How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I am a straght A student, and I'm joining robotics. We are going to be at robotics from after school to about 10:00. How do you guys manage robotics with other E.Cs, and homework.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

i get out at about the same time but im also in track and academic decathalon. I try to get all of my homework done during class or lunch so i dont have to worry about it

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

It's tough, I'm not gonna lie. I generally lose a lot of sleep during the build season to try and keep my grades up. Sometimes it comes down to choosing one or the other, team vs. school. I simply try to do homework whenever I have spare time. If I can get something done between classes or early in the morning, I use it to my benefit.

Also utilize the weekends, or whenever your team takes a day off, to your advantage. Read a few chapters ahead, do the lab report, and ask your teacher what's coming up next week. If you don't have a day or two off to stay caught up in schoolwork and you feel your grades slipping, try to request a night off from robotics to catch up.

Remember your priorities and the necessary things you have to do in life (i.e. school) but also know that FIRST may ultimately be just as important, or perhaps more so, in the long run. Don't let robotics ruin your report card, but don't let the fear of a B ruin your opportunity to learn amazing things and have terrific once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Our team has meetings twice a week going from 4-7pm I try and squeeze in what I can in the meeting and recently the teachers have really been piling it on and I have just been forced to stay up till around 12, 1, 2 am doing Homework before my parents say enough is enough your going to bed.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Slack 1st period class. Doing hw doing the 20 min. lunch period we have and just plain old staying up late. And not screwing around while I do my hw.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

My team and I honetly dont manage homework and robotics all that well. We usually do all of the homework from the robotics season just before the quarter ends as late work. Usually at the time the robot gets shipped out the majority of our grades are pretty close to failing. Not a good method at all but its how we do.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

A half of a study block helps, but as for studying for our finals tommorrow, I'm screwed. And I went home early today...

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

You'll probably get a few responses to the effect of:

What it really comes down to is your priorities. Choose them now and stick to your guns, or you'll be caught in a hellish limbo. This is not to say you can't have both, but there very well could be instances where you are forced to choose, and it's best to do so now while you have your wits about you.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I never mastered this one. My grades drop alot during robotics.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I am on animation and the only one doing it so it is hard to manage the 2, since you spend many late nights working on the animation. Also, since finals is tomorrow through Friday, our team is going to do anything till Friday and the on Friday we are going to build the robot with the parts coming in.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I suppose that having no Friday classes helps for me. :D

Seriously, though, to get the job done, I trim back on other things. I may skip a sub opportunity for WUSC, or miss a meal at Preston dining. By putting the cuts in the stuff other than academics, it lets me do everything just about right for academics.

I'm betting on a vastly improved spring over last year, between taking 15 hours (as opposed to 16--darn lab sciences) and having some simpler classes.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Ahhh... perfect solution. DONT DO IT! hahaha nothing is more important that FIRST! gracious professionalism will get you further than A's!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

It helps being a second semester senior. :p

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I don't know if you're in high school or college, but it seems to be easier once one's in college. There are more odd blocks of free time.
Last year, I managed to get my homework done only by staying up late/early and blasting loud music to keep myself awake....this may be why I looked totally exhausted/perpetually stoned...You may just find that you can take off a good 4 hours on a given workday (saturday, weeknight) where you get all caught up on work and ahead of the game, if possible. Or just bring your work to robotics and work on it in any moment you have off. I think you'll simply have to chose which is more important to you. Another thing, even if you slip a little (like, to a 'B" average), a cumulative semester exam and a really good fourth quarter could totally save you. I didn't find it that difficult to keep straight 'A's, but everything depends on how important sleep is to you. Good luck!!

~Anna

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I don't get much homework this year, which I am happy about. In the previous years.. If I had to choose homework or robotics, I chose robotics. It's taught me a lot more then I could have ever learned in school, so I have no problems with it. It also helps that I can get a B+ average without studying, and doing my homework right before class, so..

