homework partner meaning

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to do homework: 15 expert tips and tricks.

Coursework/GPA

Everyone struggles with homework sometimes, but if getting your homework done has become a chronic issue for you, then you may need a little extra help. That’s why we’ve written this article all about how to do homework. Once you’re finished reading it, you’ll know how to do homework (and have tons of new ways to motivate yourself to do homework)!

We’ve broken this article down into a few major sections. You’ll find:

• A diagnostic test to help you figure out why you’re struggling with homework
• A discussion of the four major homework problems students face, along with expert tips for addressing them
• A bonus section with tips for how to do homework fast

By the end of this article, you’ll be prepared to tackle whatever homework assignments your teachers throw at you .

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

Sometimes it feels like everything is standing between you and getting your homework done. But the truth is, most people only have one or two major roadblocks that are keeping them from getting their homework done well and on time. 

The best way to figure out how to get motivated to do homework starts with pinpointing the issues that are affecting your ability to get your assignments done. That’s why we’ve developed a short quiz to help you identify the areas where you’re struggling. 

Take the quiz below and record your answers on your phone or on a scrap piece of paper. Keep in mind there are no wrong answers! 

1. You’ve just been assigned an essay in your English class that’s due at the end of the week. What’s the first thing you do?

A. Keep it in mind, even though you won’t start it until the day before it’s due  B. Open up your planner. You’ve got to figure out when you’ll write your paper since you have band practice, a speech tournament, and your little sister’s dance recital this week, too.  C. Groan out loud. Another essay? You could barely get yourself to write the last one!  D. Start thinking about your essay topic, which makes you think about your art project that’s due the same day, which reminds you that your favorite artist might have just posted to Instagram...so you better check your feed right now. 

2. Your mom asked you to pick up your room before she gets home from work. You’ve just gotten home from school. You decide you’ll tackle your chores: 

A. Five minutes before your mom walks through the front door. As long as it gets done, who cares when you start?  B. As soon as you get home from your shift at the local grocery store.  C. After you give yourself a 15-minute pep talk about how you need to get to work.  D. You won’t get it done. Between texts from your friends, trying to watch your favorite Netflix show, and playing with your dog, you just lost track of time! 

3. You’ve signed up to wash dogs at the Humane Society to help earn money for your senior class trip. You: 

A. Show up ten minutes late. You put off leaving your house until the last minute, then got stuck in unexpected traffic on the way to the shelter.  B. Have to call and cancel at the last minute. You forgot you’d already agreed to babysit your cousin and bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale.  C. Actually arrive fifteen minutes early with extra brushes and bandanas you picked up at the store. You’re passionate about animals, so you’re excited to help out! D. Show up on time, but only get three dogs washed. You couldn’t help it: you just kept getting distracted by how cute they were!

4. You have an hour of downtime, so you decide you’re going to watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show. You: 

A. Scroll through your social media feeds for twenty minutes before hitting play, which means you’re not able to finish the whole episode. Ugh! You really wanted to see who was sent home!  B. Watch fifteen minutes until you remember you’re supposed to pick up your sister from band practice before heading to your part-time job. No GBBO for you!  C. You finish one episode, then decide to watch another even though you’ve got SAT studying to do. It’s just more fun to watch people make scones.  D. Start the episode, but only catch bits and pieces of it because you’re reading Twitter, cleaning out your backpack, and eating a snack at the same time.

5. Your teacher asks you to stay after class because you’ve missed turning in two homework assignments in a row. When she asks you what’s wrong, you say: 

A. You planned to do your assignments during lunch, but you ran out of time. You decided it would be better to turn in nothing at all than submit unfinished work.  B. You really wanted to get the assignments done, but between your extracurriculars, family commitments, and your part-time job, your homework fell through the cracks.  C. You have a hard time psyching yourself to tackle the assignments. You just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on them once you get home.  D. You tried to do them, but you had a hard time focusing. By the time you realized you hadn’t gotten anything done, it was already time to turn them in. 

Like we said earlier, there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz (though your results will be better if you answered as honestly as possible). Here’s how your answers break down: 

• If your answers were mostly As, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is procrastination. 
• If your answers were mostly Bs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is time management. 
• If your answers were mostly Cs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is motivation. 
• If your answers were mostly Ds, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is getting distracted. 

Now that you’ve identified why you’re having a hard time getting your homework done, we can help you figure out how to fix it! Scroll down to find your core problem area to learn more about how you can start to address it. 

And one more thing: you’re really struggling with homework, it’s a good idea to read through every section below. You may find some additional tips that will help make homework less intimidating. 

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

Merriam Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually.” In other words, procrastination is when you choose to do something at the last minute on a regular basis. If you’ve ever found yourself pulling an all-nighter, trying to finish an assignment between periods, or sprinting to turn in a paper minutes before a deadline, you’ve experienced the effects of procrastination. 

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re in good company. In fact, one study found that 70% to 95% of undergraduate students procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework. Unfortunately, procrastination can negatively impact your grades. Researchers have found that procrastination can lower your grade on an assignment by as much as five points ...which might not sound serious until you realize that can mean the difference between a B- and a C+. 

Procrastination can also negatively affect your health by increasing your stress levels , which can lead to other health conditions like insomnia, a weakened immune system, and even heart conditions. Getting a handle on procrastination can not only improve your grades, it can make you feel better, too! 

The big thing to understand about procrastination is that it’s not the result of laziness. Laziness is defined as being “disinclined to activity or exertion.” In other words, being lazy is all about doing nothing. But a s this Psychology Today article explains , procrastinators don’t put things off because they don’t want to work. Instead, procrastinators tend to postpone tasks they don’t want to do in favor of tasks that they perceive as either more important or more fun. Put another way, procrastinators want to do things...as long as it’s not their homework! 

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

Because putting off doing homework is a common problem, there are lots of good tactics for addressing procrastination. Keep reading for our three expert tips that will get your homework habits back on track in no time. 

#1: Create a Reward System

Like we mentioned earlier, procrastination happens when you prioritize other activities over getting your homework done. Many times, this happens because homework...well, just isn’t enjoyable. But you can add some fun back into the process by rewarding yourself for getting your work done. 

Here’s what we mean: let’s say you decide that every time you get your homework done before the day it’s due, you’ll give yourself a point. For every five points you earn, you’ll treat yourself to your favorite dessert: a chocolate cupcake! Now you have an extra (delicious!) incentive to motivate you to leave procrastination in the dust. 

If you’re not into cupcakes, don’t worry. Your reward can be anything that motivates you . Maybe it’s hanging out with your best friend or an extra ten minutes of video game time. As long as you’re choosing something that makes homework worth doing, you’ll be successful. 

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

If you’re having trouble getting yourself to start your homework ahead of time, it may be a good idea to call in reinforcements . Find a friend or classmate you can trust and explain to them that you’re trying to change your homework habits. Ask them if they’d be willing to text you to make sure you’re doing your homework and check in with you once a week to see if you’re meeting your anti-procrastination goals. 

Sharing your goals can make them feel more real, and an accountability partner can help hold you responsible for your decisions. For example, let’s say you’re tempted to put off your science lab write-up until the morning before it’s due. But you know that your accountability partner is going to text you about it tomorrow...and you don’t want to fess up that you haven’t started your assignment. A homework accountability partner can give you the extra support and incentive you need to keep your homework habits on track. 

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

If you’re a life-long procrastinator, you might find that changing the habit is harder than you expected. In that case, you might try using procrastination to your advantage! If you just can’t seem to stop doing your work at the last minute, try setting your own due dates for assignments that range from a day to a week before the assignment is actually due. 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say you have a math worksheet that’s been assigned on Tuesday and is due on Friday. In your planner, you can write down the due date as Thursday instead. You may still put off your homework assignment until the last minute...but in this case, the “last minute” is a day before the assignment’s real due date . This little hack can trick your procrastination-addicted brain into planning ahead! 

If you feel like Kevin Hart in this meme, then our tips for doing homework when you're busy are for you. 

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

If you’re aiming to go to a top-tier college , you’re going to have a full plate. Because college admissions is getting more competitive, it’s important that you’re maintaining your grades , studying hard for your standardized tests , and participating in extracurriculars so your application stands out. A packed schedule can get even more hectic once you add family obligations or a part-time job to the mix. 

If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once, you’re not alone. Recent research has found that stress—and more severe stress-related conditions like anxiety and depression— are a major problem for high school students . In fact, one study from the American Psychological Association found that during the school year, students’ stress levels are higher than those of the adults around them. 

For students, homework is a major contributor to their overall stress levels . Many high schoolers have multiple hours of homework every night , and figuring out how to fit it into an already-packed schedule can seem impossible. 

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

While it might feel like you have literally no time left in your schedule, there are still ways to make sure you’re able to get your homework done and meet your other commitments. Here are our expert homework tips for even the busiest of students. 

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

You probably already have a to-do list to keep yourself on track. The next step is to prioritize the items on your to-do list so you can see what items need your attention right away. 

Here’s how it works: at the beginning of each day, sit down and make a list of all the items you need to get done before you go to bed. This includes your homework, but it should also take into account any practices, chores, events, or job shifts you may have. Once you get everything listed out, it’s time to prioritize them using the labels A, B, and C. Here’s what those labels mean:

• A Tasks : tasks that have to get done—like showing up at work or turning in an assignment—get an A. 
• B Tasks : these are tasks that you would like to get done by the end of the day but aren’t as time sensitive. For example, studying for a test you have next week could be a B-level task. It’s still important, but it doesn’t have to be done right away.
• C Tasks: these are tasks that aren’t very important and/or have no real consequences if you don’t get them done immediately. For instance, if you’re hoping to clean out your closet but it’s not an assigned chore from your parents, you could label that to-do item with a C.

Prioritizing your to-do list helps you visualize which items need your immediate attention, and which items you can leave for later. A prioritized to-do list ensures that you’re spending your time efficiently and effectively, which helps you make room in your schedule for homework. So even though you might really want to start making decorations for Homecoming (a B task), you’ll know that finishing your reading log (an A task) is more important. 

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

Your planner is probably packed with notes, events, and assignments already. (And if you’re not using a planner, it’s time to start!) But planners can do more for you than just remind you when an assignment is due. If you’re using a planner with time labels, it can help you visualize how you need to spend your day.

A planner with time labels breaks your day down into chunks, and you assign tasks to each chunk of time. For example, you can make a note of your class schedule with assignments, block out time to study, and make sure you know when you need to be at practice. Once you know which tasks take priority, you can add them to any empty spaces in your day. 

Planning out how you spend your time not only helps you use it wisely, it can help you feel less overwhelmed, too . We’re big fans of planners that include a task list ( like this one ) or have room for notes ( like this one ). 

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

If you need a little extra nudge to make sure you’re getting your homework done on time, it’s a good idea to set some reminders on your phone. You don’t need a fancy app, either. You can use your alarm app to have it go off at specific times throughout the day to remind you to do your homework. This works especially well if you have a set homework time scheduled. So if you’ve decided you’re doing homework at 6:00 pm, you can set an alarm to remind you to bust out your books and get to work. 

If you use your phone as your planner, you may have the option to add alerts, emails, or notifications to scheduled events . Many calendar apps, including the one that comes with your phone, have built-in reminders that you can customize to meet your needs. So if you block off time to do your homework from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, you can set a reminder that will pop up on your phone when it’s time to get started. 

This dog isn't judging your lack of motivation...but your teacher might. Keep reading for tips to help you motivate yourself to do your homework.

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

At first glance, it may seem like procrastination and being unmotivated are the same thing. After all, both of these issues usually result in you putting off your homework until the very last minute. 

But there’s one key difference: many procrastinators are working, they’re just prioritizing work differently. They know they’re going to start their homework...they’re just going to do it later. 

