Coursework is the assignments, projects, papers, and other work students complete as part of a class. It includes everything from nightly homework and lab reports to research papers and presentations. When your grade depends partly on tests and partly on coursework, that means the teacher is counting all those assignments you've done throughout the term.

The word distinguishes between work you do during the course and a final exam. A teacher might say that coursework counts for 60% of your grade while the final exam counts for 40%. That means all those book reports, math problem sets, and science projects add up to most of your grade.

Coursework helps you develop skills over time rather than cramming everything into one test. When you work steadily on your coursework, you're building knowledge piece by piece.

In college and graduate school, entire classes might have no tests at all, with grades based entirely on coursework like essays, presentations, or creative projects.