You have to decide which is more important to you, grades or robotics.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Like as been said before (at least for high school students like me) I do my work during lunch and during class, and what doesn't get done then ... well you know :p lets hope you got A's on those tests :rolleyes:

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I'm a high school student, frosh, taking 3 solids(4-block system)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I just try to do as much homework as I can in class...and then try to squeeze some in at lunch and break. I guess when I still havnt finished it IS about staying up late. Oh, and no more studying for tests=) Just pay more attention in class...works pretty well. Robotics does take up a lot of time but if you can squeeze acedemics in here and there it all fits in as long as you don't go off and play computer games for like a few hours it's alrite.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

basically you cut sleep out of the equation and your good to go...lol :p
but seriously I don't sleep much during build season just because of the amount of homework i get that most the time does not get done at school. That and doing all the fun things there are to do during the build season. Robot design, animation, fabrication, programming....

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

There is no such thing as managing homework for me. I never have time to do homework between, dedication to robotics, house cleaning, farmers insurance, travel softball practice, ohhh yeah and gymnastics! lol and my health. lol

-Court-

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Me monday morning at school:

:ahh: I suddenly realize i have a paper due! (on internet) Copy and paste! copy and paste!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Try 18 credits of college (sophomore), two jobs, robotics, and then home work.

If it needs done, I either don't get much sleep or I hand it in partly finished/to the best of my ability.

Right now I have nearly every hour of the day booked.

Well, back to seeing what HW needs done or shall I do more robot stuff?

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

It helps that our district has finals/midterms at the end of 1st semester instead of the beginning of 2nd semester, and that we have all new classes at the start of 2nd semester (block scheduling), so everything tends to be relatively easy at least the first week or two.

Mainly, work as much as possible during class (this work can be on homework or on robotics work that you will have to do anyway) and don't waste this time and talk like you might at other times. Try to balance out which homework you do for which classes (don't do all in one and fail another), but in the end sometimes you will have to sacrifice having the A in the class (at least for now) for robotics. Remember, there are still 3 months after build season to get your grade up, just don't let it drop too far (I know our school won't allow you to do any outside activities, including robotics, with a failing grade, and our mentors will force you to do homework once you approach failing until the grade is up higher). I don't know how much sleep you're used to, but expect to get less; I always get 6 hours or less a day anyway, so robotics dropping it to 5 or 4 doesn't affect me much.

So, the choice is up to you, just make sure you are okay with what happens from your decision.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

During the build season, I will admit that I usually cram in all my homework literally in the five minutes between classes. I also almost never study for tests, and I spend all of my study hall playing around in CAD or surfing ChiefDelphi instead of doing homework. I am one of those students who likes to sit on the back of the class. Half the time I never pay attention in class either. School bores me. But robotics, that is really interesting. :D

Last year, I only studied for ten minutes for one of my seven final exams. :ahh: I am taking all Honors-level classes, except for AP American History. And yet, I still recieved A's on every single one of my finals. I have a solid 4.4/4.5 GPA, and I have at least an A average in every class except English, where I have a B+ average. (If it was not for the fact that I have partial photographic memory, I wouldn't be able to do this.) :yikes:

I spend probably close to an hour a day on ChiefDelphi. I also am the only webmaster for my robotics team, and usually do about an hour or two into working on that every day. (Right now, I am working on begining to write a PHP-backend for it). I also attend up to and over thirty hours of robotics meetings per week, in addition to the time I spend at school 'learning'.

I also try to spend about at least a few hours per week toying with ideas in Inventor. Somehow (eg. lots of Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew MDX), I've trained myself to be able to stay awake to 2-3 AMish every night*, and still wake up at 6 AM feeling refreshed and readany minutes of work as possible out of it.

You probably cannot get much more productive than I am right now. :p

*Okay, so I sleep until noon on Sundays. But that may change soon when our team decides to start meeting on Sundays again. :p

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Like many of you have said, it really comes down to time management. I go from school to whatever E.C. (violin lessons, chamber strings, chess club, risk club, or tennis) I have that day to dinner and back to robotics. If I don't have anything after school on a certain day, I go straight home and work on homework from about 2:30 (we get out at 2:15 and I live very close to school) until 5p.m.

With finals coming up this week, many of the older students, including myself, have been only staying at robotics till 8 or 8:30 at the latest. Luckily, my block schedule is so messed up this semester that I have two separate 45-minute study periods and 25 minutes of lunch to work on either leftover homework or extension courses. Next semester, I go from 4 courses at school to 3 (I drop two honors classes for one more AP so I have just AP Physics, AP Chem, and Orchestra Honors) and pick up another extension course (I teach myself Calculus III and German IV-Honors) to get the necessary language credits. With this scheudule, I will have over 2 hours of "free time" in the morning to catch up on robotics, but the vast majority of that time will be spent completing my other 2 classes.