Conversely, people who are unmotivated to do homework just can’t find the willpower to tackle their assignments. Procrastinators know they’ll at least attempt the homework at the last minute, whereas people who are unmotivated struggle with convincing themselves to do it at a ll. For procrastinators, the stress comes from the inevitable time crunch. For unmotivated people, the stress comes from trying to convince themselves to do something they don’t want to do in the first place. 

Here are some common reasons students are unmotivated in doing homework : 

• Assignments are too easy, too hard, or seemingly pointless 
• Students aren’t interested in (or passionate about) the subject matter
• Students are intimidated by the work and/or feels like they don’t understand the assignment 
• Homework isn’t fun, and students would rather spend their time on things that they enjoy 

To sum it up: people who lack motivation to do their homework are more likely to not do it at all, or to spend more time worrying about doing their homework than...well, actually doing it.

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

The key to getting homework done when you’re unmotivated is to figure out what does motivate you, then apply those things to homework. It sounds tricky...but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it! Here are our three expert tips for motivating yourself to do your homework. 

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

When you’re not motivated, it’s important to give yourself small rewards to stay focused on finishing the task at hand. The trick is to keep the incentives small and to reward yourself often. For example, maybe you’re reading a good book in your free time. For every ten minutes you spend on your homework, you get to read five pages of your book. Like we mentioned earlier, make sure you’re choosing a reward that works for you! 

So why does this technique work? Using small rewards more often allows you to experience small wins for getting your work done. Every time you make it to one of your tiny reward points, you get to celebrate your success, which gives your brain a boost of dopamine . Dopamine helps you stay motivated and also creates a feeling of satisfaction when you complete your homework !  

#2: Form a Homework Group 

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, it’s okay to turn to others for support. Creating a homework group can help with this. Bring together a group of your friends or classmates, and pick one time a week where you meet and work on homework together. You don’t have to be in the same class, or even taking the same subjects— the goal is to encourage one another to start (and finish!) your assignments. 

Another added benefit of a homework group is that you can help one another if you’re struggling to understand the material covered in your classes. This is especially helpful if your lack of motivation comes from being intimidated by your assignments. Asking your friends for help may feel less scary than talking to your teacher...and once you get a handle on the material, your homework may become less frightening, too. 

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

If you find that you’re totally unmotivated, it may help if you find a new place to do your homework. For example, if you’ve been struggling to get your homework done at home, try spending an extra hour in the library after school instead. The change of scenery can limit your distractions and give you the energy you need to get your work done. 

If you’re stuck doing homework at home, you can still use this tip. For instance, maybe you’ve always done your homework sitting on your bed. Try relocating somewhere else, like your kitchen table, for a few weeks. You may find that setting up a new “homework spot” in your house gives you a motivational lift and helps you get your work done. 

Social media can be a huge problem when it comes to doing homework. We have advice for helping you unplug and regain focus.

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

We live in an always-on world, and there are tons of things clamoring for our attention. From friends and family to pop culture and social media, it seems like there’s always something (or someone!) distracting us from the things we need to do.

The 24/7 world we live in has affected our ability to focus on tasks for prolonged periods of time. Research has shown that over the past decade, an average person’s attention span has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds . And when we do lose focus, i t takes people a long time to get back on task . One study found that it can take as long as 23 minutes to get back to work once we’ve been distracte d. No wonder it can take hours to get your homework done! 

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

If you have a hard time focusing when you’re doing your homework, it’s a good idea to try and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Here are three expert tips for blocking out the noise so you can focus on getting your homework done. 

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

Pick a place where you’ll do your homework every day, and make it as distraction-free as possible. Try to find a location where there won’t be tons of noise, and limit your access to screens while you’re doing your homework. Put together a focus-oriented playlist (or choose one on your favorite streaming service), and put your headphones on while you work. 

You may find that other people, like your friends and family, are your biggest distraction. If that’s the case, try setting up some homework boundaries. Let them know when you’ll be working on homework every day, and ask them if they’ll help you keep a quiet environment. They’ll be happy to lend a hand! 

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

We know, we know...this tip isn’t fun, but it does work. For homework that doesn’t require a computer, like handouts or worksheets, it’s best to put all your technology away . Turn off your television, put your phone and laptop in your backpack, and silence notifications on any wearable tech you may be sporting. If you listen to music while you work, that’s fine...but make sure you have a playlist set up so you’re not shuffling through songs once you get started on your homework. 

If your homework requires your laptop or tablet, it can be harder to limit your access to distractions. But it’s not impossible! T here are apps you can download that will block certain websites while you’re working so that you’re not tempted to scroll through Twitter or check your Facebook feed. Silence notifications and text messages on your computer, and don’t open your email account unless you absolutely have to. And if you don’t need access to the internet to complete your assignments, turn off your WiFi. Cutting out the online chatter is a great way to make sure you’re getting your homework done. 

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique ? It’s a productivity hack that uses a timer to help you focus!

Here’s how it works: first, set a timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work time. During this 25 minutes, all you can do is work on whatever homework assignment you have in front of you. No email, no text messaging, no phone calls—just homework. When that timer goes off, you get to take a 5 minute break. Every time you go through one of these cycles, it’s called a “pomodoro.” For every four pomodoros you complete, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

The pomodoro technique works through a combination of boundary setting and rewards. First, it gives you a finite amount of time to focus, so you know that you only have to work really hard for 25 minutes. Once you’ve done that, you’re rewarded with a short break where you can do whatever you want. Additionally, tracking how many pomodoros you complete can help you see how long you’re really working on your homework. (Once you start using our focus tips, you may find it doesn’t take as long as you thought!)

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

Even if you’re doing everything right, there will be times when you just need to get your homework done as fast as possible. (Why do teachers always have projects due in the same week? The world may never know.)

The problem with speeding through homework is that it’s easy to make mistakes. While turning in an assignment is always better than not submitting anything at all, you want to make sure that you’re not compromising quality for speed. Simply put, the goal is to get your homework done quickly and still make a good grade on the assignment! 

Here are our two bonus tips for getting a decent grade on your homework assignments , even when you’re in a time crunch. 

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

This is especially true if you’re working on a handout with multiple questions. Before you start working on the assignment, read through all the questions and problems. As you do, make a mark beside the questions you think are “easy” to answer . 

Once you’ve finished going through the whole assignment, you can answer these questions first. Getting the easy questions out of the way as quickly as possible lets you spend more time on the trickier portions of your homework, which will maximize your assignment grade. 

(Quick note: this is also a good strategy to use on timed assignments and tests, like the SAT and the ACT !) 

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

Homework gets a lot easier when you’re actively learning the material. Teachers aren’t giving you homework because they’re mean or trying to ruin your weekend... it’s because they want you to really understand the course material. Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re already learning in class so you’ll be ready to tackle harder concepts later.

When you pay attention in class, ask questions, and take good notes, you’re absorbing the information you’ll need to succeed on your homework assignments. (You’re stuck in class anyway, so you might as well make the most of it!) Not only will paying attention in class make your homework less confusing, it will also help it go much faster, too.

What’s Next?

If you’re looking to improve your productivity beyond homework, a good place to begin is with time management. After all, we only have so much time in a day...so it’s important to get the most out of it! To get you started, check out this list of the 12 best time management techniques that you can start using today.

You may have read this article because homework struggles have been affecting your GPA. Now that you’re on the path to homework success, it’s time to start being proactive about raising your grades. This article teaches you everything you need to know about raising your GPA so you can

Now you know how to get motivated to do homework...but what about your study habits? Studying is just as critical to getting good grades, and ultimately getting into a good college . We can teach you how to study bette r in high school. (We’ve also got tons of resources to help you study for your ACT and SAT exams , too!)

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

10 Reasons to Have a Study Partner

Jamie Grill/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images

• Study Methods
• Homework Tips
• Learning Styles & Skills
• Time Management
• Private School
• College Admissions
• College Life
• Graduate School
• Business School
• Distance Learning
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

One great way to stay on target and earn better grades is to pair up with a good study partner. If you are serious about improving your school performance, this is a great way to make the most of your study time. What are some of the benefits?

10 Benefits of Having a Study Partner

• A study partner will help you remember a due date or the date of an exam. Never forget another test! Share calendars with your study partner and both of you will know when a big project or paper is due.
• Your study partner can share flashcards with you and quiz you before a test. Create your paper cards and meet up to study or use online flashcards together.
• Two heads are better than one, so your study partner may think of practice essay questions that you didn't think of.
• Study partners can switch papers and pre-grade each other before assignments are turned in. Proofread together and share your thoughts and ideas.
• A study partner can have your back if you get sick on the day when your paper is due. Arrange ahead of time to pick up and turn in papers for each other in the event of an emergency.
• A study partner will understand some methods or problems that you don't. You will be able to explain some of the problems to your partner in return. It's a great trade-off!
• Your partner may be able to help you with your research skills. Meet your partner in the library and learn to use the resources together. Then, you can share what you know to help each other out. For example, one partner can learn to search databases while the other learns to find books on the shelves.
• You can benefit from sharing your strengths. One may be better with grammar, while the other is better with numbers, as in finding statistics to support a claim for an argument essay .
• Study partners motivate each other and reduce the potential for procrastination .
• Study partners can be there if you forget important tools--like a calculator, dictionary, colored pencils, or notebook paper.

A study partner relationship should be beneficial to both students, so remember it is important for both partners to fulfill their responsibilities. For this reason, it might ​ not make sense to partner up with your best friend. Your study partner should be a person who complements you and your skills.

• How to Study for a Test in 5 Days
• Top 10 Healthy Homework Habits
• 7 Ways to Use PowerPoint as a Study Aid
• Learn About the Top 9 Places to Study
• Setting Up a Study Schedule
• Study for an Exam in 2 to 4 Days
• How to Study for a Vocabulary Quiz
• How to Deal With Bad Lab Partners
• How to Study for a Multiple Choice Exam
• How to Use Multiple Intelligences to Study for a Test
• 10 Ways to Be a Successful Online Student
• Differentiating Instruction for Success in Special Education
• Preparing for Final Exams
• Human Anatomy Study Tips
• Top Tips for Succeeding in Statistics Class
• How to Study for a Test or Final

Building Healthy Relationships With 40 Helpful Worksheets

The quality of our relationships with others affects our personal and professional lives and our sense of belonging to a wider community and humanity (Halford, Pepping, & Petch, 2018; Murray, Ross, & Cannon, 2021; Yucel, 2018).

However, even the healthiest relationships will encounter problems, misunderstandings, and confusion from time to time. Healthy relationships are not pain free or perfect. To maintain healthy relationships, we need healthy interpersonal boundaries, good communication skills, and the capacity for compassion and forgiveness for the all too human mistakes we all make (Yucel, 2018).

This article provides relationship-focused worksheets, recommends helpful relationship books, and offers additional resources from our extensive library at PositivePsychology.com.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Relationship Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients build healthy, life-enriching relationships.

This Article Contains:

Building healthy relationships worksheets, healthy relationships activities for adults, healthy vs unhealthy relationships worksheets, helpful relationships books, positivepsychology.com resources, a take-home message.

Building healthy relationships with people takes time. Developing trust is essential and requires mutual openness and authenticity to flourish (Falconier et al., 2015).

We also need to be mindful of the appropriate boundaries for different types of relationships, such as work colleagues, parents, children, partners, friends, and acquaintances (Davis, Morris & Drake, 2017; Murray, Ross, & Cannon, 2021).

Knowing Your Partner

For most of us, the relationship we have with our significant other will be one of the most important and challenging relationships of our lifetimes (Yucel, 2018). All partnerships encounter problems especially in the longer term, when the initial excitement of romance wears off (Falconier et al., 2015).

