Courses are to help you learn. How do you know if you are learning what you are supposed to? 

Exams tell your instructors what they need to know, but in many courses exams are after all the learning and therefore are too late to help you adjust your learning. But homework can help.You do homework to assess yourself. If you can do homework from memory, without looking up how to do it, then you know you learned what you were supposed to learn. If there are homework problems you don't know how to do, then you have found out what you need to study. You have found out what to ask in class. 

Homework is part of a feedback loop of self-assessment. Pay attention to its feedback about what you don't know and put extra effort into learning it.

I mark homework to help you. It is hard to explain on paper why someting is wrong, but I try. If you file your homework away without really looking at your mistakes, my effort was wasted. Look at all the places marked X on your homework and make sure you follow what was wrong. Come ask me if you are not sure. 

 

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