Another thing to watch out for is sports-related interference. We have had a few students drop sports to join robotics, and a few drop robotics to join sports...and I got cut from one of my sports for being in robotics...
Either way, make sure that the coaches know that you may be missing time in a spring season to travel and compete!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Aw man! Managing? heh. No such thing for me...I know it's important but I TRY to do my during class/lunch, but if I can't finish during lunch or class, then I take a break while at the meetings, and do my homework (like 1/2 an hour 'ish). As for exams...well...I went home early for the past couple of nights and studied. In general, my marks tend to go down during the build season :S

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I'm a 4.0+ student and fortunately this year I'm not getting much homework yet. We have midterms around the time of our regional. It helps to be well liked by teachers (sometimes I'll miss an entire school day) but the work always builds up. Fortunately we're starting to get the hang of it so just try to stay on top of the work, it still gets hard to do when we get home around 7 pm every day.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

If you don't want to fail or build a horrible robot. You will just need to stay up late. I dont reccomend slacking during 1st block, especially with Tests.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

My grades get it bad during build season.
I have it worse than many on my team, with Lacrosse and Ultimate Frisbee along with robotics.
I eat whenever given the chance, and sleep sparingly.
I have now decided i need to finish my already late notes on Slaughterhouse-Five, and get off CD before i spend another night without doing any homework whatsoever.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I just do homework whenever. I feel as long as i get it done the night before it is due, i am good. That way it is at least done. I'd prefer going to robotics over school. Especially since i am on the animation team. I spend more time on that than i do robotics.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

artdutra##, you are not the only person who is the sole webdeisginer on your team.
what i have to do, is manage my time as eficiently as possible.

3:00 - get home, talk to freinds, get ready for homework
3:30 on- do homework
whatever time is left before 7- web designing, Cad, Forums, ET, More chatting.
7 - 9: robotics
9-on: solve webdesing and coding issues with dad.
11-2AM: go to bed....
and then it continues...

it is seriuosly very difficitl and strict to manage such a busy schedule (even tho i realize it is nowhere as near as busy as some of yeh guys), but i live with it. u just gotta realize when you have free time, and use it to the best of yer ability.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

For me, it really all depends on the homework;
If it is worth points, or in a subject I know I need to study for (APBIO generally demands a bit of a chapter review), I get it done. Otherwise, it goes on the pile of "I should really review this before finals" handouts. Last year I put in about 50-60+ hours a week on the team (thats what I get for having a team leader/founder as a dad) during the build season, but I was also taking college courses and independent studies, so the homework situation was handled by just not sleeping. I have it easier this year, because I am only putting in about 20-30ish hours a week(back in public school, about an hour away from the team by train...ugh!), and the end of the semester is a week from tomorrow, and I'm a senior. I dont study for my tests in most subjects because I dont need too, and if I need to I can generally get extensions by explaining to my teachers that I was up until 3am working out the kinks in a telescoping arm or a particularily buggy piece of code.

Basically, do the homework if it is important. FIRST is awesome at getting you into college, but grades are more awesome at accomplishing the same task. If you know you will be pulling a late/all nighter, talk to your teachers; you will be suprised at the number of people willing to accomodate you if you are responsible and ask for the extra time BEFORE the project/homework/paper is due, and dont do it every time. Sometimes you need to tell your team leader you need to go home an hour early, no matter how hard it is.

Just remember that both FIRST and School are pretty important in most of our lives, and that a happy medium can be reached. One thing I've found is that you can generally find extra time in the day, on dinner breaks during robotics meetings, or by not going home after your meeting and reading your favorite web comic/gaming/chatting/making phone calls/browsing chief delphi/whipping up a CAD drawing of that new robot part you just thought of.

Grades suffer, as a rule, but be aware and sensible and you should be good.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

you gotta play the system, especially in public schools, u can find loopholes in any class, even AP's, by the beginning of build seasan i understand every aspect there is to know about each and every class, understand teachers personalities and how they would react to certain events, etc... i seriously do research on how to do as little work as possible and get an A in the class. You can miss homework assignments and do well on tests for a test-dependent class and do hw assignments and not study for a hw-dependent class for example. :)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I'm spending in excess of 6-8 hours per day on robots, and more on weekends, so it's tough to balance that and taking 15 units of classes.