Use the worksheets below to address common issues that arise between couples as the relationship develops. These worksheets can also be used as tools when counseling couples or downloaded as a self-help resource.

1. The High Quality Relationships (HQR) Worksheet

The HQR worksheet invites you to reflect on six areas common to all types of relationships, their quality, and therefore healthiness. These areas assess your capacity for:

• constructive emotional expression
• managing challenges
• accepting diversity
• interactive vitality
• positive regard

Starting with this self-assessment worksheet reveals areas where relationship healthiness might be lacking.

2. Imago Workup

This Imago worksheet helps identify the qualities you want in a prospective romantic partner. It particularly draws on how childhood experiences and related attachment patterns affect the development of a romantic partnership as an adult.

3. About Your Partner

You can use the about your partner worksheet to check how much attention you pay to your partner and how well you know them as a person. It covers several life domains, including the things they most enjoy, what they want for the future, the things they most like about you, their relationships with other people, and their feelings about work and money.

4. Good Qualities

This good qualities worksheet helps couples reflect on what they appreciate about each other. It’s common for couples to forget why they were first attracted to each other as the relationship matures.

5. Valuing My Partner

Similarly, this valuing my partner worksheet helps couples who tend to focus on each other’s negative qualities to remember when they first met and what they value about each other now.

6. Three Things We Have In Common

This worksheet helps partners appreciate the commonalities and differences between them that make their relationship work. It should be completed by partners together and the answers discussed, raising awareness of each other’s complementary qualities.

7. Relationship Qualities

Couples tend to forget each other’s strengths when their relationship is tainted by conflict. This worksheet logs a list of activities to re-visit as a couple that have inspired positive feelings in the past.

8. Understanding The Big Picture

The big picture worksheet helps couples concentrate on their shared vision of the future to get through the more mundane and difficult times that every long-term relationship encounters. It uses miracle questions to build trust and connection with your partner and rekindle shared dreams.

9. Mutual Relationship Vision

Building on the big picture, this relationship vision worksheet encourages partners to note down all those things they most want from their relationship to make it ideal. Often couples lose sight of what excites and inspires their partner and as we grow, these things can also change.

10. Ranking Priorities in a Relationship

As our relationships mature, we can start taking our partner for granted and spend our spare time doing things that add no value to our relationship. This ranking exercise helps couples focus on expressing their values as a couple in a range of life domains, and prioritize the shared experiences that bring them the greatest fulfillment.

11. Interviewing Your Partner

Early in a relationship, we want to uncover as much as possible about our partner. However, that interest can dwindle as they become more familiar. This worksheet encourages couples to express curiosity about each other and rekindle interest in their partner.

12. Caring Behaviors List

This list of caring behaviors encourages couples to reflect on how their partner makes them feel loved and cared for. It is important to keep relationships alive by sharing experiences that have a special meaning for each other.

13. Create a Connection Ritual

Creating a positive connection ritual helps couples make time for each other and can prevent them from drifting apart. This worksheet guides couples on how to create a regular connection that meets both partners’ needs for intimacy.

14. What Makes a Perfect Day

Knowing that our partner wants to make us happy has positive consequences in a relationship. This perfect day worksheet encourages each partner to reflect on how they can turn a partner’s bad day into a good one. Each partner can learn how to make slight changes that profoundly affect each other’s lives.

Good communication and understanding how to manage conflict are essential relationship maintenance skills (Halford, Pepping, & Petch, 2018).

Improve communication

15. effective communication reflection worksheet.

Effective communication requires a few simple skills that can be easily overlooked. This effective communication worksheet lists the basic verbal and non-verbal communication skills that we can use to build trust and understanding in any situation.

16. How to Improve Communication in Relationships: 7 Essential Skills

This how to improve communication worksheet outlines a set of seven essential communication skills that enable us to listen actively and respond constructively, without judgment.

17. Active Listening Reflection Worksheet

Active listening involves a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication skills that improve our ability to absorb, understand, and respond to what is being said.

This active listening worksheet outlines each skill and encourages you to reflect on how it can improve communication.

18. Capitalizing Positive Emotions With Active Constructive Responding

This worksheet is designed for a minimum of two people in a relationship but could be used with more. It focuses on how we communicate when things go right for others and ourselves.

Sometimes, an individual’s success can evoke jealousy, resentment, or envy in others. Active constructive responding counters negative responses by enhancing our appreciation of other people’s positive qualities and successes.

19. Knowing When to Speak Up

Sometimes it’s difficult to know when to speak up and stand your ground about something.

This knowing when to speak up worksheet offers guidance about when it is appropriate to speak up in a range of relationship situations, including the workplace.

Naikan Therapy

A Buddhist monk called Ishin Yoshimoto developed Naikan Therapy in 1940s’ Japan (Krech, 2001). It involves a rigorous process of introspection based on three core questions: what have I received, what have I given, and what problems and difficulties have I caused? It’s used in marital therapy to encourage partners to see themselves through the eyes of their partner and others in general.

20. Self-Reflection on Intimate Relationships

This reflection worksheet encourages each partner to reflect on their partner’s needs and how their behavior has affected their significant other. Partnerships can deteriorate when one or both partners put their own needs first.

21. Daily and Weekly Naikan Reflection Review and Goals

This Naikan reflection worksheet guides you through a daily reflection using the three Naikan questions to encourage greater self-awareness.

22. Self-Reflection Behavior Review

This self-reflection worksheet comprises a series of tabulated questions for clients in therapy or counseling about their behavior during a periodic review. The three Naikan questions are used to encourage a client’s reflection on the effects of their behavior, and what they need to be mindful of in the future.

Managing conflict positively

Some conflict is inevitable in any relationship given our all-too-human capacity for misunderstanding others and the fact that we’ll never agree with another person about everything. Conflict resolution is a valuable skill that transforms friction into creative tension, a driver of positive change (Shipley et al., 2018).

23. Conflict Resolution Checklist

This conflict resolution checklist invites the parties in a conflict to consider the sources of their differences using a checklist, and what needs to change to resolve their conflict.

24. What Are Your Unique Triggers?

This ‘triggers’ worksheet improves self-awareness of the events that trigger our stress reactions, which are essential for managing conflict.

25. Remaining Calm During Conflict

When dealing with difficult situations, it is essential to remain calm as losing our patience only escalates conflict. This remaining calm worksheet provides tips for conflict resolution in the workplace which is crucial for retaining the respect of those we work with.

26. Anger Exit and Re-Entry Routines: The Pause that Refreshes

This anger management worksheet asks you to consider what signals indicate the need for a pause to cool off and prevent the escalation of conflict with another. A pause can enhance clarity and more effective communication.

27. The EQ 5 Point Tool

EQ refers to our emotional intelligence quotient . This EQ worksheet explains how to use the EQ 5 point tool to defuse and resolve conflict.

Download 3 Free Positive Relationships Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients to build healthy, life-enriching relationships.

Download 3 Positive Relationships Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

• Email Address *
• Your Expertise * Your expertise Therapy Coaching Education Counseling Business Healthcare Other
• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

In this section, we focus on the relationship challenges that can lead to distance and distrust that can even escalate into emotional abuse .

Authenticity

These three worksheets focus on authenticity and assess how a lack of honesty with yourself and others impacts your relationships.

Nobody enjoys being deceived or manipulated, so discovering that others that we love and respect have been less than straightforward can undermine and even destroy relationships (Olaf et al., 2021).

28. Relationship Audit

The relationship audit invites your client to assess their degree of authenticity with others.

29. Relationship Authenticity Checklist

This checklist comprises a checklist of indicators of your level of authenticity with yourself and others in relationships, and what needs to change if authenticity is lacking.

30. Finding Discrepancies

This finding discrepancies worksheet invites you to consider any discrepancies revealed by the assessments of authenticity above and the impacts they will have on different areas of your life if they continue or stop.

Codependency

Codependent relationships are characterized by a need to control others; an overwhelming sense of responsibility for the other’s moods, feelings, or problems; a lack of authentic communication; and poor interpersonal boundaries (Bacon et al., 2020).

Codependency can affect intimate partnerships, friendships, and other types of family relationships. The following three worksheets are designed to assess levels of codependency and transform codependency patterns.

31. Codependency Questionnaire

This codependency questionnaire assesses the codependent tendencies of the respondent.

32. Codependent Relationships: Beliefs, Attributes, and Outcomes

This worksheet assesses the level of codependency in a relationship which is typically characterized by an excessive dependence on another’s approval for one’s sense of identity and self-worth.

33. Shifting Codependency Patterns

This worthwhile worksheet describes typical codependent behaviors and asks those with codependent relationships how they can adopt behaviors that support mature, healthy relationships.

Skills for healthy romantic relationships – Joanne Davila

Group Therapy Activities

The following group therapy exercises support the development of healthy relationships in all kinds of groups.

34. Practice Verbal Communication Skills

Although this communications worksheet is aimed at therapists and counselors in training, it can also be used as a team-building exercise that supports the development of group communication skills.

35. Things I Love

This checklist provides a way of checking the things you love in a range of life domains. It is a group exercise, and every group member needs a chance to contribute to deepen the positive connections in the group.

36. What I See in You

This group exercise boosts each member’s self-esteem by asking others about their positive qualities. Often, people are surprised to hear how much they are appreciated and valued by others.

37. Create a Care Package Worksheet

This care package exercise reveals what is most important to each participant. You are asked to name ten things you would take to start a new life in an unknown location and what they mean to you. Sharing the exercise in a group helps to build deeper understanding between group members.

38. Silent Connections

This silent connections worksheet outlines an exercise based on mindfulness of other people and using non-verbal communication to build social connections. Mindfulness improves our sensitivity to others and supports constructive social engagement in a range of contexts.

39. Blindfold Guiding Exercise

This blindfolded guide exercise is used to build trust in groups. A blindfolded member experiences the vulnerability required to extend trust while being guided by another.

40. Human Typewriter

The human typewriter outlines a fun team-building exercise that helps build social cohesion and cooperation in groups.

The following five books are useful resources for those seeking to improve their intimate partnerships and resolve and heal betrayal in different types of relationships.

1. Betrayal Bond, Revised: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships – Patrick Carnes

These include intimate partnerships, with family members, friends, and work colleagues.

Find it on Amazon .

2. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts – Gary Chapman

The book helps readers identify the types of verbal and nonverbal communication that enhance and deepen emotional intimacy.

3. Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love – Sue Johnson

It is based on relationship case studies and includes a range of exercises.

4. Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples (3rd Edition) – Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt

It includes several useful exercises to help improve communication and enhance mutual support.

5. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work – John Gottman and Nan Silver

The authors include a range of exercises and questionnaires.

In addition to the resources offered above, you may be interested in our Positive Relationships Masterclass , a 6-module science-based relationships training for helping professionals.

Scientific research over the past few decades has shown that social relationships are one of the key contributors to personal happiness and wellbeing.

People with a strong support network are much more resilient. Our Masterclass introduces you to the vital elements of healthy relationships that promote human flourishing and provides a range of practical tools to help you and your clients develop and sustain meaningful social connections.

In addition, you might find the following articles useful:

• 11+ Honesty Worksheets & Tests for Adults
• What Is Marriage Psychology? +6 Tips for Therapists
• The Importance of Forgiveness in Marriage and Relationships
• Attachment Styles in Relationships: 6 Worksheets for Adults

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others build healthy relationships, this collection contains 17 validated positive relationships tools for practitioners. Use them to help others form healthier, more nurturing, and life-enriching relationships.

17 Exercises for Positive, Fulfilling Relationships

Empower others with the skills to cultivate fulfilling, rewarding relationships and enhance their social wellbeing with these 17 Positive Relationships Exercises [PDF].

Created by experts. 100% Science-based.

