Sure, but some schools have policies in place to guide teachers about the ideal amount of homework to assign in their courses. Obviously some kids spend less time and some more time simply because kids read, compute, and study at different speeds. But some schools allow teachers to assign as much or as little as they wish while other schools tell their teachers to design their syllabi to aim for something like 30 minutes per night for the average ninth grader, 45 minutes for the typical tenth grader, an hour for 11th graders and 75 minutes for 12th graders. If you poll the students, their actual time is going to vary as will how kids tend to use any free periods, but I still think that asking the question at an admissions event will give the prospective family a rough sense of the school’s homework philosophy and culture. Or at least that has been our experience at different day and boarding schools.
@Pharmingturtles Your point is a good one, especially if there might be kids here reading my note and thinking that means they will ask a kid at a school and run with the answer. :). I was really assuming it was parents who were reading this (since it’s a parents subforum) and knew to be thoughtful in how and who they asked to sift past that issue. As @Alqbamine32 rightly points out: schools actually DO vary significantly on their homework approaches and targeted workload.
So just to clarify: yes, students will absolutely vary in how efficient they are with homework. That will always be true, and you want to get past that variance to understand the overall workload philosophy of a school. And believe me, as someone who learned to ask about this outright in the admissions process, and as someone whose kid attended more than one BS, school culture varies widely on this, and this one issue changes the daily experience drastically for the students.
While I do think homework load varies by kid within a school, I don’t think it varies as much at certain schools. No Groton kid would say they don’t have “a ton” of homework. For some that might mean rushing through in two hours and not caring, for others that’s a solid 4-5 hours of work. But any kid will say the workload is almost unmanageable.
I would add that:
-some teachers are dreadful at estimating the amount of time a given assignment will take their students
-some teachers ignore this guidance/directive completely
-some kids will ignore even an explicit directive from a teacher to spend no more than X time on an assignment regardless of how much of it they’ve completed
I wasn’t aware of outside tutor usage during our son’s time at BS, and he never mentioned it, but Choate offered plenty of outside-the-classroom but on-campus student/faculty tutoring and study sessions that most students used to advantage.
This conversation is reminding me of an outside speed reading course that Choate made available through a third party to students that helped with managing the homework load and increasing overall subject consumption. Our son took it (and a second one later), and it was a game changer both for BS and college (and test taking). His comprehension increased exponentially as well. I’m still amazed at the amount of printed information he can devour in a short time. There was a nominal charge for this outside course but, given the advantage of the skill, I think it should be part of the BS curriculum so all can benefit.
ETA: Sorry, not sure how I ended up resurrecting an older thread. I thought this was the scaffolding discussion that veered into tutor usage. 
No problong—I started this one awhile back. But our our one child’s HADES school there seem to be lots of outside tutoring use. I’m intrigued with the course you mentioned though. Do you happen to recall the name? Thanks!
I don’t recall the company, but it was just “Speed Reading.” Google lists many options. I think I would opt for an onsite course, but there appears to be a ton online. I didn’t avail myself until one of the companies I worked for offered a course. I regret I waited so long because I really didn’t know how effective even a short course could be. Even a few corrections in your reading style can make a difference. I consider it money well spent.
Glad you asked @Boardingschoolx2 – I am interested too in the speed reading!! @ChoatieMom I am going to take your advice. I am sure I will later regret waiting!!
Very interesting suggestion. I do feel one of my kids reads more slowly, and possibly more deeply than the other, but also definitely more slowly. I had never really of that before. May try that this summer. Thanks for the idea