students (69%) reported working a job while taking classes over the past year; among those, more than half (57%) work between 10 and 29 hours per week. Thus, it seems that Jack and Jane do not have much spare time. Providing dependable Wi-Fi connectivity is key to supporting students in the work they do for their academics, particularly when we also consider that the majority of students prefer blended learning environments. While students do not spend hours on end binging Stranger Things or playing Call of Duty , reliable Wi-Fi connections, especially in on-campus housing and in common spaces, offer them opportunities to balance the demands of college with popular leisure activities and connect with other communities. After all, all work and no play makes Jane and Jack dull students.

Andrew Perrin and Jingjing Jiang, " Almost a Quarter of U.S. Adults Say They Are 'Almost Constantly' Online ," Pew Research Center, March 14, 2018.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Raising Kids

How Kids Should Spend the School Day, According to Experts

How long is a typical school day? How much time should kids spend attending school, doing homework, playing, and sleeping? Here’s what the experts recommend.

Attending Class

Doing homework, socializing with others, being with parents or caregivers, eating meals, being physically active, enjoying nature and the outdoors, using electronics, how to fit it all in.

Today's kids are busier than ever, dividing their time between school, activities , tutoring, and family time. When they're not busy with scheduled activities, kids must make time for homework, sleep , and personal care. And considering how long a typical school day is, it can be difficult to fit everything in.

Is there a way to balance it all and still provide some structure? Sure, making room for the priorities takes a little planning. Of course, flexibility is also important when it comes to time management. See how your child's schedule compares to others regarding key daily activities.

Parents / Sahara Borja

It may seem like your children spend all of their time at school. But while the average school day is just over six and a half hours long, there's a wide variance between the shortest and longest school days, contingent on individual state and district regulations.

The number of school days in a school year varies much less. According to the Pew Research Center, school days in different states range from 160 days in Colorado to 180 days in Hawaii.

This means kids are not in school for about 185 days or more a year, including weekends and breaks. On those days, kids can enjoy nature, spend time with family and friends, and exercise.

How Long Is a Typical School Day?

While state requirements for the amount of time school must be in session vary considerably from state to state, the typical school day for most kids in the United States is between six and seven hours. Depending on their age and where they live, students spend anywhere between three to seven hours a day in school, not counting transportation time or extracurricular activities.

How much time should kids spend on homework each day? A general rule among teachers is 10 minutes per grade level: 30 minutes per day for a third grader, 50 minutes for a fifth grader, and so on.

The time needed for homework really depends on the school's homework policy, the teacher's philosophy, and the type of coursework your child is taking. High school students taking AP courses might spend more time on homework than students in general education courses.

To keep your student on task during the school year, try establishing a schedule or block of time when homework will be completed.

Experts agree that school-age children need to have friends. Friends help children build social skills such as listening, sharing, and problem-solving. Through relationships with other children, children also learn how to handle their emotions.

Research doesn't dictate how much time children need to socialize with friends. What matters most is the quality of the friendships and whether or not the child is generally happy with their social time. Children or teens may have just a few friends or several friends.

Don't stress about spending quality time with your kids. Research from a large-scale longitudinal study on the effects of time with parents compared to child and teen outcomes had some surprising results.

The biggest takeaway is that time spent with a stressed-out and moody parent can decrease positive outcomes, while more time does not show a strong benefit. For this reason, it's important to be mindful of your family's moods.

It's also important not to put too much pressure on yourself when spending time as a family.

The amount of time a child needs to sleep varies according to their age. But every child, no matter their age, needs adequate sleep. Not getting enough sleep has been linked to falling asleep during school or missing school altogether.

What's more, kids who don't get enough sleep struggle to wake up in the mornings and have trouble learning or doing schoolwork. If you are concerned that your child is not getting enough sleep, learn what symptoms to watch for and what steps you can take to improve their sleep habits.

Most experts recommend 20 to 30 minutes to eat a meal and 10 to 15 minutes to eat a small snack. Keep in mind that even children's bodies need 20 minutes after eating before they begin to register feeling full.

Emphasize the importance of family meals to ensure your children have plenty of time to finish their food without feeling rushed and get adequate nutrition. This time gives your kids the nutrition they need and valuable time together as a family.

Moreover, regular family meals promote healthy eating and protect against childhood obesity. Ensure you select healthy options for your family and that electronics are turned off and away from the table.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children should engage in 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Regular physical activity promotes health and fitness, lowers body fat, and strengthens bones.

Physical activity—which should consist of aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities—also positively impacts a child's brain health. Studies have shown that exercise improves cognition and memory, enhances academic performance, and reduces symptoms of depression.

Kids exercising daily also sets them up for good health in adulthood. It reduces the likelihood that they will experience heart disease, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes . Plus, being physically active is a great stress reducer.