We hope you found this article and related resources helpful. Human beings are social animals and we need healthy relationships as much as the air we breathe. However, the skills required to start and sustain healthy relationships are not taught in any formal sense, but modeled to most of us by family members, other adults, and peers during childhood.

This is fine if we come from a functional family and community that modeled healthy relationships. Yet each of us is subject to too many influences as we grow and develop to emerge into adulthood unscathed by poor communication and faulty patterns of relating.

The good news is that we can remedy the situation and build healthy relationships nevertheless by improving our communication skills, and learning how to be more authentic, compassionate, and forgiving with others, as well as ourselves.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Relationships Exercises for free .

• Bacon, I., McKay, E., Reynolds, F. & McIntyre, A. (2020). The lived experience of codependency: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 18 , 754–771.
• Davis, T. J., Morris, M., & Drake, M. M. (2016). The moderation effect of mindfulness on the relationship between adult attachment and wellbeing. Personality and Individual Differences , 96, 115–121.
• Falconier, M. K., Nussbeck, F., Bodenmann, G., Schneider, H., & Bradbury, T. (2015). Stress from daily hassles in couples: Its effects on intradyadic stress, relationship satisfaction, and physical and psychological well-being. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy , 41(2), 221–235.
• Halford, W. K., Pepping, C. A., & Petch, J. (2018). Promoting healthy relationships. In A. L. Vangelisti & D. Perlman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships (2nd ed., pp. 579–590). Cambridge University Press.
• Krech, G. (2001). Naikan: gratitude, grace and the Japanese art of self-reflection . Stone Bridge Press.
• Murray, C. E., Ross, R., & Cannon, J. (2021). The Happy, Healthy, Safe Relationships Continuum: Conceptualizing a spectrum of relationship quality to guide community-based healthy relationship promotion programming. The Family Journal , 29(1), 50–59.
• Olaf, D., Friederichs, K. M., Lebedinski, S, & Liesenfeld, K. M. (2021) The essence of authenticity. Frontiers in Psychology , 11.
• Shipley, M., Holden, C., McNeill, E. B., Fehr, S., & Wilson, K. (2018). Piecing together behaviors of healthy relationships. Health Educator , 50(1), 24–29.
• Yucel, D. (2018). The dyadic nature of relationships: Relationship satisfaction among married and cohabiting couples. Applied Research in Quality of Life , 13, 37–58.

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

Thanks so much for this!

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Related articles

Secure Attachment Style: Why It Matters & How to Nurture It

Imagine a relationship where trust flows effortlessly, communication is a breeze, and both partners feel equally cherished, respected, and free. Welcome to the world of [...]

Managing Chronic Loneliness When Aging: 23 Strategies

Chronic loneliness can affect us all at any point in our lifetimes, but it can be a significant challenge for many older adults as they [...]

Enmeshment: Breaking Free From Overbearing Relationships

When boundaries are unclear, particularly in families, relationships can become overbearing, with individuals experiencing a diminished sense of self (Bacon & Conway, 2023). In such [...]

Read other articles by their category

• Body & Brain (53)
• Coaching & Application (58)
• Compassion (25)
• Counseling (51)
• Emotional Intelligence (23)
• Gratitude (18)
• Grief & Bereavement (21)
• Happiness & SWB (40)
• Meaning & Values (26)
• Meditation (20)
• Mindfulness (44)
• Motivation & Goals (46)
• Optimism & Mindset (34)
• Positive CBT (30)
• Positive Communication (22)
• Positive Education (48)
• Positive Emotions (32)
• Positive Leadership (19)
• Positive Parenting (16)
• Positive Psychology (34)
• Positive Workplace (37)
• Productivity (18)
• Relationships (45)
• Resilience & Coping (39)
• Self Awareness (21)
• Self Esteem (38)
• Strengths & Virtues (32)
• Stress & Burnout Prevention (34)
• Theory & Books (46)
• Therapy Exercises (37)
• Types of Therapy (64)

3 Positive Relationships Exercises Pack

Studying with Friends: Why You Need a Study Buddy [+Tips]

Friendship is based on mutual respect, common interests, and laughter. Studying doesn’t usually appear on the list of shared activities. So why are more and more students meeting with their friends after class to do homework and prepare for exams?

There is a simple reason:

Having a study buddy has many advantages. Of course, you can always study alone at home, but you’ll miss the numerous benefits that come from learning with a friend or two.

In this article, our team will explain the most crucial advantages of having a study buddy. We’ll also explore the characteristics of a friend who can support you in your studies and how to nurture those qualities in yourself.

Who Is a Study Buddy Exactly?

We’ve already mentioned that a study buddy is a friend with whom you can prepare for tests and exams. But we’d like to dive deeper! Let’s explore the phenomenon in detail and figure out what it means to be one.

A study buddy should have these qualities:

• Empathy . A good study buddy is someone who understands your emotions, especially stress , that can be caused by upcoming exams. In an ideal case, both of you should experience the same challenges to understand each other better.
• Patience . Sometimes, it takes a long time to grasp new material. A reliable study buddy is someone who can withstand stress and overcome the difficulties of the process successfully.
• Enthusiasm . A study buddy is someone who energizes you and motivates you to achieve your goals. This type of friend will always support and encourage you.
• Self-organization. The ability to schedule a workload properly is the key to success. Therefore, a study buddy should be able to manage their time wisely and learn the material needed for an exam.

Most students spend time studying after school. They do homework, prepare for exams, or revise their notes for better comprehension. So, what are these study sessions like?

• Study Buddy vs. Study Group

There are two options for a joint study session:

• With a study buddy,
• In a study group.

You have to decide for yourself which option is the most convenient for you. Keep in mind that if you choose to study with several people, your group shouldn’t be too big. Make sure it is small enough so that everyone has the opportunity to ask questions and understand the material.

Organizing a large group of students is tricky. Thus, follow the principle of quality over quantity . Stick to a small but supportive group of people, and your studying process will be very productive.

• Study Buddy vs. Studying Alone

You might think you don’t need a study partner at all. Many students believe that studying alone is more effective and convenient because they do not need to adapt to anyone. And this is absolutely normal!

For example, you could study separately and call at a later time to quiz each other. Or you could agree to start at a specific time to increase your motivation. There are many options! Come up with several you like and try them out.

In any case, try to study with a friend when you can. There are so many benefits to this interaction, which we’ll talk about below.

9 Reasons to Get a Study Buddy

There are several reasons why you should think of finding a study buddy or a study group. Check them out in our infographic below.

As you can consider, the benefits of studying with a friend are the following:

How to Study with Friends: Essential Tips

Now that you’ve learned about all the benefits of studying with your friends let’s see how to start. First and foremost, you need to become a good study buddy yourself. This way, the extra effort that your friends put into studying with you can pay off for them too.

In the following several sections of this article, we’ll explain in detail how to be productive while studying with someone. We’ve got you covered every step of the way: from choosing a buddy to organizing and navigating your study sessions.

7 Tips on Selecting a Study Buddy

Choosing a study buddy can be a confusing process. In this section, we’ve gathered tips to help you select the absolute best one for you.

There are several types of study buddies. Depending on your personality, you’ll want to look for different characteristics that make someone a good partner for you in your study process.

Besides, we’ve listed a few things you should take into account when selecting a friend to study with:

• Compatibility.

Before choosing your study buddy, ask yourself some personal questions:

• Do you like to chat during your study session?
• Are you a team player?
• Do you enjoy working in silence, or do you want to discuss the new information actively?

Asking these questions before choosing a study buddy is essential because these qualities will determine how successful your study results will be. Do not choose a study buddy based on your shared interests or hobbies. Instead, consider how well your study styles match each other.

• Availability .

Another essential point to consider is your schedule – you want to find someone who has a similar one. If your potential study buddy lives too far away or works inconvenient hours, then it might be better to look for someone else.

It would help if you found someone who respects your time and schedule. Study partners should make things easier for each other. Who needs additional stress? Choose someone punctual, organized, and motivated.

There is a significant difference between study partners and tutors. Remember that you don’t have to be a teacher to your study buddy and explain all the given material. The goal should be to find someone who matches your academic level. Otherwise, you will spend all your time doing someone else’s work.

• Distractibility .

A good partner should be beneficial for your study process. They should not be the ones distracting you. Thus, find someone who is as motivated and goal-driven as you. Having your best friend as your study buddy might not be the best idea. If you have too much fun together, it might be challenging to focus on the studies.

The best scenario would be finding someone who knows what you don’t know and vice versa. In this case, you can help each other with the study material. For instance, you know someone who is excellent with constitutional law but does not know torts that well. Your understanding of torts can help your study buddy, and their knowledge of constitutional law can fill your educational gaps.

Maintaining a positive outlook is essential. All of us can get scared and unmotivated at times. That’s why it is critical to choose someone whose spirit can boost your confidence and mood.

What’s more, today you don’t have to look for a study buddy in your group or college. You can find various helpful apps and websites that can get you a partner online on the Internet.

For example:

1) StudyBuddyMobile will help you find a study buddy and find free tutoring on your campus. There is also a way to select students who prepare for the same exam, such as GRE, GMAT, etc.

2) Mooclab is another tool that students can use to find the best study pal. All you have to do is sign up, search based on your preferences, and connect with the matched people. It can also help you find a study group. However, it is not easy to use if you want to find someone immediately.

3) StudyPal is a service with a slack chat, a Zoom channel, and a network of tutors who aced the test you are preparing for. If you want to access all of these features, you will be asked to upgrade your account to premium for just 10 dollars. Nevertheless, if you don’t spend additional money on the study buddy service, there are many free services available.

Some universities realized the tremendous benefit of having study groups and including this feature in their campus apps. They allow students who take the same course to indicate their interest in studying outside of the classroom. Academic Support Centers at other colleges started launching programs with the same intention.

For instance:

Brigham Young University in Idaho created a program called  Study Buddy . This specific program offers a one-on-one tutoring solution for those students who need some extra motivation and help.

How to Be a Friend to Study with

Collaborative learning is a process that requires the involvement of each participant. That is, if you want to have a great study buddy, you have to become one yourself. And here we will explain to you how to do it.

Studying with Buddies: Step by Step

Finally, we can move on to the highlights of learning with friends. This section provides you with a step-by-step guide for conducting study sessions when working with one or more people.

First things first, you need to choose a suitable partner for studying and prepare yourself for this responsibility. You can’t skip this step if you want to excel in collaborative learning. We have described all the tips in detail in the previous sections.

To navigate a study session, you should follow these steps:

Step 1: Pick the location.

Choose a convenient place to meet and study. This could be a free classroom in a college, someone’s room in an apartment or dorm. Now, you can meet on Zoom or Skype for collaborative learning.

Step 2: Create a schedule.

It is necessary to devote specific time to your study sessions. Agree on a particular period to conduct your study sessions. Create a shared file with a schedule where all of you can make changes.

Step 3: Choose what to study in advance.

Set a specific goal of what you need to do. You can’t be studying everything at once. Divide the material between each other beforehand.

Step 4: Share your notes and resources.

Sharing valuable resources and clear notes is necessary. It might lead to a better understanding of the material for both of you. If you share your notes, your partner will share theirs. Apart from that, you can both look up informative essay examples that might be useful for studying a particular subject or topic. Exchange what you’ve found afterwards.

Step 5: Plan time for studying and breaks.

You can’t be studying all the time. Devote some time for collaborative and individual study sessions, as well as for some rest time. Also, take some breaks during actual meetings to not overwork.

Step 6: Be prepared for each session.

If you’ve agreed on anything to do during previous sessions, do it. Complete all the tasks you’ve decided to do. Make notes to discuss specific questions.

Step 7: Communicate.

Make sure to actually talk to your study buddy. Your understandings and thoughts might be different, and it’s vital to share them. There’s no point to gather and read the information in silence.

