At the risk of sounding like an old man, I’d like to note that back in my day, math homework was all on paper: either worksheets or textbook questions. But in recent years, there’s been a major shift toward online math homework, and this shift has not been good for students. Pearson/Savvas, IXL, WebAssign, ALEKS, McGraw Hill – whatever your school uses, you probably hate it.
Programs like these were rare before COVID, and they were understandably made mainstream during remote learning. But as the pandemic ended and we went back to the classroom, these programs stuck around. The reasons for this are also understandable: digital math homework is easy for teachers to track, it saves the teacher from printing hundreds of worksheets each week, and textbooks are going the way of the dodo.
But I’ve yet to meet a student who prefers online math homework to traditional math homework. And if you’ve ever experienced it yourself, you know why. The programs are difficult to use. The visuals of graphs are usually tiny and hard to read. Typing your answer into the box sometimes takes more effort than the problem itself. The instructions change frequently for no good reason. And the programs love to ask what I call “oddball questions” – questions that are far weirder and more abstract than anything you’d see on a test.
Thus, many students are discouraged by their digital math homework. Getting through it is exhausting, so the goal of learning takes a backseat to the goal of just being done (even more so than with traditional homework). For some, online math homework is so difficult and tedious that they avoid it altogether, causing their grades and learning to suffer. So here is my guide to surviving digital math homework. These eight strategies won’t make you love it, but they will make your life easier.
1. Use Paper
Screen-based math subtly discourages students from using the #1 strategy for solving any math problem: work it out on paper. You should always have scratch paper at the ready or, better yet, a dedicated notebook where you do all of your online math homework. Pretend you’re getting points for showing your work.
If you note the problem number next to the work you’re doing, then you’ll have something to refer back to if you get stuck. This makes asking your teacher or tutor for help much easier.
When students do use paper, the most common mistake I see is doing some bit of mental math between the screen and the first thing they write down. They see an algebra equation on the screen, and instead of just writing down the original equation, they take a step in their head and write down the result. Many mistakes are made this way because pulling from screen to paper while simultaneously performing an algebra step can overload working memory.
2. Use Your Resources
If you have notes from class, keep them handy. If you have a textbook, have that open to the relevant section. If all you have is a digital textbook, open that in a new tab. If the school did not provide a textbook, you can still buy a good used one.
Remember that Khan Academy and YouTubers like The Organic Chemistry Tutor are always there to teach you how to do the math with well-made videos. If you’re using these resources to learn, you should be taking notes.
3. Show Me an Example
Most online math homework platforms have a button that says something like “Show Me an Example.” If you’re stuck, click that button. Patiently read through the example and take notes. Then return to the problem and see if you can figure it out. Don’t give up on a question until you have taken this step.
4. Read the Darn Instructions
Sometimes, the student is confident they’re correct, and I’m confident they’re correct, and the program still says they got it wrong. Nine times out of ten, it’s because we didn’t follow the formatting instructions for the answer.
Pearson (one of the most popular online math programs) loves to change the answer-format requirements from question to question. It’ll say “round to the nearest tenth” for several questions, but then it will unexpectedly switch to “round to the nearest hundredth.” Or it’ll insist on simplified fractions for some questions, but then demand decimals for others. It’s one of Pearson’s worst features. So, before you give up in frustration, double-check the instructions.
5. Feel Free to Skip Oddball Questions
Digital math assignments, far more than textbooks and worksheets, frequently include weird questions. These come in many flavors, such as:
- Concept explanation questions with very wordy (and poorly phrased) answer choices
- Questions where you analyze a student’s erroneous work and describe the mistake they made (often forcing you to guess at the way this imaginary student was thinking about the math)
- Abstract algebra problems that use only letters and no numbers (these are actually good to know how to do, but bad to attempt first)
Oddball questions like these are often the first few problems a student will see in a digital homework assignment, when they should actually be last. Starting the assignment with the weirdest, toughest questions leaves many students discouraged.
But there’s good news! Most online math programs let you skip questions. You can come back later and try them after you’ve done all of the normal questions. Or you can skip them altogether. Your test probably won’t have questions like that, and skipping the oddballs won’t hurt your homework grade very much.
6. Don’t Skip Any Subtopics
Some teachers will give you full credit for the assignment if you complete 70% of it, and many students happily take them up on that offer. This approach could even make sense if you jumped around, completing 70% of each of the problem types (they typically come in batches), or if you only skipped the aforementioned oddball questions.
Instead, what usually happens is that students will complete the first 70% of the questions, in order, leaving the last 30% incomplete, never even looking at them. In doing so, they typically skip two whole types of questions: subtopics they’re expected to know for their test. If your goal is to learn the material, don’t do that.
7. Supplement as Needed
The assigned homework, whether digital or traditional, is usually not enough to master the content. So it’s always a good idea to supplement the homework with additional practice.
If you want to try a specific problem type again, online math programs usually have a button that says something like, “Practice a Similar Question.” If a problem was particularly vexing but didn’t seem like an oddball question, you should do this immediately, before completing the rest of the assignment. Things that are hard to understand are hard to remember, so you should reinforce them right away.
More likely, you’ll want to do more practice offline, so you’ll seek out practice problems in your textbook or find a worksheet to do. Kuta Software has tons of free worksheets for high school math, or you can always just Google the name of the topic and the word “worksheet.”
Either way, succeeding in math typically requires doing more than they ask you to do.
Chris Loper has been working as a tutor and academic coach since 2014, racking up over 13,000 hours of experience supporting students.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the co-creator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
Chris writes the popular self-improvement blog Becoming Better, where he also offers habit coaching, helping busy adults with habit formation and productivity.
Chris’s most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, he published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA, where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.