Many children spend much more time indoors than they did in previous generations. Various studies have linked this increase in indoor time to obesity and other health issues.

How much time outdoors should you aim for? The U.S. National Wildlife Federation suggests at least one hour a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also recommends 60 minutes of unstructured, free play (indoors or out) every day.

Getting your children outdoors can help them get in their physical activity and nature time. If you're short on ideas, try hiking on a local nature trail, taking a family bike ride, or tending a small container garden.

Overall, recommendations indicate that electronic media use for entertainment should be limited to about one hour on school days and that screens should be turned off 30-60 minutes before bedtime. Parents should ensure that this entertainment is high-quality and create screen-free zones (like the family dinner table) so children and teens learn to function without their devices.

It can be a challenge to meet all of these recommendations. One way to manage is to combine one or more activities to finish more quickly.

For instance, time outdoors in nature, away from electronic devices, can be combined with exercise and even time with same-age friends. Meanwhile, the time a child or teen needs to be engaged with a parent can be met by eating dinner together.

Establishing a daily plan or school year routine is the key to fitting in everything a child needs. Pre-planning or scheduling can also reduce parent stress, keeping the time you spend with your child positive.

As you plan your child's typical school day, try not to be too rigid. With the exception of sleep, you can be flexible about how your kids spend their time and tailor your routines to meet their specific needs.

The key is getting appropriate rest, attending school, and doing their homework. Socializing, time with family, physical activity, electronic use, and family meal times can be adapted as the days unfold.

In the U.S., 180 days of school is most common, but length of school day varies by state. Pew Research Center . 2023.

Childhood friendships and psychological difficulties in young adulthood: an 18-year follow-up study .  European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry . 2015.

Amount of time to eat lunch is associated with children's selection and consumption of school meal entrée, fruits, vegetables, and milk .  Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics . 2016.

Youth Physical Activity Guidelines Toolkit. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 2017.

  The power of outdoor play and play in natural environments .  Childhood Education . 2016.

Connecting Kids and Nature. U.S. National Wildlife Federation . n.d.

Promoting Physical Activity. American Academy of Pediatrics . 2022.

Related Articles

Division of Student Life

No such thing as a silly question: answers to questions you might be afraid to ask.

Whether you just arrived at Iowa or have found a familiar rhythm on campus, you probably have questions. And like many students, you might be too shy to ask or you might not know where to go for an answer.

We’re here to help.

Here is a list of questions — and answers — on topics you might want or need to know.

1. What should I do if I feel anxious or if I’m struggling mentally? How do I find help?

First, know you are not alone, and there’s nothing embarrassing or shameful about reaching out for help. We know it can be intimidating, but finding the right resources is the first step to feeling better.

The UI has various mental health services that you can access no matter what you are going through, including anxiety, depression, substance use, eating disorders, trauma, grief, identity development, and relationship concerns.

If formal counseling isn’t for you, several student support groups offer space where you and others with shared experiences can talk. You can drop in to any of these groups at any time.

The UI also offers several free workshops that focus on managing stress and anxiety. Check out the workshop options at Student Wellness and University Counseling Services, which cover topics such as mindfulness, sleep, motivations and procrastination, anxiety, and distress coping skills. These workshops help you build effective skills so you can better manage stress and anxiety.

If you think counseling services would be helpful:

• Contact University Counseling Service at 319-335-7294 or email [email protected] . UCS has locations on the west side of campus (3223 Westlawn) and the east side (Suite 1950 in University Capitol Centre). Individual and group therapy are offered.  
• If you are unsure what services may be best for you, UCS staff can guide you in the right direction through an initial consultation . Please know you will be asked to fill out paperwork if you visit UCS for the first time or if it has been more than three months since you were last seen. More information on what paperwork may be needed will be provided during appointment scheduling.  
• In addition, you can receive 24-hour support through the UI Support and Crisis Line by calling or texting 844-461-5420 or chatting on this page online . You can use the line anonymously if you wish to do so.  
• You can also schedule a same-day, one-time appointment with a counselor if you would like to talk about an immediate issue or develop a plan to work on your well-being without ongoing therapy.

2. What do I do if I feel sick?

We understand that you don’t want to miss anything or fall behind in classes, but we recommend that you do not try to go to class if you are sick. Contact your professor to let them know you are sick, see if there is any makeup work you might need to do, and ask a classmate to provide notes for you.

If you think you may have an illness more severe than a common cold or you just want peace of mind, a visit to Student Health could help get you back on the mend sooner. Student Health is located at 4189 Westlawn and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. You can call 319-335-8394 to make an appointment or schedule one online.

