I remember a time when completing all of my assigned homework was a reasonable task that didn't require drudging into the wee hours of the night, depending on various caffeine sources to maintain focus and even just keep my eyelids open.This nostalgia for "manageable time" goes back to circa middle school-before my na'vely studious 14-year-old self had discovered the brilliance of SparkNotes or even considered the possibility of not doing an assigned reading.

Homework was something that had to be done, no questions asked. Otherwise I wouldn't get the satisfaction of putting a glowing checkmark in the designated box of my student planner.

Then came the high school curriculum and, subsequently, the college workload. My strict diligence was tossed away, along with my love for Saturday morning cartoons and a drive to maintain straight As.

Was little Sam growing up? Perhaps. Or was little Sam discouraged, fighting to stay afloat in an increasingly overwhelming academic environment? Probably.

It is a well-known fact that today's students, in their tremendous efforts to rise above the masses and excel in every aspect of their academic careers, work profusely and sacrifice valuable time. At the same time, it is a general trend among professors to assign reading way beyond any amount that would be considered doable, or sometimes even thinkable.

What happens as a result? A great number of students just give up on attempting to finish all assigned work, and some choose not to do it altogether.

From a recent article written in USA Today: "Nearly one in five college seniors and 25 percent of freshmen say they frequently come to class without completing readings or assignments, a national survey shows. And many of those students say they mostly still get As.

"The survey doesn't address whether those students are lazy, busy, intimidated, bored or geniuses. But it supports other studies that suggest a gap between what college professors expect from students and what students actually do."

What does this tell of our academic system-that people who cut corners can still excel in the art of BSing on exams and do well? Do professors assign more homework than is necessary, hoping students will at least retain a portion of it, or do they really expect us to be able to finish hundreds of pages of reading on top of all our other responsibilities within the span of a few days?

The beauty of college is that your success is solely dependent on your efforts, and nobody will bother checking up on your progress in class.

If students are sincerely interested in a subject, they will read up on it more on their own, but otherwise, many will just do what it takes to get by with a decent grade. Especially in an era when accessing information is as easy as a click of the ol' Google, one can't help but ask the age-new question, "Why read 100 pages when I can read an e-summary instead?"

Then there's the void between exams when teachers assign reading without consistently following it up with graded assignments, leaving students to shift their priorities elsewhere. Come midterm and finals period, however, we are bombarded with major papers in every class, often with deadlines within days of each other. All it takes is an all-nighter here and a crash course there to achieve the same impressive grades as our diligent and studious counterparts.

Then as soon as papers are submitted and exams are finished, the information flees our memories like a bad dream, along with dozens of now useless mnemonic devices. Goodbye, knowledge retention; hello, 4.0 GPA.

So, the solution? There is none, really. Some teachers have better methods of handling the issue than others, but for the most part, students are on their own. If time management isn't your forte, get ready for some lovely 2 a.m. runs to Einstein Bros. Bagels while frantically trying to meet your deadline in four hours.