How to Cope with Assignment Overload in High School

This presentation provides tips for managing assignment overload in high school. It discusses reasons why students struggle with assignments, the impact of assignment overload on the student, and ways of managing assignment workload. The presentation also provides tips for teachers and students to help manage assignment overload.

How to cope with assignment
overload in high school
Name
Professor
Course
Date

Introduction
Unlike primary schools, high school level has more
workload
This comes in form of study content and
assignments
Students are somehow independent of external
assistance such as from teachers or parents
Teachers evaluate the students’ understanding with
lots of assignments (shahmohammadi, 2011).
Lack of knowledge on how to manage these
assignments may put students in problems
Thus, it becomes necessary to learn how to manage

Reasons why students struggle with
assignments
Lack of enough time to manage the many
assignments
Lack of necessary skills for managing the
assignments
Lack of interest in tackling assignments
Procrastination
Piling up work
Lack of balance in curriculum, co-curriculum
and free time
Too many assignments from teachers

Impact of assignment overload on the
student
Feeling overburdened
Feeling stressed
Feeling that one may be unable to complete
the work
Failure to seek guidance may make a student
an academic failure
Lack of a solution may lead to depression or
dropping out of school

Disadvantages of piling up work
Leads to assignment overload
Leads to time wastage (Scheff, & Monson,
2019).
One never recovers lost time
Assignments are handed in late
Low grades are obtained for doing
assignments in haste and rush
Students fail in overall grade
Failure to finish up on other tasks

A point to teachers
Too much assignments does not measure
student intellect
Help students to learn managing their time
Assignments need to be tailored towards
student needs
Offer homework that can be managed by
students (shahmohammadi, 2011).
Provide guidelines and encourage learners to
make consultation at all times

Ways of managing assignment workload
1. Start on time
Avoid delaying tasks by starting to work on
them when there is time
This enables one to avoid task piling
It makes one work on tasks without haste
Completing certain work percentage in time
gives students morale and motivation to finish
others

2. Plan your assignments
Planning makes one focused and measures
progress
Set short and long term milestones using a
work schedule
A work plan acts as a reminder
Start with assignments that are easy to
manage
Start with those having less time

3. Work in small intervals
Sitting for long hours kills morale and
increases tiredness
Consider taking 20 minute walks to refresh
the body (Pope, Brown, & Miles, 2015).
This also helps regain energy
After rest one can work again for 2 hours
consecutively

4. Get help once stuck
Some assignments may be challenging to
tackle
Seek help from close friends, siblings or the
teachers
This avoids being demotivated to continue
It makes one encouraged to finish up with
assignments
Set difficult assignments aside for a while
and work on the other simple ones

5. Contact group study
It helps to have group studies at home or at
school in the evening
They help encourage one another than when
one is working along (shahmohammadi,
2011).
They may involve students of different
levels/classes but the common goal motivates
One may consult those in higher levels
Students should not copy assignments from
each other

6. Using guidebooks
Guidebooks contain similar assignments and
samples given as a guide
Students need to have plenty of guidebooks
to consult them when they are stuck
One can work on given examples and see
whether he/she gets same results
Compare different guidebooks for more
experience
One can also research online

7. Set rewards
One may set rewards to feel encouraged to
finish up the assignments
This requires high levels of responsibility
One may decide to watch a favorite movie/TV
channel if he/she finishes assignments in time
One may decide to forgo them if work is not
finished
One needs to be careful not to fall for the
rewards before assignments are through

8. Balance curricular, co-curricular and free
time
This is closely related to time plan
It involves learning to do each task at its time
Avoid doing things at the wrong times
Avoid friends who are not focused to avoid
wasting your time
Set enough time for academic work, games
and personal issues
One may set reminders to remember
important things

9. Learn to make timelines
Learn to tackle assignments as they come to
avoid them spilling over or eating on free
time
Little work as the week starts may save few
hours over the weekends
One can have a work policy that helps them
control and manage time
Every activity sticks at its time

10. Seek guidance from teachers
Teachers are the best friends to learners and
have the best solution
Talk to them if there is a feeling of much
assignment overload
They could guide students on how to manage
them or reduce unnecessary work for
students
Avoid being ashamed of talking to them if
need be

11. Avoid unnecessary stress
Set time to play, relax and refresh the mind
Set time to party, play, or exercise the body
This makes the body to freshen up and
prepare for other tasks ahead
This does not mean students are wasting
their time (Bardhoshi, 2012).
Students just need to set time and prioritize
on tasks

12. Stay ahead of deadlines
Avoid working on assignments at last minute
Set time for tasks and purpose to finish way
before deadlines (Kingston, 2012).
Learn to manage time properly to get
experience on how long each task takes
Stick to work schedule or timetable to avoid
work spilling over to other time set for
different tasks

13. Tips to consider
Procrastination is a thief of time
Success comes with time consciousness
Wasted time is never recovered
Never shy away from consulting and seeking
the right guidance
Teachers are the best friends to learners
Work schedule and timetable helps manage
time

Conclusion
Students need to be guided on how to
manage their time properly
They should learn to communicate their
issues with teachers to avoid stress and
depression that comes with work overload
They should learn to work with timetables
and commit themselves to follow them
Planning, working on time, being focused and
working in groups are the key solutions to
assignment overload

References
Kingston, J. H. (2012). Resource assignment in high school
timetabling. Annals of operations research, 194(1), 241-254.
Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and
underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy,
successful kids. John Wiley & Sons.
Bardhoshi, G. (2012). The relationship between assignment of non-
counseling duties and burnout among professional school counselors.
The George Washington University.
Scheff, H., & Monson, L. (2019). A Look at Burnout and How to
Avoid It: The Who, What, Why, and How. Dance Education in
Practice, 5(1), 7-12.
shahmohammadi, N. (2011). Students’ coping with Stress at
high school level particularly at 11th & 12th grade. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 395-401.