I try to get as much done during random free blocks of time that I can, as well as using any days off as wisely as possible.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

At my school none of my teachers give me any slack, and since all my classes are either advanced or AP, it's rough.
Pretty much internet gets chopped off my schedule and you're always tired.
On our team we have a few teacher mentors, and our team is super serious about keeping your grades up. If you need any help you can bring it into a meeting and if there is a moment they - or some other member - will help ya.
Speaking of homework... I should be doing some right now.... :ahh:

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

well from between homework, school, robotics, and the included job, many things go unanswered. you cant really plan a schedule, many late nights will occur without warning. me for instance, im about to quit working so i can do robotics. its hectic at this time right now. im just letting things take the path least expected, and just following the river. its my third year and last as a student, so im not gonna overwork and fall under the radar, something has got to give, and for me its work.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Lucky for me I don't get too much homework assigned and if I do, I do as much as I can at home and do the rest in my first period study hall :) Lucky me

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

During my Highschool years I lucked out and always had enough time during the school day to get homework done before I ever left the building. If there was anything that I didn't get finished at school then I would usually end up doing it at our shop before I started working on anything robotics related. From others I've met here at college, the amount of actual homework I had during highschool was pretty much slim to non compared to most people also,so that helped a little.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

That's kind of what I do. I try to finish up as much hw as possible during my classes so I have time for robotics. In fact, I do that all year. It's just that much extra time you are gaining. I personally like to get a good nights sleep so I'd rather not sit up and do homework. And it is hard to squeeze in homework while concentrating on the class going on but I do so. Warning: Use this technique at your own risk. It's not everybody's cuppa chai. :)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Robotics is part of a class at my school, a couple, actually, so, I generally have very little homework during the robotics season. It's nice.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

whats homework?... i do it all at school...

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Remember that if any regionals or Atlanta is not during a vacation, You are probably going to have to get your teachers to sign off for you to go. If you aren't getting good grades, they probably wont sign. IT also is usually the same with parents!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I take it by your concerns to school you are a rookie to FIRST. FIRST is made to influence us young adults to go into science and math based careers. I know speaking for myself and most other future engineers u will want to take a lot of math and scienc classes at your school, your school might also have a drafting or design class you will want to look at. Ask you teachers if you can use robotics as a project for a grade or perhaps even extra credit. And if the teacher is into your ideas you will be surprised by how well you can do in some classes. You can even turn in you teams chairman's report to your english teacher and see what she thinks and tell het that you were one of the main ones to write it. Most of your classes can be used hand in hand with FIRST. I hope I can get backed up on this but that truly is what FIRST is about, being abnle to use your skills you already know and have learned from school and bettering themwith robotics. Ask your teachers what you can do to make up assignments while you are on trips and pick up flyers and adds about place you went to on regional trips. And if worst comes to worst just try hard and ask your mentors, I gurantee that if a mentor cant help you with your school work then a fellow student could. Teams that i have talked to have physic majors, engineers, teachers, and more all these people can and will help. If it werent for the mentors most of us wouldnt be involved.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I think that a lot of people have touched on the main way to keep grades up while at the same time successfully participating on a FIRST team: Priorities.

While it seems simple, having your priorities straight is the key. If you have never really thought about priorities, writing them down can help. It allows you to really see everything you do.

To me, grades come FIRST, period. However, during build season, generally I get by by 'riding the edge,' working just hard enough to get an A- or so. However, as many people have mentioned, don't miss too much FIRST. It is really an amazingly educational program that will teach you more about engineering and science than most classes. Just look at some of the threads about ball distance. People are using a lot more math than they would learn in High School

Overall, just suck it up. Build season is really just 6 weeks. If you really feel overloaded, skip a day of FIRST, but try to just live without sleep for a couple weeks.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Allow me say first that I praise those of you with the opportunity to do your work at school. It is very much a blessing, take advantage of it.

I am one of the many students who can't do that. My AP Bio, AP Chem, AP English, and AP Calc teachers don't allow other homework in class usually, because the majority of the class period is taken up by lecturing or laboratory work (in the case of AP Bio and AP Chem). English teacher simply prefers attention over students doing homework, which I respect. Though not always AP, my schedule has been crammed since I started robotics.

