Homework - Finding the answers online

The internet and homework: your favourite pastime and your most hated chore. Wouldn't it be great to combine the two, without spending hours on Google Search or boring your brains out? Year nine studentnJoe Bowman finds out how - without cheating.

Studying is for many a word reminiscent of dungeon-like libraries and hours spent indoors. But, as hard as it may be to believe, homework doesn't have to involve sitting hunched over Advanced Astrophysics for Dummies by candlelight.
Luckily, the internet can come to the student's rescue and offer you a helping hand, without teaching you to cheat. There are a huge number of homework websites, and many devoted exclusively to New Zealand students. All you have to do is tear yourself away from YouTube for a while.

NCEA Career Services
www2.careers.govt.nz/ncea_courses_jobs.html
Are you sitting NCEA this year? Do you have a rough idea of what you want to do when you leave school? NCEA Career Services has information on all its courses, as well as New Zealand's required qualifications for any job you could possibly imagine. Or, if you have no idea what you want to do in the future, this site provides online tools to match your skills and interests at school with jobs in the real world, so you know what subjects to take.
NCEA Career Services is a great website if you will be doing NCEA homework assignments this year. It helps you to figure out exactly which ones you need to do to succeed in your future career, and, because it's official, you know you're getting the real information. And if you're planning to leave school soon, wouldn't it be great to get some help finding a job?

The Pulse/Te Auaha
thepulse.org.nz/School/NCENCENCEA/
A free research centre with links to a countless number of other research sites - it doesn't look like much at first glance, but once you navigate the simple interface to find your homework category, you'll be amazed at the number of great links in The Pulse's database. This website knows what New Zealand students are doing and provides exactly the homework sites NCEA students of every age and skill level need and understand. In fact, The Pulse serves exactly the same purpose as this article. Why not try it out?

Studyit
www.studyit.org.nz
This is one of the most popular study sites in New Zealand, and for good reason. It's probably the most helpful and easy-to-use page for NCEA Science, Maths, and English students - from one website, you can access information about all of the assignments within these three courses, as well as tips, assessment criteria, exemplars, and links to other research sites. Also, probably even more useful on Studyit are tools to communicate with mentors, expert subject teachers and other students about your course material, and valuable advice for sitting tests and exams.

Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia has gained a bad reputation for inaccuracies. Teachers don't trust it, and some schools don't even allow it to be used for research. Wikipedia's tool for members to change any information on an article was the perfect target for politicians, practical jokers and clueless editors. In 2008, Wikipedia has changed a lot, and its bad reputation is now undeserved. While it still suffers from (often malicious) inaccuracies in certain entries, Wikipedia is now edited intelligently by both professional and amateur historians, scientists, biographers, mathematicians, music experts, and pop culture buffs, and is the perfect resource online. It just takes some common sense to double-check the facts. It changes all the time, and includes more modern and in-depth articles than would be found in the average book-form encyclopaedia, which are just as likely to contain errors nowadays. To add to this, articles even have links to other sites, and a bibliography (dare you return to the library).

Conclusion
It's hard to imagine a world without the internet, and it's hard to imagine a world without homework. One might conjure up happier fantasies than the other, but it's important to know that to succeed in the real world you have to study hard. Career Services, The Pulse, Studyit and Wikipedia are some of the best sites on the net for New Zealand students, and can cut your research and homework time in half. Now, if only you could tear yourself away from Bebo...