@Happytimes2001 Agree with you here 100%. 3-4 at least for the higher-homeworked schools for freshman year and then more for upperclassman. And I do not think it means they are dawdling. I think it’s just a lot of homework. And while some kids will do it faster, I think it’s naive to assume that our kid will be the one brilliant one who can knock it out significantly more quickly than the others. And if I recall correctly, @Happytimes2001 , you have kiddos who were the didn’t study one bit and got 99% on SSAT types. (Which I mean to say: very naturally inclined to be quick-study, great test-taker types who are probably faster than my kids at homework.)
I can’t remember where exactly I read it, but there have been surveys on homework hours done by Andover and it showed an average of (IIRC) 4.5 hours a night, which was (and this part I do remember) about 40 minutes more per night on average over peer schools. So this isn’t in anyone’s imagination. This is real time that is really required by most kids at a number of schools. Not a bad thing necessarily, but it’s something to consider in the pro/con list. (Again, my DD2 put this in the “pro” list; my DD3 put this in the “con” list.)
(Spoiler: my DD2 may have since changed her tune a little!)