But I don't fail my classes. I don't drop grades at Robotics season. Why?

Prioritizing only does so much. Do your work. Period. There is nothing much more I can say. Everyone does extracurriculars, everyone does "too many activities." As someone said very well above, you can't let the fear of an A- rather than an A deter you from enjoying experiences. Here is a lovely list of Genia strategies for maintaining As during build season (or whatever you want to maintain).

1. Do your work during lunch, while eating. I can't stress this enough. How long does it really take the average person to eat a sandwich, a piece of fruit or whatever, and take a drink? It shouldn't take you that long unless you eat a gigantic lunch. Try to do homework while eating, and don't spill. Multitasking is key.

2. So you arrive at Robotics. Do homework there sometimes. I have done this number before: "Mentor A, I finished all the tasks we had agreed on for the meeting. Is it alright if I go do Calculus for a while?". I've never had problems. Your mentors and teachers will understand if you take a short break at Robotics to do your work, especially if you're otherwise productive. Eat your dinner while doing your work...it cuts down on idle time and puts you in the favor of mentors.

3. Weekends solve a lot, but not everything. Yes, I know everyone likes to go out on Saturday night or Friday night. I certainly enjoy being with friends. Always get your "recreation time", because if you miss out on too much of it you go insane. But do your homework on those awkward times when not much is going on, i.e., Sunday early morning (when you wake up or after you go do Sunday morning stuff).

If you understand your schedule, and if you've been getting good grades since the beginning with effective studying, you should have absolutely no problem maintaining them. No, I am not on the official "build team" but I put in similar time, on top of doing 4-5 hrs a day of science research.

You can do it if you work hard :). Good luck.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I do my homework at home, or I also do it during our seminar period that we have. Seminar is like a study hall for the whole school. I also do it at lunch. I don't really have time to do it between school and robotics because I have sports after school. I always get it done before it is due!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

its hard for me because i have 8.25 credits out of the possible 8 periods. i will miss some here and there. but my grades stay ok (in the b range) thats what works for me. i also am a tech guy for the school plays witch is a very simalar situation for two weeks straght i didint leave school till after 10 or so. my rule of thumb is if i dont have enough time, skip the hw for the classes with the highest grades. also lunch and between classes. i have gotten very good at walking and writeing at the same time :D

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I tend to get my stuff done during my first hour class because I have Study Hall that hour. Because of my classes I never get more than two assignments a day, but it's still hard to get some assignments done on time.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Out team alway have a study hall time on weekday from after school (2:20pm or 1:45pm early bell) till 4:30 pm. I think that should help. You should know that FIRST would help you in life but would get you no where if you can't get your grade up. Try your best everyone.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Balancing robotics and homework, that's a tricky one. When you get home, don't try to do every single part of every single homework assignment, instead do most of everything and none of nothing. Teachers realize that effort is what counts. My teachers just like to see that you're trying to do everything that you can. It doesn't help if you have all of your math homework done and none of your history. Speaking of math, I have an AP Calc midterm tomorrow, oh well. Time to study some more of AP Chem as well. I love the fact that I only have two midterms per day. :D

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Because I have calculus zero hour I get a free hour during the day to do all my homework. Having calculus at 7:00 is a terrible idea it is way to early to do anything productive. After school I go to work then it takes me about 45 minutes to drive to Robotics meetings. I get home about 10:30 and finish homework and surf chiefdelphi until midnight then repeat.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

1. Do well first semester so that you won't have to study much for the finals.

2. You have an A at the beginning of second semester. Work on time-management and try your best to keep up(probably best to give up a lot of other time-consuming activities). If you fail, you have the rest of the semester to catch up and hopefully win back the A. :)

That is how I see it and I had to do a different version of it even before I joined robotics because I was in field show & marching band. It works, just don't kill yourself over having few Bs on your third quarter grade and all shall be fine~

-Nita

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

i do my homework at robotics

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

As a Rookie Team, we decided that it would be best to hold work/build sessions everyday except Friday from 4-7. From the time school ends until 4pm, the Tech Ed. room is used a study hall for completing homework. We have found that this has been extremely useful and beneficial to the team members.

