Whenever I'm in a math or science class, I usually understand the

[Char. Limit]

Whenever I'm in a math or science class, I usually understand the material easily.

My problem is that my grades aren't that great because of missing assignments. For example, I easily understand my AP Calculus class, but have a C because of missing work.

Do you know any ways for me to motivate myself to do the work?

 

[Pengwuino]

Well, arent the C's as a consequence motivation enough?

 

[ahmadmz]

Make a personality within yourself that says "Prove to me that you understand". And then you say to that personality, i'll prove by showing that I can do all the assignments! :P

 

[CharmedQuark]

Self-discipline is not something one does, it's a mindset.

Finding out how to attain that mindset can be difficult, but if discipline was easy more people would have it. If you were looking for an easy fix, I'm afraid there isn't one. No matter what anyone will tell you, it eventually comes down to getting up and doing the work.

Simply by asking for help you've shown that you want to do the work. You're half way there already.

 

[hellbike]

Maybe you should ask yourself why you aren't making homework.
Is it boring to you?
If you are math/physics student, i guess you choosed this direction because of passion.
If homework is boring for you, just learn/solve something, that is interesting for you and enjoyable.

Knowledge not always comes in pair with good grades.

@
My point is - there is some reason for you not doing your assignments, and you shouldn't ignore that, by forcing yourself to doing something.

 

[snipez90]

Well you're receiving a C in a course that you think is easy, and in fact, the typical AP Calc course doesn't expect much formal reasoning skills from students. Perhaps you need to reevaluate how you feel about mathematics in general. If you are really willing to do math, there is no excuse for receiving a C in AP Calc.

Perhaps you aced all of your exams, but most likely, failure to do the homework (no matter how trivial) meant that you had gaps in your knowledge which were reflected in some of your exam scores. If you aced your exams, and still got a C, then perhaps now you realize that homework is actually an important component of your grade. In any case, I'm sure you have at least looked at your homework problems (if not, there is no particularly good reason for you to be in school; besides, math isn't just about absorbing info), which apparently has some weight on your final grade. Now if you really found the concepts easy, you should be able to have a good idea of how to proceed in every homework problem. If most of the homework indeed seems trivial to you, then not doing it is simply stupid. If you can't do some of the assigned problems, then you haven't understood the material as well as you think, so giving up would be REALLY stupid. Either way, there isn't much of an excuse, and again, if you simply did not look at all of the problems, you should rethink how you feel about math to begin with.

 

[tmyer2107]

You should read through this thread.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=220944"

 

[Char. Limit]

Thanks for all the help. I just finished an entire chapter of homework (9 assignments on derivatives) in one long session to prove that I could, so I think it actually did help. Again, thanks!