There is no cost to visit Student Health; a student health fee is included in the fees you pay each semester. You might be charged for other things related to your visit, such as lab work, medications, or medical supplies. Those charges will be submitted to your insurance, and, if you are a first-time patient or change health insurance, you can fill out this form so Student Health has that information. Charges not covered by insurance can be paid with cash or with your U-Bill. 

If you are unsure if a visit to Student Health is best, you can contact the Student Health Nurseline at 319-335-9704. The Nurseline can help you decide if you need to make an appointment, how to take self-care measures, answer medication questions, and more.

3. I started Iowa with one major, but I’m having doubts if this is the right one for me. What should I do if I’m considering switching majors or colleges?

Don’t worry! Many students switch their majors. The idea of what you thought you wanted to do might look much different now that you have started college, or you may not love your area of study as much as you thought you would.

First, your academic advisor is a great resource. Set up a meeting with them to talk about what you’re not loving about current classes in your major, what classes you do enjoy, and your interests. Your advisor can also help you figure out the length of time it would take to complete your degree if you decide to switch.

If you’re a first-year student, it’s likely your advisor is in the Academic Advising Center . But if your advisor is located within a college and you are thinking about a switch in majors that would also require a switch in colleges, your current advisor is still the best person to lead you in the right direction. You could also contact the Academic Advising Center to speak with an advisor about exploring other majors.

If you want to start thinking about a new area of study, looking at the general catalog can give you more information. You can also access sample plans on MyUI that will outline what an eight-semester plan for a new major may look like.

The Pomerantz Career Center also has resources for exploring majors and career options, including career assessment s. Iowa has more than 200 majors to choose from, so be assured you will find something that both excites you and helps you reach your career goals.

4. What should I do if I’m feeling overwhelmed with my courses or I’m failing a class?

First, don’t panic. Many students feel overwhelmed with their class load from time to time.

Speaking to your professor or teaching assistant is the first step. Your instructors will be able to give you a good picture of where you stand in a class and what you can do to get your desired grade. Professors and TAs hold office hours, and having one-on-one conversations with them can help you make a study plan or get a better grasp on the course material.

Your academic advisor is also a good resource, especially if you would like to change your schedule. They can go over the pros and cons of dropping a class.

If you are considering dropping a class, here is what that process will look like:

• Keep in mind that you need 12 credits a semester to keep your full-time student status. Dropping below 12 credits could affect financial aid and scholarships. If you are concerned that dropping a class would affect your financial aid, contact the Office of Student Financial Aid.
• You can drop a class on MyUI before the sixth day of the fall or spring semester, but it’s a good idea to speak with your academic advisor first.
• After the drop deadline has passed for a semester, you can still request to drop a course, but you will need your academic advisor’s approval.

If you don’t want to drop a class but your grade is slipping, take advantage of tutoring resources . You can find academic help for specific courses, helpful tips in videos and worksheets, a private tutor or workshop, or a free supplemental instruction session.

5. Campus seems so big and I’m afraid of getting lost. How do I find my way around?

Navigating campus can be overwhelming when you first arrive and everything is new. There are plenty of campus maps to choose from, and it’s a good idea to walk to any buildings you’re unfamiliar with to find where your class will be held.

The UI campus is very walkable and bikeable, and those are main modes of transportation you will see students using. Students can also use Cambus for free around campus; here is a map of where bus routes will take you.

The main routes are the red and blue routes, which travel the entire campus. A helpful way to remember the direction red and blue routes go is “Blue to Burge, Red to Rienow.” The red route goes in a clockwise direction, and the blue route goes counterclockwise. Cambus also operates an Interdorm route, which goes to the residence halls and the Pentacrest.

The Transit app will show you real-time bus arrivals, departures, locations, and the closest bus stops. By subscribing to alerts on the app, you will be notified of service changes or severe weather impacts.

While we understand why you might like your vehicle on campus, you don’t need to bring one to get around and we encourage you to use other transportation. If you do bring a car, you will have to pay for a permit. More details on how to do so are here . 

6. I used to play sports in high school, but that’s changed since I started college. How can I stay active?

Without sports and high school gym classes, it can be an adjustment to incorporate staying active into your college routine. Luckily, Iowa has many opportunities for you to get exercise (not to mention you’ll get your steps in walking around campus to your classes).

• Campus Recreation and Wellness Center: This is perhaps the most well-known recreation facility, located on the east side of campus. Not only does it include all the gym equipment and weights you might want, but it also has an indoor climbing wall, swimming pools, a jogging track, and basketball and volleyball courts. It also has the Wellness Suite, where staff provide fitness assessments, nutrition counseling, and more.
• Field House: Located on the west side of campus, this space houses basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts; a cycling studio; an indoor track; and a weightlifting room. It also has a swimming pool.
• Fitness East: Fitness East is in Halsey Hall, and it can be accessed through the walkway between Halsey Hall and the IMU Parking Ramp. While this space is smaller than other facilities, it has all the gym equipment you need for your workout.
• Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex: Located on Prairie Meadow Drive on the far west edge of campus, this space has indoor and outdoor tennis courts, pickleball courts, cardio equipment, and weights.