Step 8: Consider tutoring each other.

Explaining a topic in your own words is an effective way to learn it. Try taking in turns and teaching each other specific issues. Every participant will benefit from such sessions.

Step 9: Test and assess each other.

Make regular quizzes. That’s a helpful method of evaluating one’s process of studying. Plus, it’s useful for group sessions.

Step 10: Agree on the deadlines.

If you’re in the course together, it is necessary to go over the material and schedule some deadlines to be on track. Having a shared goal and due date will increase productivity and keep you focused. However, you also need to plan some individual study sessions.

Thank you for reaching the end of the article! We hope you found it helpful, and now you know for sure if you need a study buddy. Share this article with potential candidates for this role to keep them interested.

• Navigate Study Buddies – Washburn University, Kansas DegreeStats
• Study Groups – Learning Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 5 Tips for an Effective Study Group – David Eccles School of Business, the University of Utah
• How Can a Study Buddy Help You Succeed – RMIT University
• Study Buddies – The Graduate School, the University of Texas at Tyler
• 10 Reasons Why You Should Form a Study Group – Florida National University
• Study Groups: Learning Centers – Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• Study Groups – Anderson University, Anderson Indiana
• Share via Facebook
• Share via Twitter
• Share via LinkedIn
• Share via email

Thanks for your feedback, Negeti!

What You Should Do

Advertisement

How to get your partner to do more around the house, for real.

Women in marriages or cohabitating relationships are still doing the majority of the household labor and child care. Women do more than twice as much unpaid care and domestic work as men do, according to the United Nations.

This has always been frustrating and unfair, but in the wake of COVID-19, the amount of work that needs to be done around the house has increased substantially with more meals to cook, more clothes to launder, kids to home-school, and trying to do this all while working a full-time job remotely in many cases. For many women, this pandemic has been uniquely overwhelming.

If you're a woman married to or living with a man who isn't as involved with the housework as you are, here is exactly how to create a more equal division of labor—even if you've been stuck in this unbalanced dynamic for the entirety of your relationship:

Acknowledge how necessary this is.

"The first step is to acknowledge and process your existing anger and resentment," clinical psychologist Lina Perl, Psy.D. , tells mbg. "After years of an unbalanced division of labor, you are likely to feel very frustrated, unappreciated, and even hopeless about the possibility of change. This is why so many women don't start this conversation. They imagine that if they start it, the emotion will be explosive and destructive. But tamping it down and alternately blaming your husband for not doing more and blaming yourself for not saying more is not the answer."

The conversation will likely be uncomfortable for both of you, but on the other side of it is something better. You can get to an easier, more satisfying place with your partner.

Step one: Have a direct conversation about this. Yes, it's time to sit down and do it.

Lead with how you feel.

"Trying to force your partner to do anything rarely succeeds in the long term, even if it is successful in the moment at getting what you want (or maybe even need)," Joanna R. Pepin, Ph.D. , a sociologist whose research focuses on gender inequality within the family, tells mbg. "Talking with your partner about how you are feeling, such as the sources of stress and anxiety, offers your partner a way to show up for you rather than feeling defensive for what they haven't been doing."

Ask for what you need to feel how you want to feel, Pepin recommends rather than making this about how your partner has been failing you. What would make you feel more equal and supported?

Avoid the blame game.

Here's Perl's recommendation for how to structure this conversation, in her words:

• State the problem in the most objective, factual way possible. "I feel like I'm doing a lot more of the nonwork tasks related to taking care of our family."
• State how this makes you feel. Use "I" statements. Don't say: "You don't do anything around here!" Do say: "This leaves me feeling overwhelmed and sometimes resentful and angry." Newsflash: This will likely not be surprising to your partner. He probably knows you're upset.
• Set a reasonable goal. "I'd like us to start talking about how we can both be aware of what needs to get done, so I don't feel like it's all falling on me."
• Explain what's in it for everyone. "My goal is to feel closer to you and more like a team. I love you, and I don't want to be angry and overwhelmed."

Acknowledge why it's hard.

It's OK to admit the truth: Sexism, patriarchy, and gender inequality are alive and well in your household. It's OK. It's not your fault or your partner's fault. This is true for most heterosexual relationships, and no one person or couple is to blame. This is the culture we live in.

"As women and men in this moment in history, we are in the unique and difficult position of renegotiating long-standing gender roles, and it's not easy," Perl says. "Repeat after me: This is happening to both of us! We are both the product of a society where gender roles have been polarized."

Have this be part of the conversation you have with your partner. Acknowledge out loud how unfair gender roles are hurting your relationship (and your own personal well-being), and agree that it's worth trying to work against them. Make equality an open priority.

Stop saying women are just "naturally" better at this stuff.

You've probably heard some variation of this: "Well, women are just better with kids!" Same with cleaning and organizing, and meal prep, and so on.

Back in the day, we used to say women did more housework because men were the primary earners for the family, Pepin explains. But now that more women are becoming the breadwinners and couples typically share financial responsibilities in the household, she says we've reached for another excuse: personality. Couples will actually "amplify personality differences, which are often based on myths about gender differences."

Pepin's own research has demonstrated that people still believe women are better caretakers and homemakers than men are , even though other research has debunked the myth. For example, studies have shown that women are not better multitaskers than men are 1 and that men's perceptions of how messy a room is 2 are virtually the same as women's perceptions of that room.

Ladies, you're not naturally better than your man at doing house stuff. You've been taught how to do it, you've been taught to care about doing it, and you've now been doing it for so long that you are very good at it. Explain that to your partner, and give him the opportunity to learn and get good at it too if he's not already.

Avoid gatekeeping.

Gatekeeping can be a big barrier to an equal division of labor. That can look like constantly criticizing the way your partner does certain chores, swooping in to "fix" his completed work, or monitoring him as he does them because you don't trust him to do it "right." These behaviors discourage your partner from being actively engaged in the work and taking initiative.

Trust your partner to get the job done. If something falls short, try not to criticize him or argue with him about what the "right" way is to do things—that will cause defensiveness and frustration. Instead, explain to him why you care about a certain way of doing a certain task. For example, organizing the laundry into colors helps preserve your delicate whites; cleaning the dishes immediately after use avoids a buildup later, and the buildup is what stresses you out.

Ask him to care about the things you care about, as a way he can show you love.

Additionally, learn to let go where possible. There will be some inefficiencies at first, and that will annoy you. But recognize that allowing your partner to take charge of responsibilities is more important in the long run than getting everything done as fast as possible today.

Use positive encouragement instead of complaints.

"Research shows that happy couples actively look for positive traits in their partner. In times of stress, it's easy to focus on what isn't going well. But most people are much more motivated by positive encouragement than avoiding complaints," Pepin explains.

Say thank you, often. This can be a practice you institute as a couple to make yourselves more conscious of how much the other person does. Whenever either of you notices the other has done a household task, directly thank them.

• "Thank you for putting the laundry in the dryer."
• "Thank you for unloading the dishwasher."
• "Thank you for putting the baby to sleep last night."

Yes, there will be a lot of thank-yous every single day, and you'll repeat the same ones over and over. That's the point. It'll create a lot more positivity around the house, and if one partner is doing more than the other, it'll be pretty clear right away. The partner doing less than their fair share can then take the initiative without being asked.

Do things together.

Often when couples want to encourage a more egalitarian dynamic in their housework, they'll sit down and try to divide up the chores down the middle in the fairest way they can. But Aliya Hamid Rao, Ph.D. , a sociologist and author of Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment , points out that these individual-level changes can feel like an unsatisfactory solution when pitted against centuries-old gendered dynamics. You'll often find that even though on paper it looks like the tasks are divided up equally, oftentimes men will gravitate toward tasks they find more desirable—like yard work and taking care of the car—rather than the more tedious daily tasks. Or otherwise they're doing half of the chores, but the woman is the one in charge of making sure it all gets done.

Dan Carlson, Ph.D. , a sociologist who studies gender dynamics in the household, recommends doing tasks together as much as possible.

"In order to avoid having one partner overburdened, or to avoid one partner slacking on their assigned tasks, try to do tasks together," he wrote in a recent Twitter thread . "When couples divvy tasks between them (e.g., I do laundry, she does dishes) inequities can develop, especially if tasks are of unequal desirability. Though not always possible, if you can do things together, your division will be more equitable and satisfying."

One possible way to do that: When one partner is doing dishes after dinner, the other partner takes that time to grab the laundry or tidy the living room. Or maybe you both set aside a chunk of your weekend for tag-teaming on chores, alternating who does which task each week. That way, you're ensuring that you're each generally spending the same amount of time doing chores. This isn't always feasible, of course, but trying to do things together as much as possible can at least create an atmosphere of teamwork.

Address the mental load.

If divvying up tasks between you feels like your preferred system, go for it—but don't forget to take into account the "invisible" or "cognitive" labor, Rao says.

"Examples of this are that even when husbands do unpaid work (like housework and child care), they still depend on wives to tell them what to do and when. So let's say a husband is going to grocery shop for the family. The wife will be the one who looks at their fridge, their pantry, thinks about what they are missing, what they will need in the next week or so, and makes a list. The husband goes and shops, often even calling the wife if he can't find an item to get her to guide him," Rao explains. "Any negotiation of housework should incorporate this kind of work too."

Some people refer to this as the " mental load ." Here's a helpful comic about the mental load that can help you further understand what this looks like. Share it with your partner so they know what you mean. How can you not only divide up tasks but also the responsibility for managing all the tasks?

Be flexible.

Whatever strategy you come up with that works for you as a couple, remember to be flexible with it. Unexpected tasks and special situations will come up that you hadn't allotted for—that's OK.

"Stick to the adage: structure with flexibility," Perl says. "You need a base to work from, but you also need to see this as something that changes with you and your changing lives."

It's OK to have to swap tasks or do something outside your decided game plan sometimes. Be gracious, generous, and forgiving. Most of all, be patient.

Keep checking in.

You are not going to solve this in one conversation. This is something you're going to have to return to time and time again before you get to a place that truly feels good, easy, and natural for both people. Perl recommends setting a weekly check-in time to see how things are going and how you're both feeling. Scheduling those check-ins can also help you both take this seriously and really commit to making changes.

"When in doubt, come back to this idea: 'We are in this together,'" Perl says. "You and your partner are not adversaries."

• https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220150
• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124119852395

Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes

What Is Meditation?

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Light Watkins

Box Breathing

Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar

What Breathwork Can Address

The 8 limbs of yoga - what is asana.

Yoga | Caley Alyssa

Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips

How plants can optimize athletic performance.

Nutrition | Rich Roll

What to Eat Before a Workout

How ayurveda helps us navigate modern life.

Nutrition | Sahara Rose

Messages About Love & Relationships

Love & Relationships | Esther Perel

Love Languages

More on this topic.

Women Are Calling This Tiny Vibrator A Game-Changer For Their Sex Lives (& It's Oh-So-Quiet)

Carleigh Ferrante

How Women Over 50 Are Bringing Excitement (& Orgasms) Back Into Their Sex Life

5 Tips To Become A Supercommunicator & Have More Meaningful Conversations

Jason Wachob

Waking Up In The Middle Of The Night? Don't Fret, This Is How To Fall Back Asleep Fast

Jamie Schneider

5 Mistakes People Make With Group Fitness & How To Actually Get Stronger

Molly Knudsen, M.S., RDN

Save Your Hands From Dark Spots & Fine Lines With This Simple Hand Cream Hack

Alexandra Engler

Popular Stories

Words and phrases

Personal account.

• Access or purchase personal subscriptions
• Get our newsletter
• Save searches
• Set display preferences

Institutional access

Sign in with library card

Sign in with username / password

Recommend to your librarian

Institutional account management

Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic

homework noun

• Hide all quotations

What does the noun homework mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun homework . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

How common is the noun homework ?

