Have you ever found yourself pulling an all nighter trying to study every little detail that you’ve learned on a topic to then take a big exam? Almost all college students go through at least one night of cramming excessively for an exam and hated it during and after it happened. What are the actual results to this? Are our brains tricking us into thinking it is actually okay to do such a thing?
Nate Kornell, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that “spacing out learning was more effective than cramming for 90% of the participants who took part in one of his experiments.” Even after realizing this , 72% still thought they benefited from cramming. Why is it that so many are in denial? This is because we have a worrying tendency to “on our familiarity with study items to guide our judgements of whether we know them”. Little do we know this isn’t actually true and reliable. Many people think that while cramming for exams and actively thinking throughout the night about what you’re learning will benefit you and can help yo remember everything. That idea is very wrong. Rather than reading it and trying to memorizing it, writing it down and going over the material is much more effective.
I think students should space out their time and even research ways or tips to help them study for exams and not cram it all in one night. A student at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown wrote several different tactics to an effective alternative to cramming. She says her method is space practiced, an integrated approach to learning, task-oriented study, build in repetition, and flexible and easily modified.
Starting next semester im going to try my best to get my time management right and not cram for any tests or finals at all. I now know the consequences and alternatives to a healthier way of getting enough sleep and still acing a test.
http://blog.suny.edu/2013/12/scientifically-the-best-ways-to-prepare-for-final-exams/ (Source to comment previously posted)
I could not come across any plausible studies that suggest otherwise that cramming is a positive way to study. The best way to maintain information over the course of a few hours, few days, or more importantly during an exam is to study in 30-50 minute intervals with a ten minute break in between. This can allow your brain to digest the information that you just spent time memorizing. Cramming before the test is just asking to blank out once you receive your exam; consequently, getting a worse grade. Allot yourself a few days in advance to accomplish your studying in order to be the most effective.
I find that cramming works in certain situations only. When I have to prepare for a test or exam that I know is purely going to depend on my ability to remember key terms and concepts, and nothing further, cramming may prove more useful than not. I think this is because you are simply putting down raw information or facts down on paper that don’t need any extra logical information to be good answers. However, in subjects that require answers to be thought about and need input from the test taker, it would prove less useful to cram. This is because we need to fully understand the concepts and facts given to us, and it is up to us to transform that information into a logical explanation and the ability to draw conclusions is based on that logical explanation.
I find this article very interesting, as I feel I’ve been one of the few to benefit from cramming last minute. I am the kind of person that does well under pressure, with tight deadlines. I sometimes fell as though if I study a week before, there are more relevant things I could be doing that day and my studying can wait until perhaps the next day. This leads me to wonder, why is it some people benefit from procrastination? I began researching this question and fell very short. Oxford Learning tries to explain the difference, but I wasn’t quite satisfied. I think to fully understand, a study must be done which measures brain activity while cramming. It is possible that certain areas of the brain are activated for different people while studying. Also, researching the study habits of bilingual people could also be of interest. I often find it helpful when reading text to translate it into another language, usually Spanish. While Spanish is not my first language, I feel it helps me to memorize material quicker. I would assume that in doing so, I am activating a different part of my brain– the part the translates languages as well as whatever part is focused on studying. Having these two work together may be the reason I feel prepared after cramming. this article seems to back up my conclusion, but not to the fullest extent.
This article was interesting because it is a problem that most college students face. We have so many other things going to that we wait until the last minute to study for the test. It makes sense that cramming doesn’t allow us to get a good enough understanding of the material. However, I think studying the night before a test is actually very beneficial if you’ve reviewed the material prior and here’s why. Like you, I also plan on forming better time management and not cramming for tests next semester.