Scott
Dulaney 1727

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

By Being on the chief Delphi team 47for 3 years My grades dont really drop,its just that I always turn in my work at the last minute. I do most work during the class duration to and dont just sit there and fall a sleep. It is really hard trying to control schooling, robotics, varsity volleyball, and getting sleep trust me i feel how you feel. But help from people in the subjects that you dont understands helps too. My mentors help out a lot specially when they are the teachers and have already had that class or teacher. But staying after school everyday even on sundays hurts my sleeping hours alot. :o ;)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I graduated high school and college during the late Pleistocene, so I haven't had to worry about homework for a while.

When I was a senior, though, I was on the Chess Team, the Speech Team, and worked on three plays (acted in two, stage manager in the third). I spent one night a week at the computer lab at Ford Aerospace playing "Star Trek" and learning how computers worked using a Teletype as a terminal. I spent at least one weekend a month out in the desert riding dirt bikes. I also had a steady girlfriend (who I married five years later and is the mother of two members of Team 1294).

My senior GPA was 3.9 and as I remember it, I solved the homework problem by not sleeping. Hope this helps. :) I had a great time that year. Too bad FIRST didn't exist yet.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Do any of the teams have minimum academic standards for participation? Most sports teams do, why not "sports for the mind" teams?

Our school district has a 2.0 gpa standard for sports; the team standard is stricter - you must get at least 2.0 in each class. Any fails or D's, and you are suspended until the grades improve.

We travelled to Atlanta with only 11 team members last year, because several were suspended for grades. That includes the guy who was our lead programmer and chief driver, and another who was our HP. So yes it hurt, but we kept to our standards. Grades are important. Getting below a 2.0 in HS is mostly because you are not doing the work, period. If you can't handle it, you drop the extra-curricular stuff, including robotics, no matter how valuable it may be to you in later life. You could say the same thing about being on the football team, that it's preparing you, but you need to get the grades.

The real value is in those who commented to the effect that you do just what you have to do to get through. That is a valuable life lesson - prioritize, do the important stuff best, but don't skimp on anything.

OK, down off my soapbox now.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I just take it to school. Our team is at school from 5:30-8:30 (working on the robot.)We have time after school ,but if we don't get it done or need help most just take it in and have someone on the team help them get it done.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

School here isn't really hard we kind of get special treatment by our teachers they let us leave class early for this and turn it in when you are finished. most of our teachers are cool with letting us do that. we well i really don't ever get homework because we don't slack off in class because if we do we will here it so we just try to get school work out of the way. They always preach to us about our grades and to strive for perfection. every body says that we are the brightest in the school and that we are overrated but that is the privlege of being on chief delphi so it is pretty easy to handle. :)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

DITTO! :D :D :D

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Yeah we have similar standards. No one can miss school for any club related activities unless they have a C or better (Most members do better than a C anyways).

This not only applies for Nationals but for the our regional too. We have lots of presentations throughout the year for which we miss school days so we have to make sure that the members who participate are good role models for academics and robotics.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

what is this, homework, you speak of?

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I usually get home by 6pm and do it. I honestly haven't completed less homework since robot season began, and I haven't lost much sleep. Before robot season I was... I guess I don't know where that time went. I guess I was more social or something. Or maybe I was looking at colleges or downloading music. I just got accepted to some engineering programs, so I'm not as worried about school as much. I still plan on doing homework. I guess I've learned time management during robot season since I feel like I have to and because I don't stay until 10pm. Maybe you could get your homework done after school before robot? Get up early and do some before school? Do it all over the weekends and turn it all in late? It varies. We have people that only do what they care about, so they get Cs in classes they don't care about and As in classes they do care about and then totally stay on top of all things robot. Why don't see how other people on your team handle it?

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Well, I go home, do my homework, go to robotics at 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. SO i have about 3:45 min to do my HW. And if i cant finish it, i bring it to Robotics to do there. :)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

LOL. Good question.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I get straight A's too. I try to complete assignments ahead of time, do a lot of school work on Sunday, slip in some homework between school and track, between track and robotics, and sometimes I even stay up until 11 to do homework :ahh:

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Umm... don't do it?