How is the noun homework pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun homework come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun homework is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for homework is from 1653, in the writing of Edmund Chillenden, parliamentarian army officer and General Baptist leader.

homework is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: home n. 1 , work n.

Nearby entries

• homeward-bounder, n. 1837–
• homeward-bound pennant, n. 1853–
• homewardly, adv. 1797–
• homewards, adv. & adj. Old English–
• homeware, n. 1782–
• home waters, n. 1838–
• home wear, n. 1836–
• home-whining, n. a1657
• home wind, n. 1732–
• home-woe, n. 1838–
• homework, n. 1653–
• homework club, n. 1900–
• homework diary, n. 1973–
• homeworker, n. 1843–
• homeworking, n. 1844–
• home-working, adj. 1850–
• home worship, n. 1849–
• homewort, n. Old English–
• home-wreck, n. 1845–
• home-wrecker, n. 1878–
• home-wrecking, n. 1878–

Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary

To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.

Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for homework, n..

homework, n. was revised in September 2011.

homework, n. was last modified in July 2023.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into homework, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

A Supplement to the New English Dictionary (1933)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View homework in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for homework, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for homework, n., browse entry.

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Arguing with your partner about housework? Experts share their advice

Division of household labour can be an issue in relationships.

Thankfully, it doesn’t always have to be this way. There are steps you can take to communicate with your partner, change your mindset, and come up with useful arrangements to ensure you balance the housework fairly. The result? A more peaceful home, less arguments, and – hopefully – a stronger, more loving relationship .

But first, it’s important to acknowledge that you’re not alone. When writer Sally Howard was researching for her book, The Home Stretch: Why It's Time to Come Clean About Who Does The Dishes , she found that 78% of cohabiting respondents said housework caused relationship tension. This is perhaps unsurprising, as according to Howard, women in heterosexual relationships contribute more, on average, to the domestic load: “men contribute 18 hours to women’s 26 hours per week,” she says.

Why such a big difference? “Our domestic arrangements are based on centuries of sex-based roles, with man as the provider, and woman as ‘angel of the house’,” she explains.

So although women being ‘providers’ and having our own successful careers has been normal for some time now, the household labour side of things hasn't quite caught up. When you’re busily working the same hours, and taking on more of the housework, this can be doubly exhausting – and frustrating.

“Many men were raised by parents who didn’t expect them to do as much around the house, so this is very deeply engrained conditioning,” explains intimate relationships expert Susan Quilliam. “Whereas, women are often trained from a young age to look after themselves, and to measure cleanliness – of both themselves and their homes – as a measure of self-worth. This can also lead to different standards of criteria, meaning women might become more uncomfortable, viscerally, when something isn’t clean and tidy, while their partner might not even notice.”

Thankfully, things are changing, and this certainly isn’t true for all couples. Yet, even in many relationships where chores are technically divided up equally, Howard warns that women often still disproportionately shoulder the ‘mental load’, otherwise known as ‘emotional labour.’

“This is the household organisation and chivvying that often falls to women,” says Howard, including organising the shopping, planning kids’ calendars, remembering birthdays and replacing the soap when it runs out.

It’s probably not surprising that these issues and imbalances might be feeling even more pronounced during lockdown.

“For one, spending more time in the house means more housework,” says Quilliam. “Secondly, being locked down with your partner is likely to cause more irritation in general, as there aren’t many places you can go to release stress and cool off, so you might be noticing the frustration building more than usual.”

But the good news is that this period of intense time at home can actually be a great opportunity to overcome any issues surrounding housework, and come up with a better set-up that works for both of you. Here’s how to do it…

Divide and conquer

Have you ever actually had a proper conversation about who is responsible for what, when things need doing, and how they should be done? No? You're not alone. But it's so important to sit down and really work out your plan of action. Set aside time for a conversation to unpack any issues you're having and work out solutions in order to balance household tasks.

Having your own, clearly-defined, separate tasks and responsibilities can be a really useful starting point for many couples.

“You could begin by thinking about the things you each actually enjoy doing, and then go from there,” Susan Quilliam recommends. “Perhaps you feel a sense of satisfaction from doing the laundry, while your partner prefers cleaning the kitchen. Starting on a positive footing is always helpful.”

Sally Howard recommends avoiding dividing tasks into traditionally ‘pink’ (female) and ‘blue’ (male) chores. “’Blue’ jobs – mowing the lawn or putting out the bins – tend to be occasional, compared to the daily and necessary ‘pink’ tasks, such as rustling up meals against the clock with a toddler screaming at your feet,” she says.

Instead, think about which tasks are most unpleasant, which ones take up the most time, and which happen most frequently. It could be helpful to write these down in different categories, so you can work out how to create an even split.

Get it in writing

Both Quilliam and Howard advise against tick-lists and rotas, as they say this can exacerbate the ‘emotional labour’ being carried by one person and can also result in point-scoring, which can give you more reason to argue. But Quilliam says that when you’re forming a negotiation, it really helps to write down what you’ve decided.

“You can refer back to it, so you don’t forget,” she says. “But also, don’t be afraid to suggest making adjustments as time goes by. If you’re finding a task particularly exhausting or difficult, calmly suggest renegotiating, rather than carrying around simmering resentment. You might find that your partner is happy to come up with an easy solution to benefit you both.”

Listen, understand and compromise

While you negotiate, ask them what it is about housework they struggle with. Rather than assuming the worst – that they’re just lazy or disrespectful – find out what is really going on, says Quilliam.

“Work out whether there are certain times you both prefer to do housework – maybe you always like to do things in the morning, while they prefer to set aside time in the evening,” she says. “Explain your point of view, listen to their point of view, and prepare to negotiate and make some changes.”

Make it fun

Some couples might find that dividing tasks into set responsibilities doesn’t work for them. It could be that you actually prefer to take on some tasks, like cooking, together.

“Find ways to make it fun, so you can turn monotonous household chores into quality time,” suggests Quilliam. For example, you might want to play your favourite songs and dance while you clean – you might find you both enjoy it!

“Or you could set aside time in the evening to do a blitz of the house, and ensure you reward yourselves by snuggling up on the sofa to watch your favourite box-set,” she says. Having some kind of reward or motivating factor - for both of you - can be really useful.

Pick your battles

One common sticking point in couples, says Quilliam, is that your partner may be happy to take on their fair share of the housework, but the way they do things isn’t up to your standards.

“Keep one or two things for yourself if you know it would make you feel comfortable,” she recommends. “For example, if they always goes shopping and come back with the wrong items, you might want to make the shopping one of your 'things'. But with other chores, it can be easier to think, ‘does this really matter?’ For example, if they stack the dishwasher wrong, can you choose to let it go? This doesn’t mean you should keep sweet and never raise your opinions – it’s just about choosing your battles so you can both feel happier and more content.”

Remember housework isn’t proof of love

According to Quilliam, one of the most common reasons arguments occur in relationships, as a whole, is that you often have ‘I want’ vs ‘I don’t want’.

“The problem is that this often tips over into proof of love,” she says. “So you might say, ‘if you loved me, you would do this’ while they might say ‘if you loved me, you would stop pushing me to do something I don’t want to do.’ But if you view certain actions (or inactions) as proof that they don't love or respect you, it intensifies the problem and can worsen the way you feel about it.”

Ultimately, having individual desires, needs and preferences doesn’t mean you love each other any more or less. You just have to find some way to meet in the middle, says Quilliam, by maintaining communication and empathy.

Find Susan at susanquilliam.com

Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} Lifestyle

The best women's white trainers to shop now

The best hotels in Sorrento

Strictly judge teases lineup for 20th anniversary

Corrie's Jack P Shepherd announces engagement

Traitors' Paul confirms he's expecting 2nd child

Spain's most beautiful holiday destinations

Celebrity MasterChef 2024: The line-up

The most amazing Mediterranean islands

Best thrillers and crime novels to read

The Night Manager season 2: What you need to know

This humble Puglian town is Italy's prettiest

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of homeworker in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• Stress is one of the most common health issues for homeworkers, so make sure you maintain regular contact with your employees .
• I've been a homeworker for three years now and I find it suits me very well.
• The world of the homeworker can be an isolated one.
• The company has freed up office space by using homeworkers.
• homeworking
• office politics
• office spouse

self-starter

Examples of homeworker

Translations of homeworker.

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

a person who is able to work effectively without regularly needing to be told what to do

Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Noun
• Translations
• All translations

To add homeworker to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add homeworker to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

What You Should Do

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of homework noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• I always do my homework on the bus.
• physics/geography/French, etc. homework
• I still haven't done my geography homework.
• How much homework do you get?
• for homework I have to write up the notes for homework.
• (especially North American English) I have to finish this homework assignment .
• acquire/​get/​lack (an) education/​training/ (British English) (some) qualifications
• receive/​provide somebody with training/​tuition
• develop/​design/​plan a curriculum/ (especially British English) course/ (North American English) program/​syllabus
• give/​go to/​attend a class/​lesson/​lecture/​seminar
• hold/​run/​conduct a class/​seminar/​workshop
• sign up for/​take a course/​classes/​lessons
• go to/​start preschool/​kindergarten/​nursery school
• be in (North American English) the first, second, etc. grade/ (British English) year 1, 2. etc. (at school)
• study/​take/​drop history/​chemistry/​German, etc.
• (British English) leave/​finish/​drop out of/ (North American English) quit school
• (North American English) graduate high school/​college
• be the victim/​target of bullying
• (British English) play truant from/ (both British English, informal) bunk off/​skive off school (= not go to school when you should)
• (both especially North American English) skip/​cut class/​school
• (British English) cheat in/ (North American English) cheat on an exam/​a test
• get/​be given a detention (for doing something)
• be expelled from/​be suspended from school
• do your homework/ (British English) revision/​a project on something
• work on/​write/​do/​submit an essay/​a dissertation/​a thesis/​an assignment/ (North American English) a paper
• finish/​complete your dissertation/​thesis/​studies/​coursework
• hand in/ (North American English) turn in your homework/​essay/​assignment/​paper
• study/​prepare/ (British English) revise/ (North American English) review/ (North American English, informal) cram for a test/​an exam
• take/ (both British English) do/​sit a test/​an exam
• (especially British English) mark/ (especially North American English) grade homework/​a test
• (British English) do well in/ (North American English) do well on/ (especially North American English, informal) ace a test/​an exam
• pass/​fail/ (especially North American English, informal) flunk a test/​an exam/​a class/​a course/​a subject
• apply to/​get into/​go to/​start college/ (British English) university
• leave/​graduate from law school/​college/ (British English) university (with a degree in computer science)
• study for/​take/ (British English) do/​complete a law degree/​a degree in physics
• (both North American English) major/​minor in biology/​philosophy
• earn/​receive/​be awarded/​get/​have/​hold a master’s degree/​a bachelor’s degree/​a PhD in economics
• Have you finished your homework?
• Have you done your physics homework yet?
• I was helping my sister with her maths homework.
• The homework assignments are worth 10% of the final grade.
• I have some homework to do on the Civil War.
• I want you to hand in this homework on Friday.
• The science teacher always gives a lot of homework.
• They get a lot of homework in English.
• They get masses of homework at secondary school.
• We had to write out one of the exercises for homework.
• for homework
• homework  on

Definitions on the go

Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

English Guide

Help center

homework Definition

school work that a student is required to do at home.

Using homework: Examples

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with how "homework" can be used in various situations through the following examples!

I have a lot of homework to do tonight.

She always finishes her homework before watching TV.

