Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork

Fiction thinks that tough schoolwork is the greatest thing ever to a nerd. They live for pop-quizzes, mid-terms, and final exams. Not that they are just enthusiastic about subjects they are interested in, but the thought of doing tough work is awesome on its own. Basically, they are portrayed as the bizarro students. Having an extra day of school is like having a day off from school to most students.

Is this Truth in Television? Somewhat. Again, people will be glad to learn about things that actually interest them (especially if they are going for higher college degrees). But there's a difference between being interested in learning calculus, and acting like a pop quiz on calculus is like meeting a rock star.

Heck, some nerds might find even these nerds too nerdy.

Compare Proud to Be A Geek.

Contrast Brilliant but Lazy.

Anime and Manga

 * Ami/Amy from Sailor Moon, although justified by the fact that she is someday planning to become a doctor.

Literature

 * In Harry Potter, Hermione shows this to varying degrees.
 * There are also definite signs of this in Artemis Fowl, where one quote says he hacked a school computer to make the tests harder.

Live Action TV

 * In an episode of Full House, DJ complains that the nerds brought homework back from Summer vacation.
 * In Friends, we learn Monica was like this, and is again when she goes to night school with Phoebe.
 * Family Matters: Steve Urkel was implied to be this, though so little of the show took place in the halls of their school.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Willow looks forward to homework as the summer draws to a close.

Newspaper Comics

 * In FoxTrot, Jason is portrayed as a super-nerd who loves doing math and science homework, often doing his older siblings' homework for fun.

Web Comics

 * Angel Moxie:
 * Riley is this. As seen in the picture, she cheers upon being told the class is focusing on more advanced calculus.
 * At least part of that was due to the previous teacher treating middle schoolers like a kindergarten class and teaching them the most basic of basics, which drove Riley up the wall (Though for this very reason).

Web Original

 * Whateley Universe: the Whateley Academy devisers and gadgeteers even have specially advanced math and science classes that the ordinary kids (even the really smart 'ordinary' kids who have eidetic memory and read at 900 words a minute) don't get to take.

Western Animation

 * Dexters Laboratory: Dexter not only looked forward to hard tests, but was so proud of being in school and being a genius that he was a Teachers Pet until Mandark came along and gave him a rival. Mandark also enjoys the tests and challenging work.
 * Phineas and Ferb: The brothers Irwin and Albert are both self-professed nerds who appear proud of their intelligence. The same goes for Bollywood Nerd Baljeet, who is introduced reading a big pile of school books... during summer vacation.
 * Rocket Power had Sam "Squid" Dullard. He gets ecstatic when school starts back up.
 * Recess: Gretchen.
 * My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic:
 * Twilight Sparkle so enjoyed reading and studying that when we meet her in the first episode of the series she prefers to do so at the exclusion of socializing.
 * In "Lesson Zero", she states that doing homework is one of the things she did with her doll.
 * PRETENDING to do homework even.
 * Kick Buttowski: Kendall so loves school and learning that she got her dad to request a snow day not be called for Mellowbrook middle school.
 * Arthur: Every time Mr. Ratburn assigns a new big homework assignment, everybody groans...except Brain.
 * The Simpsons:
 * Martin Prince has been shown to be like this from time to time, enjoying getting homework and pop quizzes. On more than one occasion he has reminded the teacher about the test or big homework assignment that she was going to give.
 * Lisa Simpson also does this from time to time.