All enrolled UI students can access any recreational services facility, but you must present your student ID to get in. The cost to use the facilities is included in your student fees.

If you need something more structured, Iowa has many intramural sports teams you can join if you miss doing activities with a team or competing.

7. I’m away from all or most of the friends I grew up with. How can I make new friends and find a new community at Iowa?

Making new friends is hard, no matter what age you are. If you’re a recent high school graduate, you may have grown up with the same people and friends for most of your life. While trying to make new friends can be intimidating, the new people you meet in college can be some of the most meaningful relationships of your life. Just remember: You are not the only one trying to make new friends.

If you’re living in the residence halls, start by introducing yourself to people on your floor. You can also leave the door of your room open as a sign you’re welcome to visitors. 

Attending campus events that pique your interest can help you connect with other like-minded people. In addition, joining a student organization — even if you stick with it for only a semester — can help you meet new people. If you don’t know where to start with finding the right student org for you, schedule a meeting with a Leadership and Engagement advisor to talk about your interests and get connected.

You can also meet new people by getting  a job or volunteering on campus.  

Again, know that many other people are also looking for new friendships. Asking someone to grab a cup of coffee after class or to meet you for a weekend lunch session will likely make their day as much as it will yours.

8. Being away from home for the first time is harder than I thought it would be. What can make this easier?

No matter how far you may have traveled to become an Iowa student, it’s normal to feel bouts of homesickness, especially if it’s your first semester on campus. Here are some tips:

While it may seem counterintuitive, try to limit your trips back home because they could prolong your feelings of homesickness. Staying on campus for longer stretches of time can help it become more familiar to you and will help Iowa feel more like a new home.

Iowa also has so many ways to get involved. Be it a club, intramural sports, or a job, getting involved on campus can make you feel like you belong here (and you’ll make new friends).

Having new, yet familiar experiences can also help you feel more at ease. For example, if you enjoyed spending Sunday mornings at your hometown’s local coffee shop, find a new place to get your caffeine fix. If you liked spending your mornings at the gym, head to one of our great recreational facilities.

Time is the best way to work through this new transition, and know that you can talk to anyone on campus about how you’re feeling. Also, remember all your loved ones are just a call or text away.

9. This is my first time having to budget and be responsible for my own finances. What are some money tips relevant for me?

Budgeting can be hard, even for people who have been doing it for years. This may be the first time you’ve really had to think about all your monthly expenses. Making a plan to manage your money will be less stressful in the long run because it will help you create some savings and will make unexpected expenses less scary — while also building good habits for the future.

Many tools are available to help you create a budget, from just writing down a plan in a notebook to using an app. No matter what method you use, all budgets are made roughly the same way.

First, figure out what time span you want to create a budget for. Weekly or monthly budgets are common, but you could also create one for an entire semester. Next, determine your income for that time frame. Then, add up your fixed expenses (U-Bill, car payments, cellphone, etc.) and variable expenses (groceries, gas, entertainment, etc.). Once you subtract expenses from your income, you can determine if there are any areas where you’d like to save or how much money you have left over to save.

If you’re not sure what your expenses are for a certain time span, make a note of the money you spend during that time frame and see if your habits are on par with your goals.

Also, make sure you’re being responsible with any credit cards you may have. Even though you don’t have to worry about charges put on the card immediately, you don’t want any surprises when the bill arrives. Building credit is a good practice to start, but making note of charges to credit cards is equally important.

Lots of financial wellness resources can be found here . If you’re struggling with budgets or have other financial questions, meet with a financial aid advisor by scheduling an appointment on MyUI or email [email protected] . 

10. How do I balance academics, social life, and my other commitments?

Once you step onto campus, it’s probably tempting to jump headfirst into everything that piques your interest, but piling too much on your plate can lead you to feel stressed out or overwhelmed. Academics, jobs, student organizations, having fun with friends — it’s important to have all these things in your life, and finding the right balance for yourself is key.

Establishing a routine (that still leaves time for fun and spontaneous ice cream runs!) is a great way to feel balanced. After you get used to your class and homework schedule, figure out what you want to prioritize and determine if you’re using your time effectively. If you feel you’re lacking in one area, make it a bigger priority the next week.

If you’re struggling academically, you can connect with Academic Support and Retention for more resources to help you succeed. Also, Student Care and Assistance can help provide a personalized assessment of how you spend your time and ways you can adjust your schedule to match your priorities.

The Student Life Development Fund: provides support for the Vice President for Student Life to support all departments and units across the division. This fund is utilized to support many priorities and initiatives across the division.