The teacher assigned a lot of homework over the weekend.

homework Synonyms and Antonyms

Synonyms for homework, phrases with homework, do one's homework.

to research or prepare for something, especially before making an important decision

Before investing in the stock market, it's important to do your homework and research the companies you're interested in.

homework assignment

a specific task or project given to a student to complete at home

The homework assignment for tonight is to read chapter 5 and answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

homework club

a program or group that provides a quiet and supervised environment for students to do their homework after school

The library offers a homework club for students who need help with their assignments or a quiet place to work.

Summary: homework in Brief

The term 'homework' [ˈhoʊmˌwɜrk] refers to school work that a student is required to do at home. It includes tasks like reading, writing, and problem-solving, and is often assigned by teachers. 'Homework' can be used in phrases like 'do one's homework,' meaning to research or prepare for something, and 'homework assignment,' referring to a specific task given to a student.

How do native speakers use this expression?

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of homework

Examples of homework in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'homework.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1662, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near homework

Cite this entry.

“Homework.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homework. Accessed 24 Jun. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of homework, more from merriam-webster on homework.

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for homework

Nglish: Translation of homework for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of homework for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about homework

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day, clandestine.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Plural and possessive names: a guide, more commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, popular in wordplay, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, birds say the darndest things, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 12 more bird names that sound like insults (and sometimes are), games & quizzes.

Homework spelled backwards does not mean child abuse in Latin

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Fact Check Chevron

Fact check: picture of claudia sheinbaum holding a menorah was digitally altered.

A picture of Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum with a raised fist was digitally altered to show her holding a menorah and wearing earrings shaped like Stars of David.

Browse links

• © 2024 BuzzFeed, Inc
• Consent Preferences
• Accessibility Statement
• Trending badge Trending

Taylor Swift Broke Her Silence On The Real Meaning Of "ThanK You AIMee" During An Eras Tour Stop

Secrets revealed.

BuzzFeed Staff

Taylor Swift has been making headlines during the London shows of her forever-running Eras Tour.

After the first show on Friday night, she finally went IG official with her boyfriend Travis Kelce — and with a little help from Prince William and his children George and Charlotte.

View this photo on Instagram

During last night's London show, Taylor decided to reveal a little songwriting tidbit behind one of the more conversation-starting songs on her latest mega-hit album The Tortured Poets Department .

So, let's talk about "thanK you aIMee" for a moment. Almost immediately after Tortured Poets was released, the general read on the song was that it's a diss track against one of Taylor's more public nemeses, Kim Kardashian .

View this video on YouTube

Adding fuel to the speculative fire is that, in the song's literal title, the letters "k," "i," and "m" are capitalized while the rest of the song title is lower-cased. see what she did there.

So, USA Today reports that Taylor debuted "thanK you aIMee" for the first time in a live setting last night — and before she launched into the song, Taylor explained a little bit (but not too much) about the song's true meaning.

"It really makes me think about how every time somebody talks shit," Taylor told the crowd before diving into the song.

"It just makes me work even harder and it makes me that much tougher. So it also makes me incredibly thankful for this."

A fan account also pointed out that Taylor basically did a mash-up of "thanK you aIMee" and "Mean," another song about striking back against the haters.

There you have it!

Share this article.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Supreme Court upholds federal ban on guns for domestic abusers

Nina Totenberg

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in a major gun-rights case. Al Drago/Getty Images hide caption

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the federal law making it a crime for anyone subject to a domestic violence court order to possess a gun. The 8-to-1 decision was the first since the court in 2022 broke sharply with the way gun laws had previously been evaluated by the courts.

Back then the court’s conservative supermajority, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, declared for the first time that for a gun law to be constitutional, it had to be analogous to a law that existed at the nation’s founding in the late 1700s.

But on Friday, over Thomas’ lone dissent, the court seemed to draw that line more flexibly. Writing for the eight justice court majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “We have no trouble” concluding that the federal law banning firearms for domestic abusers, subject to court order, is constitutional. Not only does the accused abuser have a right to be heard before there is any court order, he said, but that order is temporary, not open-ended.

Roberts said that a gun restriction need not be a “dead ringer” or a “historical twin” of gun restrictions that harken back to the time of the nation’s founding.

Some courts, he said, “have misunderstood the methodology of our recent decisions,” adding that were the court to adopt an approach that required such a close match, it’s rule would apply “only to muskets and sabers.” The court, he said, did not mean to suggest “a law trapped in amber.”

“This is a major win for gun safety reform advocates,” said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, who has written extensively about guns and gun rights.

“Because of the very imperfect fit between history and tradition of gun laws and this particular prohibition, we’re likely to see lower courts use this ruling to justify upholding a wide range of gun law,” he said.

But Joseph Blocher, co-director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, disagreed. “I think what we got here is a slight revision. This is about the narrowest possible win I think the gov’t could have gotten.”

As Blocher noted, the case before the court was, by everyone’s reckoning an “easy case.”

The defendant, Zackey Rahimi, assaulted his girlfriend in a parking lot, threatened to shoot her if she told anyone, and fired a gun at a witness. The girlfriend went to court and a judge, after finding that Rahimi posed a credible threat of future violence, issued a court order banning him for two years from contact with the girlfriend or her family. Rahimi repeatedly violated the court order, , threatened another woman with a gun, and fired a gun in five different locations in a period of one month—incidents that ranged from shooting a gun repeatedly at another driver after a collision, to firing multiple shots in the air after a restaurant declined a friend’s credit card.

When police finally searched his residence, they found a pistol, a rifle, ammunition, and a copy of the restraining order. Rahimi pleaded guilty to charges of violating the federal gun law and was sentenced to six years in prison. But he continued to press his legal challenge, and ultimately the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law unconstitutional because there was no law like it in the late 1700s. On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision.

Easy case or not, Friday’s ruling involved well over 100 pages of writing, only 18 pages of which were the Chief Justice’s majority opinion. Three of the court’s conservatives—Justices Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh, who joined Roberts’ opinion, still spilled over 40 pages of ink explaining their views of originalism, the doctrine that they all adhere to, based upon the notion that constitutional questions should be resolved based on the constitution’s meaning at the time the nation was founded.

“This case highlights that even justices claiming to do originalism are products of the generation they come from,” observed UCLA’s Winkler. Although, “Americans in the 17 and 1800s didn’t regularly disarm people who were thought to be dangerous,” he said, conservative originalist justices still “recognize that we have to ban dangerous people from possessing firearms today and so they jump through hoops to try to say this is still originalism.”

UCLA’s Eugene Volokh, has a different view. “It may be a difficult approach at times, but it’s the right approach,” he said.

Just how the court will rule in future cases is unclear. Volokh and other gun law experts note there are lots of gun issues headed for the Supreme Court—everything from gun bans for convicted felons to laws banning guns for people with a mental health history, gun bans for 18-to-20 year olds, and bans on certain types of ammunition and weapons. And that just scratches the surface.

But for now groups that work with the victims of domestic violence are thrilled. “These protection orders exist for a reason,” observes Melina Melazzo, of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “We know [that] for survivors of domestic violence, when a male abuser has access to a firearm, the risk that he will choose to use shooting to kill a female intimate partner increases by 1000 per cent.

Other supporters of the ban on guns for domestic abusers noted that women aren’t the only victims in these cases. Domestic violence with a gun is a leading cause of death for children. More than half of all mass shootings are perpetrated by people with a record of domestic violence. And domestic violence calls result in the highest number of police fatalities, almost all of them involving guns.

KPMG Personalization

• Treasury and IRS release guidance on partnership “basis shifting” transactions

Guidance documents related to certain “basis-shifting” transactions involving partnerships and related parties

• Home ›
• Insights ›

The U.S. Treasury Department and IRS today released three guidance documents related to certain “basis-shifting” transactions involving partnerships and related parties.  

As explained in the related IRS release— FS-2024-21 (June 17, 2024)—the basis shifting transactions targeted in the new guidance generally fall into three groups:

• Transfer of partnership interest to related party:  In this transaction, a partner with a low share of the partnership’s “inside” tax basis and a high “outside” tax basis transfers the interest in a tax-free transaction to a related person or to a person who is related to other partners in the partnership. This related-party transfer generates a tax-free basis increase to the transferee partner’s share of “inside” basis.
• Distribution of property to a related party:  In this transaction, a partnership with related partners distributes a high-basis asset to one of the related partners that has a low outside basis. After this, the distributee partner reduces the basis of the distributed asset and the partnership increases the basis of its remaining assets. The related partners can arrange this transaction so that the reduced tax basis of the distributed asset will not adversely impact the related partners, while the basis increase to the partnership’s retained assets can produce tax savings for the related parties.
• Liquidation of related partnership or partner:  In this transaction, a partnership with related partners liquidates and distributes (1) a low-basis asset that is subject to accelerated cost recovery or for which the parties intend to sell to a partner with a high outside basis. and (2) a high-basis property that is subject to longer cost recovery (or no cost recovery at all) or for which the parties intend to hold to a partner with a low outside basis. Under the partnership liquidation rules, the first related partner increases the basis of the property with a shorter life or which is held for sale while the second related partner decreases the basis of the long-lived or non-depreciable property, with the result that the related parties generate or accelerate tax benefits.

The guidance generally only impacts partnerships when partners are related parties. For purposes of the guidance, partners and other persons would be considered as related if they have a relationship described in section 267(b) (without regard to section 267(c)(3)) or section 707(b)(1) immediately before or immediately after a transaction.  However, the guidance would impact certain transactions not involving related parties – including where a party is tax-exempt, foreign (in certain cases) or has a tax-attribute precluding the recognition of gain (in certain cases).

Notice 2024-54 announces forthcoming regulations

To address these transactions, the Treasury Department and IRS today released Notice 2024-54 announcing two sets of upcoming regulations:

• The first set would require partnerships to treat basis adjustments arising from covered transactions in a way that would restrict them from deriving inappropriate tax benefits from the basis adjustments. The notice further announces that the covered transactions governed by these regulations would involve basis adjustments under sections 732, 734(b) and/or 743(b).
• The second set would provide rules to ensure clear reflection of the taxable income and tax liability of a consolidated group of corporations when members of the group own interests in partnerships. According to the guidance, regulations would apply a single-entity approach to partnership interests held by various members of a consolidated group.  

The notice states that the Treasury Department and IRS intend to propose that the first set of regulations apply to tax years ending on or after June 17, 2024. That is, once finalized, the regulations would govern the availability and amount of cost recovery deductions and gain or loss calculations for tax years ending on or after June 17, 2024, even if the relevant covered transaction was completed in a prior taxable year. The effective date for the second set of regulations will be proposed in the upcoming proposed regulations.  

Proposed regulations identifying certain partnership basis shifting transactions as transactions of interest

In addition, the Treasury Department and IRS today released proposed regulations  (REG-124593-23) that would identify certain partnership related-party basis adjustment transactions and substantially similar transactions as transactions of interest (TOI), a type of reportable transaction.

The TOIs generally involve positive basis adjustments of $5 million or more under section 732(b) or (d), 734(b), or 743(b), for which no corresponding tax is paid. The transactions would include either a distribution of partnership property to a partner that is related to one or more other partners in the partnership, or the transfer of a partnership interest in which the transferor is related to the transferee, or the transferee is related to one or more of the partners. In these transactions, the basis increase allows related parties an opportunity for decreasing their taxable income through increased cost recovery deductions or through decreasing their taxable gain (or increasing their taxable loss) on the subsequent transfer of the property in a transaction in which gain or loss is recognized in whole or in part.

The proposed regulations are proposed to apply as of the date of publication of final regulations in the Federal Register. However, taxpayers and their advisors should note that they may be required to report transactions that occurred prior to the date of publication of the final regulations.

Comments on the proposed regulations, as well as requests to speak and outlines for topics to be discussed at a public hearing (scheduled for September 17, 2024, at 10:00 AM ET), are due by August 19, 2024. If no outlines are received by that date, the public hearing will be cancelled. 

