It’s the night before an exam, and you’ve pushed studying to the side until now. I guess you’ve better grab a coffee and take yourself to the library, looks like you’ll be pulling an all-nighter cramming. Don’t feel too bad, we’ve all been there. Surprisingly, I’ve earned some pretty good grades this way, so I haven’t quite learned my lesson yet. Can it really be that bad?
Okay, apparently it’s pretty bad. First of all, you’re sleep deprived, which hinders your daily performance in general, making it difficult to concentrate. You also only contain that information you crammed in your brain for that short amount of time. You’re essentially not learning anything, instead you’re just holding the information for as long as you need it.
A study UC-San Diego confirms it all. They took 1,354 volunteers, and had them remember 32 trivial facts. The volunteers studied the answers for several minutes to several months, and were then tested a year later. The results showed that the volunteers performed better when they spaced their studying out, rather than cramming everything in, in one session.
Luckily, there is a trick to cramming, but procrastinators seem to be out of luck. Researcher say if one must cram, choose a date that’s closest to the time you learned the information, but not too close. For example, if you learn material monday, and will be tested on it the following monday, try to study wednesday.
So I guess cramming isn’t all that great, and spacing out study sessions are more affective.
Sources
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-11/cramming-not-long-term-study-strategy
I found this study to be very interesting because we all cram study at some point. I think we often procrastinate because we do not take it seriously until we absolutely have to. An exam a week from now may not seem so important, until Sunday night when you realize you only have one day to study! Procrastination can even take a toll on your health. Your immune system is compromised and you’re more likely to get the flu and colds. Please read more about ithere
I find this very interesting, it seems odd that cramming further away from the testing day would be more effective. I would think that since cramming only allows the information to remain in your head for a short period of time that it would be most effective to do so as soon as possible to your test. But then again, if you study the material knowing that you still have plenty of time until you are tested on it the pressure is off. This allows for you to relax and concentrate more on actually absorbing the knowledge then on trying to memorize it. I think that pressure is another key factor in why cramming is usually ineffective.