--- title: Procrastinators Get Worse Grades, Study Suggests description: There's a cost to turning homework in at the last minute canonical: https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-14T20:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:58.781Z og:title: Study: Procrastinators Get Worse Grades og:description: Turning homework in at the last minute has a cost og:url: https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dbe56aaf7416543/6986a342cd804d4d30cccbfd/493608993.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: college homework og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Procrastinators Get Worse Grades twitter:description: Turning homework in at the last minute has a cost twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dbe56aaf7416543/6986a342cd804d4d30cccbfd/493608993.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Students Who Turn in Work at the Last Minute Get Worse Grades, Study Finds  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 14, 2014 8:00 PM UTC  Friends studying outdoor Friends studying outdoorGetty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 14, 2014 8:00 PM UTC Procrastinators, you’ve been warned — [a new study suggests](http://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/leaving-essays-to-the-last-minute-ruins-students-grades/) that students who turn in homework at the last minute get worse grades. Two professors at the Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom report that submitting assignments just before they’re due corresponded with, at worst, a five-percent drop in grades. Researchers David Arnott and Scott Dacko looked at the final assignments from 504 first-year students and 273 third-year students in marketing classes in the U.K., where papers are graded by marks out of 100. Of the 777 students involved, 86.1 percent waited until the last 24 hours to turn in work, earning an average score of 64.04, compared to early submitters’ average of 64.32 — roughly equivalent to a ‘B’ grade. But the average score for the most part continued to drop by the hour, and those who turned in the assignment at the last minute had the lowest average grade of around 59, or around a C+. The researchers, who presented the paper at the European Marketing Academy conference, hope their data could lead more schools to identify chronic procrastinators early, in hopes of intervening and providing support and resources for breaking the habit. Procrastinators Get Worse Grades, Study Suggests ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/"},"headline":"Students Who Turn in Work at the Last Minute Get Worse Grades, Study Finds","datePublished":"2014-09-14T20:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:58.781Z","description":"Turns out there's a cost to procrastinating","url":"https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/","keywords":["Living","Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dbe56aaf7416543/6986a342cd804d4d30cccbfd/493608993.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dbe56aaf7416543/6986a342cd804d4d30cccbfd/493608993.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"college homework","caption":"college homework","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3373614/last-mintute-homework-grades-procrastination/","name":"Students Who Turn in Work at the Last Minute Get Worse Grades, Study Finds"}}]}] ```