Revenue Ruling 2024-14 clarifies application of economic substance doctrine to partnership basis-shifting transactions

Finally, the Treasury Department and IRS today released Rev. Rul. 2024-14 clarifying when the economic substance doctrine may apply to disallow tax benefits associated with basis-shifting transactions involving partnerships and related parties.

In particular, Rev. Rul. 2024-14 announces that the economic substance doctrine will be raised in cases when related parties:

• Create inside/outside basis disparities through various methods, including the use of certain partnership allocations and distributions
• Capitalize on the disparity by either transferring a partnership interest in a nonrecognition transaction or making a current or liquidating distribution of partnership property to a partner
• Claim a basis adjustment under sections 732(b), 734(b), or 743(b) resulting from the nonrecognition transaction or distribution

Read another related IRS release— IR-2024-166  (June 17, 2024)

The purpose of this TaxNewsFlash  is to provide a high-level summary of these guidance documents. Another TaxNewsFlash will be released shortly providing initial analysis and observations on the guidance.

The KPMG name and logo are trademarks used under license by the independent member firms of the KPMG global organization. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee and does not provide services to clients. No member firm has any authority to obligate or bind KPMG International or any other member firm vis-à-vis third parties, nor does KPMG International have any such authority to obligate or bind any member firm. The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation. For more information, contact KPMG's Federal Tax Legislative and Regulatory Services Group at: + 1 202 533 3712, 1801 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20006.

• See us on facebook
• See us on twitter
• See us on youtube
• See us on linkedin
• See us on instagram

Six distinct types of depression identified in Stanford Medicine-led study

Brain imaging, known as functional MRI, combined with machine learning can predict a treatment response based on one’s depression “biotype.”

June 17, 2024 - By Rachel Tompa

Researchers have identified six subtypes of depression, paving the way toward personalized treatment. Damerfie -   stock.adobe.com

In the not-too-distant future, a screening assessment for depression could include a quick brain scan to identify the best treatment.

Brain imaging combined with machine learning can reveal subtypes of depression and anxiety, according to a new study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine. The study , published June 17 in the journal Nature Medicine , sorts depression into six biological subtypes, or “biotypes,” and identifies treatments that are more likely or less likely to work for three of these subtypes.

Better methods for matching patients with treatments are desperately needed, said the study’s senior author,  Leanne Williams , PhD, the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and the director of Stanford Medicine’s Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness . Williams, who lost her partner to depression in 2015, has focused her work on pioneering the field of precision psychiatry .

Around 30% of people with depression have what’s known as treatment-resistant depression , meaning multiple kinds of medication or therapy have failed to improve their symptoms. And for up to two-thirds of people with depression, treatment fails to fully reverse their symptoms to healthy levels.  

That’s in part because there’s no good way to know which antidepressant or type of therapy could help a given patient. Medications are prescribed through a trial-and-error method, so it can take months or years to land on a drug that works — if it ever happens. And spending so long trying treatment after treatment, only to experience no relief, can worsen depression symptoms.

“The goal of our work is figuring out how we can get it right the first time,” Williams said. “It’s very frustrating to be in the field of depression and not have a better alternative to this one-size-fits-all approach.”

Biotypes predict treatment response

To better understand the biology underlying depression and anxiety, Williams and her colleagues assessed 801 study participants who were previously diagnosed with depression or anxiety using the imaging technology known as functional MRI, or fMRI, to measure brain activity. They scanned the volunteers’ brains at rest and when they were engaged in different tasks designed to test their cognitive and emotional functioning. The scientists narrowed in on regions of the brain, and the connections between them, that were already known to play a role in depression.

Using a machine learning approach known as cluster analysis to group the patients’ brain images, they identified six distinct patterns of activity in the brain regions they studied.

Leanne Williams

The scientists also randomly assigned 250 of the study participants to receive one of three commonly used antidepressants or behavioral talk therapy. Patients with one subtype, which is characterized by overactivity in cognitive regions of the brain, experienced the best response to the antidepressant venlafaxine (commonly known as Effexor) compared with those who have other biotypes. Those with another subtype, whose brains at rest had higher levels of activity among three regions associated with depression and problem-solving, had better alleviation of symptoms with behavioral talk therapy. And those with a third subtype, who had lower levels of activity at rest in the brain circuit that controls attention, were less likely to see improvement of their symptoms with talk therapy than those with other biotypes.

The biotypes and their response to behavioral therapy make sense based on what they know about these regions of the brain, said Jun Ma, MD, PhD, the Beth and George Vitoux Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago and one of the authors of the study. The type of therapy used in their trial teaches patients skills to better address daily problems, so the high levels of activity in these brain regions may allow patients with that biotype to more readily adopt new skills. As for those with lower activity in the region associated with attention and engagement, Ma said it’s possible that pharmaceutical treatment to first address that lower activity could help those patients gain more from talk therapy.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time we’ve been able to demonstrate that depression can be explained by different disruptions to the functioning of the brain,” Williams said. “In essence, it’s a demonstration of a personalized medicine approach for mental health based on objective measures of brain function.”

In another recently published study , Williams and her team showed that using fMRI brain imaging improves their ability to identify individuals likely to respond to antidepressant treatment. In that study, the scientists focused on a subtype they call the cognitive biotype of depression, which affects more than a quarter of those with depression and is less likely to respond to standard antidepressants. By identifying those with the cognitive biotype using fMRI, the researchers accurately predicted the likelihood of remission in 63% of patients, compared with 36% accuracy without using brain imaging. That improved accuracy means that providers may be more likely to get the treatment right the first time. The scientists are now studying novel treatments for this biotype with the hope of finding more options for those who don’t respond to standard antidepressants.

Further explorations of depression

The different biotypes also correlate with differences in symptoms and task performance among the trial participants. Those with overactive cognitive regions of the brain, for example, had higher levels of anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) than those with other biotypes; they also performed worse on executive function tasks. Those with the subtype that responded best to talk therapy also made errors on executive function tasks but performed well on cognitive tasks.

One of the six biotypes uncovered in the study showed no noticeable brain activity differences in the imaged regions from the activity of people without depression. Williams believes they likely haven’t explored the full range of brain biology underlying this disorder — their study focused on regions known to be involved in depression and anxiety, but there could be other types of dysfunction in this biotype that their imaging didn’t capture.

Williams and her team are expanding the imaging study to include more participants. She also wants to test more kinds of treatments in all six biotypes, including medicines that haven’t traditionally been used for depression.

Her colleague  Laura Hack , MD, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has begun using the imaging technique in her clinical practice at Stanford Medicine through an experimental protocol . The team also wants to establish easy-to-follow standards for the method so that other practicing psychiatrists can begin implementing it.

“To really move the field toward precision psychiatry, we need to identify treatments most likely to be effective for patients and get them on that treatment as soon as possible,” Ma said. “Having information on their brain function, in particular the validated signatures we evaluated in this study, would help inform more precise treatment and prescriptions for individuals.”

Researchers from Columbia University; Yale University School of Medicine; the University of California, Los Angeles; UC San Francisco; the University of Sydney; the University of Texas MD Anderson; and the University of Illinois Chicago also contributed to the study.

Datasets in the study were funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01MH101496, UH2HL132368, U01MH109985 and U01MH136062) and by Brain Resource Ltd.

• Rachel Tompa Rachel Tompa is a freelance science writer.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu .

Hope amid crisis

Psychiatry’s new frontiers

You're reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool's Premium Investing Services. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources, and more. Learn More

McDonald's Ditches AI Drive-Thru Voice Technology. What Could This Mean for SoundHound AI Stock?

• McDonald's has ditched its AI-voice ordering system from IBM and will look to replace it by year-end.
• SoundHound is a possible contender to win the business, but it is not the only candidate.
• SoundHound stock is not cheap, but winning a deal with McDonald's would go a long way in showing the company's growth potential.
• Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert

NASDAQ: SOUN

Soundhound ai.

SoundHound could be in line to replace the displaced technology.

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) recently announced that it was ditching its artificial intelligence (AI) -powered voice ordering technology powered by International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) . Instead, the fast food giant will look to replace the technology with an alternative solution by the end of the year.

Let's look closer at McDonald's decision and what impact it could have on SoundHound AI ( SOUN -1.24% ) , whose voice-powered AI technology has been making a lot of inroads in the restaurant space lately.

A potential McDonald's replacement

McDonald's decision to end its partnership with IBM for automated order-taking technology after a two-year trial comes as a surprise, as the restaurant chain sold IBM the technology powering the solution back in the fall of 2021. McDonald's originally purchased an AI voice start-up called Apprente in 2019 and integrated it into a venture called McD Tech Labs, which it later sold to IBM. Since that deal, it has been testing the technology, which it has deployed at more than 100 locations.

The voice-ordering technology will be shut off at all locations by July 26 of this year. When the technology was first rolled out, McDonald's said it was about 85% accurate and that it could take 80% of orders. However, with social media, some of the tech's larger screw-ups became viral, such as it adding ketchup packets and butter to a sundae and water order.

McDonald's chief restaurant officer Mason Smoot told franchisees the company was happy with the trial but that there was "an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly."

Image source: Getty Images.

SoundHound is a potential logical choice as a replacement for IBM, as the company has gained a lot of traction in the restaurant space with its AI-powered drive-thru voice ordering technology and other industry-specific applications. These include its Smart Ordering platform, which takes orders and answers questions from inbound phone calls, as well as its Employee Assist solution, which acts as a copilot across an employee's headset to help answer questions they may have, such as how to clean the ice cream machine.

SoundHound has struck deals with a number of large quick-service restaurant (QSR) chains, including White Castle, Jersey Mike's, Five Guys, Noodles & Company , and Chipotle Mexican Grill , along with top restaurant fintech companies such as Toast , Olo , and Square . As such, it is certainly a viable contender to replace IBM as McDonald's new voice AI-powered ordering technology partner.

However, SoundHound is not the only candidate. Wendy's is using Alphabet's Google Cloud to power its Fresh AI platform that it is testing at some of its drive-thrus. Meanwhile, QSRs such as Del Taco, owned by Jack in the Box , Rally's, Checker's and CKE have used solutions from companies such as Presto Automation, Hi Auto tech, OpenCity, and Valyant AI.

In fact, Alphabet could be the favorite to win the deal, as McDonald's and Google Cloud struck an agreement last December to apply generative AI solutions across its restaurants worldwide. However, even with the Wendy's deal, voice AI is still not Google's core competency, and if SoundHound has the better solution, it could still win the McDonald's deal.

Time to buy SoundHound stock?

Given McDonald's recent deal with Google Cloud, SoundHound likely isn't considered the favorite to win the deal, but if it does, it would help validate the company as the leader in the voice AI space, and the stock would certainly pop on the news. The fact that McDonald's isn't rushing into a new deal right away and looking to explore alternatives is thus good news, and SoundHound will likely get a chance to show off its technology to the fast-food giant.

Trading at an over 20 times forward price to sales (P/S) multiple, shares of SoundHound are not cheap. However, the company has been growing its revenue rapidly, and it has built up a large backlog of business. Meanwhile, a McDonald's super-sized catalyst could be down the road.

SOUN PS Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Opportunities like McDonald's and the inroads it's making into other industries and devices outside its core automobile and restaurant verticals can help the stock move from here. While SoundHound has a lot of potential, it still remains a speculative investment, given its valuation and the fact that it is still in the early innings of its growth phase. As such, any investments in this growth tech stock should be sized accordingly, given the risk.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Block, and Toast. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Block, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Olo, and Toast. The Motley Fool recommends International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .

Related Articles

Premium Investing Services

Invest better with The Motley Fool. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services.