Top 10 Student Excuses for Incomplete Homework

As a student, almost all of us have made excuses at one time or the other for not completing our homework or submit assignments late. We get quite creative at times and come up with new and unique ideas to fool our teachers. For repeated offenders, there is no salvage as teachers soon catch up on your game. Remember, they have been students too and can see through your façade pretty easily.

At askIITians too, we have students who won’t complete their homework on time – either at school or online coaching classes they take with us – and then, try to worm their way out of our prying eyes by making excuses that we know are not true (90% of the times). Top 10 excuses students make when they do not complete their homework

The Forgetful

One of the most common excuses we hear is “Sorry Sir/Ma’am, I forgot all about it” or “Did you give me homework? I don’t remember.”

askIITians keeps recorded sessions and you can be caught. So, do it at your own risk.

The Naïve or Dumb

“I didn’t understand it. Could you please help me with it?”

OK, this is sometime true for Maths and Physics problems and we may consider it sometimes. But we would prefer that next time, you make an extra effort to listen to the video lectures once again and trying to find solutions to your problems by being more active on 24X7 discussion forums. And do not play the record too often!

Living in a Hotel

“I had guests at home and there was just no peace to get work done.”

And you were the only one in the family to play the host? Lot of us IITians are from joint families and we just had to learn to focus amidst all the family mayhem throughout 365 days of the year. So, work on your concentration level and find a study corner for yourself.

Blame the Computer

“My computer crashed” or “My homework disappeared before I could save it.”

You are a tech-savvy person. Learn to save your homework from time to time and few basic skills to retrieve it if it gets lost accidentally. We can help you with it – provided you have done your homework in the first place.

The Super Busy

“I had too much homework from other subject” or “I was busy with volunteering work or extra-curricular activities at school.”

This might work at school but askIITians request you to keep avoidable engagements at bay for two years of JEE preparation or NEET (AIPMT) preparation – if you are serious about it. School homework or homework from other subject can be easily managed by tweaking your study plan a bit. Time Management is an imporant life skill to learn to save you from many rainy days in the future.

The Bed Ridden

“I was sick for the past few days.”

Often, this is accompanied by a haggardly experience on video chat with uncombed hair and a bit of cough. Dude, we have all faked illnesses. Surely, you can solve Maths problems or those Physics numericals even if you have a runny nose. Take a D-Cold tab, sleep off the headache for 2-3 hours, get up and be done with your homework.

Blame the Power Cuts

“No electricity or power cuts” are a common excuse for students from Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities for not doing their homework or missing their online classes.

We accept that this might be a valid reason for many of us. All we can suggest is to arrange an inverter or a generator, if possible, to avoid such scenarios. Use your offline study material such as books to use this time fruitfully.

The Endless Parties

“We had to attend the wedding of my father’s cousin sister’s daughter’s brother-in-law last night.”

Class 11 and Class 12 are the crucial defining years for IIT JEE aspirants. So, keep the distracters at bay for now. You can be the life of the social circle again, as a Star IITian of the Family, again in a few years’ time.

The Apologetic

“I am sorry, I didn’t feel like doing the homework (or I slept for too long yesterday). Can I submit it tomorrow?”

You disarm us when you tell the truth. We have been through the phase and we empathize with you. But please do not make it a habit.

The Rebellious

“It was boring” or “It was so easy, I didn’t feel like doing it.”

Occasionally, we have a little rebel at hand. You are going to become engineers or doctors. If you had to work on same types of cars everyday or had to treat patients with common cold throughout the day, would you not do it because it is not challenging or interesting enough? Some things need to be done and that’s it.

You can make almost anything interesting by adding ‘time factor’ to the homework game. If you think the homework is too easy, set up a time limit for yourself and see how many questions you can solve in that time period. ‘Fun’ is a state of mind and it is an important life skill to learn.

Excuses that don’t work 

• My dog ate homework: Most Indian students do not have pets and those who do learn that their notebooks and books are out of reach of their cats and dogs by the time they are teenagers. While this is a common excuse for foreign-bred students, it never works well for Indian students.

• Left my notebook at home: Luckily, we hold virtual classes and our assignments have to be completed online. So, excuses like ‘you lost your notebook’ or ‘you left it at home because you were working in it till late at night’ are not going to work with us.

• I was absent: You can never be absent in an online class program. If you missed a lecture, you could always access the recorded video session and know what you needed to do before you attend the next class.

• It is with my friend: The ‘kind-hearted’ who are used to lending notebooks in which they have done their homework to their friends have to think of some other excuses for us. Remember, our assignments are online and you always retain their hard or soft copies – even if you pass them along.

• Handing over last-minute gibberish: When you try to scribble gibberish just minutes before online class is scheduled for the day, we can make it out. Remember, we are IITians, we are engineers and techies, we are pretty smart, and we know our students well. So, next time you copy answers from your friends and forget to solve your problems step-by-step, we are not going to consider it as ‘completed homework’.

While homework or assignments may look like fun spoilers, they are set as a guidance to help you understand the topic which is being taught in class better. Self-study is an important component of your engineering or medical entrance exam preparation. It is also the most prominent distinguishing feature of those who top JEE exams and NEET (AIPMT) exams and those who do make it through the exams. So, stop being clever and do your homework!