It might look grim, but it is possible to catch up!
I’m going to be straight with you: everyone skips class. Even the best of students — and professors — take a day off, but as the school year dwindles down, those who skipped more than a few days may find themselves drowning in the slew of homework they missed. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at a time like this, but I am here to assure you that you can catch up with enough hard work.
I am no stranger to missing class. Due to health complications this semester, I missed over 6 days of classes and came back to a veritable mountain of homework. Tackling this monstrosity seemed impossible. No matter how hard I worked, no matter how fast I wrote, I was suffocating in dense political science readings and English papers.
Luckily, with a little help from my professors and a lot of help from my planner, I’ve caught up and am finishing this semester with great grades despite my high amount of absences. Catching up is surprisingly easier than it appears. That pile of homework can look daunting, but once you come up with a plan of attack, the homework flies by and before you know it you’re back to watching Netflix and eating Doritos.
First and foremost, grab your syllabus. I cannot stress this enough — your syllabus is your ticket to freedom. You cannot start making up homework until you have a complete list of everything you missed. I know that compiling a list of everything you missed can make the task appear even more stressful, but at the end of the day is going to help you out in the long run. Be sure to also check out your professors late work policy. If your professor doesn’t accept late work, there is no reason to stress over it. If they won’t accept it, they won’t accept it. Dedicate that time to the assignments your professors will accept.
This brings me to my second point: prioritize your list. If you’ve got homework due today, do it. It’s better to get your assignments done on time than add another assignment to your pile of late work. Once you’ve got all of today’s homework out of the way, prioritize in terms of importance. If an assignment is worth 100 points, do it before moving onto a 20 point assignment. Once you’ve determined which are most important, write it all down from the most important to least important assignment.
Finally, get to work. Easier said than done, I know, but the sooner you get to work, the sooner you’re back on top of all your classes. Keep at your homework. Close out those Facebook and Pinterest tabs, and keep your internet limited to school-related purposes. I know it’s hard, but if you want to catch up as fast as possible a homework binge is how ya do it. Of course, it’s important to schedule 15 minute sanity breaks, but for the most part, stick to getting your homework done. It is that easy and it is that hard.
Once your homework is done and submitted, double check with your professors that they received the homework and make things are still good between you and the professor. It’s always nice to just check in with them, especially if you’re turning in late assignments. Odds are, they’ll understand. Your professors are human too, and they were in your position at one point in time. When that is all said and done, you’re free to return to your Netflix subscription and sail through the rest of the semester at ease. Just be sure to not fall behind again!
