Admit it. You’ve done it. We’ve all done it. Even though everyone has had all summer to complete the homework assigned to us in May, we’ve procrastinated until now and the due date is rapidly approaching. Yes, it can be difficult to pull yourself away from the sunshine to sit down in front of a blank Microsoft Word page or read a dreary book from the 1800’s, but despite the list of excuses, you’ll either have to toughen up and struggle through the assignment or pretend that you did. Or as I’d like to call it, fake it ‘til you make it.
When utilizing this phrase to find success, there’s a fine line between impersonating a pilot like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Catch Me If You Can to get ahead and googling “good angles on APRs” like the protagonist in Confessions of a Shopaholic.
With that, in order to find actual success when faking summer assignments, all you need to do is: fake the effort, your knowledge and your interest.
First, fake the effort. No teacher wants to see that not only did you not complete the packet, but you didn’t even attempt to.
“I would say the best thing to do when dealing with packets would be to do each type of problem,” senior Lauryn Bogseth said. “Teachers usually put multiple questions for a certain method, so do one of each, then you don’t have to put in effort in for the rest.”
Another device to use is starring questions that you ‘don’t know.’ This way it looks like you wanted to do the problem, but the concept just slipped your mind.
A study by Duke University, showed students lose skills over the summer. But, doing math sheets without help; and incorrectly is not the answer.
In addition to faking the effort, it’s imperative that you fake your knowledge. If you plan on not reading anything, then you must make your English teacher believe you can analyze The Glass Castle from cover to cover.
“I would personally just Google the higher level concepts that would be there,” junior Wyatt Hendrickson said. “This way I could appear to have a higher level comprehension, even though I did not do it.”
With multiple ways to gather information, Google, SparkNotes and random blogs will become your best friends when gathering information.
Bogseth also suggests if you have a list of books to pick from, then pick a book you’ve already read or one that has already been made into a movie.
At last, all you need now is to fake your interest, to really make it look like you spent all summer slaving over your assignment and just can’t wait to share it with the class.
Make sure to participate in class discussions over the books, or ask questions over the review packets. Make it look like you care. And most importantly make it look like you want to be there. Be confident and people will start believing you actually are. So, fake it ‘til you make it.
You tried your best (you have the stars next to the questions to prove it), you’re prepared to write all about the symbolism in your book and how it affects the author’s tone (if you count writing about what John Doe said as accurate) and now you’re ready to stand up and give the best book sell of your life. Without actually reading the book.
