Why You’re Good at Homework But Bad at Tests

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.

You get solid grades on your homework all week. You get full points for all your assignments completed in class. And you generally feel like you understand the material. But when you get your test grade back, it’s a completely different story. Ugh! Why are you good at homework but bad at tests?

As frustrating as the above scenario is, it’s very common. Many students pull off decent homework and classwork grades, but are unable to get those same good grades on tests. When this happens, you might be tempted to use the excuse of, “Well, I’m just bad at tests.” No. As I explain in this article here, there’s only one reason you’re “bad at tests”: because you don’t know the material well enough.

In this blog post, I’m going to explain exactly what’s going on when you do well on homework but not on tests or quizzes. Because when you know why this is happening to you, you can easily fix it.

Why You’re Good at Homework But Bad at Tests

Tests and homework measure completely different kinds of learning. This understanding is critical.

When you do homework, you’re usually in a familiar and comfortable environment. You can take as much time as you need, and you can use your notes and resources to work through the problems. This is all good and fine, as homework isn’t about proving what you know; rather, it’s designed to reinforce what you learned in class and give you a chance to practice.

Tests are completely different. Tests and quizzes measure what you can recall and apply without any help. You’re expected to retrieve information from your memory and apply it, often in new ways. There’s no looking at your notes, checking your slides, or Googling things to confirm your answers. In other words, tests and quizzes demand that you use what you learned in class and from your homework in a situation or context you haven’t seen before.

It’s this difference that’s the explanation for why you’re good at homework but bad at tests. Homework rewards completion and familiarity, while tests and assessments reward recall and application.

6 Reasons You Ace Your Homework But Struggle on Tests

The following list contains some potential reasons for the difference between your homework grades and your test grades. Only one may apply to you, or maybe all of them do. When you’re reading the list, be honest with yourself when you think Is this me?

1. You Do Homework for Completion, Not Comprehension

Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re learning in school. It’s a chance to practice on your own and reap the benefits of repetition.

The problem is that it’s super easy to “get away with” putting in just enough effort to get credit for the assignment. Maybe you copy an example from the posted notes, look up the answer in the textbook, or ask AI for a quick explanation. None of this is technically wrong, but it doesn’t build the kind of memory you need to do well on tests.

When you use your notes or other resources to complete your homework, you’re basically supporting your short-term comprehension of the material. This is okay and helps you get homework questions right, but to do well on tests, you need to go deeper. You need to be able to answer the questions without looking at your notes or resources.

If you never practice without looking at your notes or looking up the answers, you’ll get a false sense of confidence before the test. The solution is to try as hard as you can to learn the material when doing your homework … not just find the answers. Sure, getting completion credit matters, but what matters more is how well you’re learning the content.

2. Homework Doesn’t Require Retrieval (Recall)

Most homework assignments don’t stretch your brain the same way tests do. When you’re doing homework or classwork, you can just find the answer or look up how to do it. That’s great for the early stages of learning, but your brain isn’t getting enough practice retrieving information on its own.

Retrieval (or recall) is the process of pulling information from your memory without any help from notes or resources. Recognition is what happens when you’re doing your homework with your resources in front of you and you think to yourself, “Oh yeah, I remember this.” Retrieval and recognition are not the same thing.

So if you never test yourself while you’re doing homework problems or questions, you’re skipping the most important step in learning. And like… why would you do that?

3. Homework is Easier Than Tests

Most homework questions are the same kind of questions your teacher covered in class or are similar to the problems in your textbook. 

You know how this works: Teachers teach something in class, and then the homework is more of that same concept. When you get home, nothing in your homework is that unfamiliar. 

For example, maybe the teacher explained the step-by-step process for solving a certain kind of question in class, and your homework is essentially more of those same kinds of questions.

Tests are different. When teachers design assessments, they usually take the concepts you’ve learned in class and twist them a little bit. You may see a problem that looks similar to what you did for your homework but maybe a detail has changed or you’re being asked to apply that skill in a new context. 

This can feel annoying, but it’s actually what assessments are supposed to do. They’re supposed to test your ability to apply what you know, not just regurgitate it. This is how teachers really know if you understand the concepts or if you were just superficially memorizing things.

So even if you get all your homework questions correct, that doesn’t necessarily mean you understand the material; it might just mean you’ve learned to follow the pattern. True comprehension is when you can take a concept you’ve practiced and apply it to a new situation without help.

That’s the part homework doesn’t usually test. Homework lets you use what you’ve learned in the same way you were already shown. Tests ask you to apply what you’ve learned in a different way. And that gap (between using and applying) is exactly where many students get caught off guard on tests.

4. You Didn’t Study the Way the Test Will Test You

Another reason why you’re good at homework but bad at tests is that your study methods may not match the test format. 

