First week of classes are all about learning about the class and how the professors teaches. The number one thing that all professors say is, “Don’t cram for my exams, you won’t pass.” You can usually hear among the college students a small chuckle. As soon as the professor says that it’s immediately like challenge accepted. Am I right?! I am a person who waits to the very last second to sit down and study. It’s a bad habit but I can’t help not too. I know that I am not the only one to do that either. So I am going to explore just how bad cramming a night before an exam really is.
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There are multiple reasons why cramming for a test can be dangerous, according to Andrew J. Fuligni cramming the night before an exam isn’t worth staying up late for because it actually won’t help at all and you actually won’t be helping yourself, you will be hurting yourself. This article looks at the sleep vs. cramming for high school students but I feel like it is close to the same statistics for college students. Fuligni recommends a schedule that helps a student and doesn’t overbear a student to the point of cramming the night before something is due.
Sukru Burc Eryilmaz states that students attending Ivy League schools have a tendency to cram more to make sure they get better grades and the better grades make them feel like they belong to that school. I completely agree with that because a lot of students here at Penn State feel like if they don’t do well on an exam, it’s the end of the world. Which I know it’s like that everywhere, but people do fail exams. Nobody is perfect. I failed my first exam last semester and I cried for a solid 2 hours and I ended up getting an A in that specific class. So anything is possible here. Personally when I study for an exam and I cram my body tends to shut down. It impacts my body so much and makes me feel awful if I stay up late cramming for an exam. During my freshman year I did that a lot and I had to stop because of health concerns. It was very scary and not worth it.
According to The Hawkeye the number one explanation for waiting the night before an exam to study is because of having no time. There is a simple way to fix that though and it is buying a planner and time management. It’s super easy and it helps students everywhere. From the articles that I have researched and talked about in this blog post, it is safe to say that cramming before an exam is not the way to go. But, let’s be honest.. how can you not cram?!
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I found myself subconsciously nodding to the first paragraph of this post realizing how true it is, but even more importantly realizing how often I cram. I like to think that anything is possible but the more and more I take tests that I cram for I realize that everything is not possible. I fell victim to cramming for the first test of this class and wound up doing very poorly. Time management is something that is preached to us from day one but no one seems to want to listen. I am definitely going to have to start organizing my time well so that I can avoid that stress that everyone seems to find very frequently. For anyone who needs additional help with time management and planning your day, take a look at this article it is very informative! http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/plan-your-day.html
In high school, my study habits were definitely sub-par. In fact, I don’t even think I crammed the night before tests. I probably crammed about twenty minutes before and hoped for the best. High school was much less complicated than college, however, and I feel like, so far, I have put a lot more of my time and effort into my work, and I understand the importance of managing my time and staying on top of my work. I often go to the library alone with a pair of headphones and randomly study or do work well in advance. I have learned that it is ESSENTIAL to study in advance, and that cramming does NOT WORK in college. Of course, doing extra review the night before an exam helps, but it is necessary to also study prior to that. This article, from the UCLA Newsroom by Mark Wheeler shows that it is actually more beneficial to get a good night’s sleep before an exam than to cram for it.
I think this is a really prevalent post especially for all the incoming freshman used to high school study habits. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140917-the-worst-way-to-learn this article from the BBC says that 90% of students (I am one of them) admit to cramming. I hope more people see this and use this information.
First off, I feel as if I did not comment on the irony of the post and the time it is being posted I could not love with myself. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I have to acknowledge that I am doing the same thing with these comments. I think there could be a lot that is looked at when collecting data on this, like course loads, extra curricular activities, and hours spent doing other things like partying or hanging out with friends. I totally agree with your statement of not feeling like you belong when you fail an exam though, and I think a lot of that has to do with the college atmosphere. We are surrounded by people with prominent majors and people that brag about getting only 2 hours of sleep while still maintaining 4.0 GPA’S, and hearing something like that pushes us to do the same. This can cause a lot of stress within college students, like this article states https://www.adaa.org/finding-help/helping-others/college-students/facts I think it’s important to keep in mind that you should find what works best for you while maintaining your mental and physical health.