Every student in some form of formal education has been set, completed, and submitted homework before. The point of it? To help strengthen what you learnt during the school day, and potentially a chance for you to do your own research, and learn more on the topic.

 

However, with music consumption growing majorly every year, this raises a fair question: is it a good idea to be listening to music whilst completing your homework? Would it help you really be engrossed in your work, and preserve your train of thought, or would the outside influence break your focus, and affect your accuracy?

 

Well, this seems to largely vary from person to person, and mostly depends on the kind of music you’re consuming whilst you work away at your homework tirelessly.

 

About 50-60% of students do listen to music when working, but is this truly effective towards their work? Studies show that listening to music can help destress and remove some of the anxiety associated with studying, helping students to really zone in on their work and produce high quality homework.

 

To back this up, Rohit Nair, a young boy currently studying for his GCSE exams, which are looming menacingly behind his shoulder, said this:

 

‘I feel that listening to music whilst doing my homework lets me focus on the task at hand and switch off from the outside world, and the music helps make the task seem less monotonous than it actually is’ 

 

So what about the other 40%? Well, some may find (and I can speak from personal experience) that rather than helping them focus, some music might actually put them off. Personally, my brain locks into the music rather than the work, and I lose concentration incredibly quickly.

 

This brings us very nicely to the second point, which is what kind of music is a good idea to listen to when studying? Well, it has been shown that it is better to listen to music without vocals, which means your best options are lo-fi, minimalism, and some good old Classical music.

 

So maybe, before you return to your mountain of homework, consider your choice of music in your playlist. Or maybe turn it off, and have some silence. Just you, the questions and your thoughts. 

Happy learning!