Just kidding. I get it done. Do it when you come home from school/robot.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Wuddup G. Dont fret ova this hw and robotics...just do it wen u get home..thats wat ive done...know wat im sayin ...yea brotha keep it real dawg

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I'm homeschooled, so it's all homework!
Actually, I take one class with my homeschool group, and the rule is, if you know about an absence before it happens, you get the assignment early and turn it in either early or right after you get back. It's been that way practically forever.
(Interesting anecdote: one year, so many students were on the robotics team that a whole class day was cancelled. It's also happened to the occaisional class where most of the members are in robotics.)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

When I was in school, during the build season, sleep wasn't an option... at least comfortable sleep. I was head programmer, and worked until 10/11 pm most nights.. perhaps sleep in my car and work a while before class starts. My teachers gave me slack during the build year, and I got everything in eventually... tried to do the homework during classes or when I had down time during the meetings.

It's rough, but it's like that when you're dedicated.

PS: I thought all teams were like this, but I've actually seen a team that doesn't pull all nighters and the students are lethargic... and *GASP* NO ONE WANTS TO PROGRAM *GASP*.

Ugh.
Matthew

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

its simple..... dont do homework its not important.... where is school ever gonna get you thats what i wanna know...... all you gotta know is that life is like a bowl of fruit......................... :]

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Into college. And how are you ever going to understand the math your mentors use if you don't study it in school?

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Ranks of importance:

Tied for 1st: Classwork/homework and Robotics (In my honest opinion, the experience you get out of robotics is more valuable than homework....that is also NOT an excuse to slack off!)

Dead Last: Sleep (Basically self explanatory)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Now when you can combine all three...you're set!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

im in robotics , student council , and i always have loads of homework [like i do right now :D ] . the best way to balance things out is to really try to make some sort of time frame for yourself. just be like, ok after robotics , 10:00pm-(lets just say)12:00 i will be doing homework. if you truely stay loyal to your time frame, you'll have time to do more things or to just be able to keep up with all your work. if you know you are going to be busy in robotics late into the night, take the time during lunch and do homework while eating.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Our members can't travel unless they have at least a C in all classes. They know I won't bend this rule so they make sure they get their work done before our build meetings at 5:00. A lot of our members are in honors or upper level classes and they help those that are struggling. We also have an office set up for students to work on homework if there is a break in what their team is in charge of. Example, electrical is waiting on mechanical to mount some motors they do their work during that down time)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Our team does homework at the robotics building after school before our mentors arrive. It seems to be a pretty effective system.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Last year I had 7 AP classes and still managed Robotics.
It's not impossible at all.
What makes it hard is learning how to manage your time.
Obviously, you have 24 hours in a day and school, robotics, homework, etc. to attend to. (I was "oh so lucky" last year and had all this plus tennis team...where I was #1 and Envirothon where we were going to states).

24 hours is a lot. You may end up cutting up on a bit of sleep but you dont' have to go crazy. Just don't waste your time. Do you have time during transportation? Use that time as your unwinding time or work on something else. You can easily get in a few math problems or think about the next essay you want to write.

It's all about being on your toes and not overthinking things. Thinking about what you have to do will stress you out. Make organized lists and if anything, schedule out your time. And leave time for de-stressing yourself, it is important to take care of yourself just as much as it is to take care of anything else.

If you have any personal questions or want advise or just want to hear a good story, don't be afraid to PM me. Good luck =)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I personally take the idea of playing around the computer out. The only thing i use my computer for is the FIRST pdf, chief delphi, emails, and simple news. Take out gamming. School is more important.. but you will like robotics better.. depends. Just try to cut out the less important stuff, it only lasts 6 weeks and you know how fast those 6 weeks go by.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

homework? whats that.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

like the rest of you.. I've had a busy life in high school and now in college. you just have to divide up your time. if you have a big project and needs to get done... remember yes we say FIRST is our lives but grades do count. you can skip a day and do your work. some teams will not let you travel if your grades are low. and if you have problems you can bring your work to robotics because you can ask an older student for help and the engineers and other mentors.

but all in all just don't try to handle a lot of things. keep your priorities in line. you don't want to stress yourself too thin as I've done.

and homework it just a tad important. you need to do it to understand things. but that's my opinion i know many will disagree.

good luck everyone w/ school and keep healthy. your health overall is very important!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Our team requires a C or better in all classes to go to regionals and Nationals.
I myself during building season go to meetings only if the homework load, Latin, and Orchestra schedules allow me to. I have three AP classes on top of Orchestra and third year Latin, with a job in the mix. I'm very limited in what I can do so I have to be able to draw the line.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I just don't do homework much. I get away with high test scores without having to spend time studying. But then again its second semester of senior year for me, teachers tend to be more lenient.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