If your test is going to ask you to solve problems, fill in diagrams, write short response answers, and things like that, then just rereading your notes or redoing the same homework problems over and over again isn’t going to work. (And by now, you should know that rereading your notes is not studying.) You need to practice in the same way and the same format that the test is going to ask you to perform.

So think of it like this: if you prepare for a soccer game only by practicing penalty kicks on the net, you would have a terrible experience during the game. The best way to practice for a soccer game is to play a soccer game or scrimmage during practice.

The same concept applies to studying. If you only ever study by reviewing material, looking at it, and rereading it, you’re going to struggle when your exam asks you to do something with it.

So, the fix is to make sure that the way you study matches the way you’re going to be tested. 

For example, if you have to write an in-class essay, you should practice writing an essay on your own time. If you’re going to be tested on solving certain types of problems in math, then you should study by trying to solve those exact kinds of problems without looking at your notes.

The more your study sessions and practice quizzes look like the real test, the better you’ll do on the real test. In this blog post and in this video, I teach you how to make your own quizzes so that you can walk into every test confidently.

5. You’re Forgetting About Time Pressure and Stress

When you’re doing homework, you’re usually in quiet, familiar place. You’re comfortable. You can take breaks for walks and snacks. But testing conditions are totally different. You’re being timed, you’re surrounded by other stressed-out people, and you’re probably physically uncomfortable in a cold chair. And worse, you know that your grade matters for real. 

It’s this combination of pressure and time constraint that creates a stressful cognitive environment. And as you likely know, stress can ruin our performance. When you’re stressed, the same part of your brain responsible for your working memory (the part you need to answer test questions correctly) is hijacked by your fight or flight response. That’s one reason why you can know something before the test, but go blank during the test. 

The solution to this scenario is to practice (aka study) in slightly stressful conditions. Time yourself answering questions. Put away your phone. Put away your notes. Take what you’re doing seriously. The more comfortable you are with being uncomfortable, the less grip that pressure will have over you during the test.

6. Homework Builds Short-Term Familiarity, and Tests Measure Long-Term Mastery

When you work on homework assignments immediately after class, the material is fresh in your mind. It is still fluttering around your working memory. This is helpful for answering questions correctly, but it gives you a false sense of security. You don’t want that.

Having this information so fresh in your mind is why you can finish your homework confidently, feeling like you already know it. But being familiar with something isn’t the same as truly knowing it. Once that information fades from your working memory, you won’t be able to answer questions that require you to apply that information.

The real test of learning is whether you can remember and apply what you’ve learned days after you’ve learned it—without notes, resources, or anything in front of you. Tests and quizzes measure what information is still in your head after several days. They don’t test you on what’s still floating around in your short-term memory.

The solution here is simple: spaced repetition. I teach you how to use spaced repetition here. Spaced repetition is the process of spacing out your study sessions over several days, ideally over several weeks. The goal is to leave longer gaps in between study sessions, checking your ability to retain information over time.

No study system is complete without the magic combination of active recall and spaced repetition. If you’re doing anything other than that, you’re not actually studying; you’re just relying on familiarity and temporary short-term memorization.

How to Do Just as Well on Tests as You Do on Homework

There’s good news.  Once you understand why your homework grades are so different from your test grades, you can start changing your approach. The following strategies will help.

1. Do your homework to learn.

I want you to approach your homework as a study session, not just as an assignment that earns you check marks. Explain your answers out loud. Write short summaries of textbook sections you’re reading. Write out the step-by-step processes of problems you’re solving, and think about what you’re doing.

2. Practice using active recall while doing your homework.

It’s fine to reference your notes and look things up on Google or AI when you’re doing homework. But I want you to practice trying at least some of your homework without looking at your notes. Cover up your answers and see if you can retrieve the information without peeking. Try to get through as much of a problem as possible without checking the example you went over in class.

You don’t have to do all of your homework without looking at your notes. But, the more you practice retrieval and active recall, the more you’ll learn the material.

3. Create testing conditions.

Create testing conditions at least once or twice before a test. I suggest doing your homework in a semi-testing condition. This means timing yourself, removing distractions, and attempting to do your work without referencing any other information. Pretend it’s a real quiz.

It’s not about putting yourself under pressure just to see if you can do it, but it’s about learning to tolerate discomfort without falling apart.

4. Schedule your study sessions using spaced repetition protocol.

Repetition is the key to learning. That means to learn something to the degree that it will be useful on a test, you need to review that material multiple times over several days. Do not just study the content once and move on.

Final Notes

Homework and tests measure completely different things; that’s how they’re designed. But in a way, they really work together.

When you start approaching your homework as an opportunity to more thoroughly learn the material, your homework sessions become study sessions, which means you’ll have to study less as you get closer to the test. And then when you take the test, you won’t be surprised. Do your homework to learn, and your tests will take care of themselves.