This is definitely a problem for a lot of kids who are in robotics. With me and a lot of the others on the team, I just bring my homework with me to the shop and that just means I have an entire team of people who could help me if I have a question on my homework. Sometimes people will just take a night off or come in to the shop late if they have one particular night where they have a lot of homework. :cool:

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

This is a big problem for me myself. My worst class, AP W. History, has dropped from high B to a low C so thats alomst 14 points :( So i am thinking about taking a day off of robotics to raise my grades.

But I see I'm not alone and there are many others what face this problem.

-Junx

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Be willing to miss things that you otherwise would do at any cost

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I agree it's definently hard to do, but I manage to do my homework during classes or lunch. When I get home I dont end up having as much and so I can go to robotics without worrying. But there are those nights where I loose sleep because I had an enormous amount of homework, but nevertheless homework and school come before robotics!! Once you start to manage your time and organize what you need done it becomes a habit and everything starts falling into place.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

whenever we meet, we spend 2 hours doing homework, and then get started on the bot. That way homework is done, and we can all work together on it. NO MORE SPENDING HOURS ON THE CALCULUS PROBLEM....our teacher is here!!!!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

This year i am a Senior so i don't have much homework to start out with then i have 4 computer classes an English class and a robotics class the only class that i have homework in is English
in past years my grades dropped some BUT NOT THIS YEAR

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

:confused: my schedule consists of

School untill 2:15
Robotics 2:30-6:30ish
Get Home around 7:00 then eat
7:45-8:30 loong shower
9:00 maybe start homework or playing some game
10:00 probably starting hw, or chatting
11-2/3: Homework
2/3-6:30 am: Sleep

I get a lot of sleep durring school.
Then again my grades do reflect my schedule=bad
woo right now sleep depprivation is taking its toll, thank god for caffine.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

You have no idea... High school and robotics is so much easier than College and robotics....

The best way I've found is to give up eating and drinking and sleeping outside of robotics meetings... My girlfriend thinks thats a bit much.

I wouldn't trade it for the world (except to maybe keep some of my homework from being assigned...)

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

pressure your teachers to give u no homework. if they say no threaten them with your robot. HA HA HA! :D

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Try working, grad-school, and robotics like myself and 3 other mentors on 177. It's all time management. If you look at the difference between what you "have to do" and what you really need to to do in a day you will notice you have more free time than you think. Just list how much time you spend doing things every day in the context of a 24 hour day and you'll realize how much time you really lose procrastinating.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

well... its hard.. but i go to a tutuor for math(rason why i am not in charge of the things requireing measuring or figuring... but i'm killer at designing as long as someone can check measurements) i fo to robotics from 7:20-8:35, then school from 8:40- 3:40... then robotics 'till when ever... then i go home... try and remember homework... but can't resist eatting, and chatting to CD and talking to my geeky/dorky guy counterpart online ^.^ [luv_ya_much//kaan//smilie//] so... homework kind of fits in when i remember i have it... but my teachers know that when i remember to do it(they have gotten in the habbit of reminding me every chance they get when they see me) so... it all works out.. my memory just needs an upgrade!!! :p

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I just don't like finals week during robotics season *sigh* half a final down... five and a half more to go

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Well, it's very hard, and I have almost no life outside of Robot, which really brings you close to your team. I generally work on my homework, eat, sleep (minimal), and sometimes eat. The only exception is Sunday.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Lets see, I go to school around 6:40AM'ish, get out at 2:30PM and than I go to the shop/lab or whatever you'd like to call it :P and than I work untill about 5:00 even though you can stay later if you want. And than I get home at about 5:20PM, do homework, eat, shower, and than sleep. Rinse and repeat :D

Oh and I have "RamTech" (we call it RamTech when we go work on the robot, since our team name is RamTech) Monday-Saturday. Even when theres no school or if we have an early release.

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

I do my homework whenever I have spare time, that is, before school, during lunch, during class, and during my waste-of-life 4th period computer programming class. If I need to do something at home, it's up 'til midnight or later for me!

Re: How do you manage homework and robotics?
 

Homework and the Night become accustomed to each other