...Cramming Techniques for Exams Cramming for exams should be avoided at all costs. You should only cram for an exam as a last resort. It's hard to take in and retain a large amount of information in a short period of time. Some of the tips on studying and preparing for a test may overlap with the cramming techniques below. Eat some food to give you energy to study but avoid consuming excess sugar which will make you hyper and will make it more difficult to study. An apple does a better job at keeping you focused and awake than caffeine. Find a well lit place with no distractions around to study but don't get too comfortable or you may fall asleep. Keep a positive attitude, it is easier to study when you are relaxed than when you are stressed out. Since your time is limited, you have to choose what you study. Don't attempt to learn everything, focus on things that will get you the most points on the exam. Focus on the main ideas and learn key formulas. Skip the details for now and only come back to them if you see that you have time after you have learned the key points. Write down the key ideas/formulas on a sheet of paper and keep on studying from that sheet, repetition is important. Highlight the important points in your notes, and text and focus on that. Read the chapter summaries (they usually do a good job at summarizing the important points). If there're no chapter summaries then skim through the text and write down key ideas. Study from past...
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...TITLE: “Effects of Cramming on the Academic Performance of Level II, III and IV MSU-CHS Students, 1st Semester 2011-2012” CHAPTER I The Problem and Its Scope Background of the Study Student life is indeed a combination of learning, pleasure, and activities accompanied with hectic schedule of classes with several lectures, studying, and of course, examinations. As students, it prime is their obligation and responsibility to do their part in making good, especially in terms of taking examinations. Examinations are given as a means of evaluating the students’ learnings throughout the discussions and lectures given. This is a part of the student’s education. Moreover, it is an assessment on both part of the student on how much they have learned from a subject, and for the instructor, if he or she has been effective in educating and imparting knowledge in his or her students. Students, regardless of their busy and hectic schedules, must take time in studying their notes, books, and other items related to their subject as their preparation for taking examinations, may it be in the preliminary, midterm, or finals. In order to do that, one must have good study habits and effective time management to avoid failing an examination. But, in some instances, most of the students, except for those who really have good study habits and follow effective time management, end up practicing last minute studying or most commonly known as “cramming”. Cramming before examinations has been...
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...Negative Effect of Cramming to the academic performances of 3rd year high school student in St. Matthew College, school year 2012 - 2013 Alejandro, Beatiz Galero, Joanna Maranel IV - Topaz Background of the Study Most common among high school and college-aged students, cramming is often used as a means of memorizing large amounts of information in a short amount of time. Students are often forced to cram after improper time utilization or in efforts to understand information shortly before being tested. Improper time management is usually the cause for last-minute cramming sessions, and many study techniques have been developed to help students succeed instead of cramming. Students do not understand that most of the stress they feel in their lives is brought upon by what they do in their daily lives. Cramming has been shown to not only affect a student’s grades, but also their physical and mental health. Taking things one step at a time is the easiest way to do something. Don’t look at it as one big project, but as a bunch of little steps that are easy to accomplish. Generally considered as a negative study technique, cramming is becoming more and more common among students both at the highschool and college level. Pressure to perform well in the classroom and engage in extracurricular activities in addition to other responsibilities often results in the cramming method of studying. Cramming is a widely-used...
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...event. But in term of study, last minute is known as cramming. In Commonwealth countries this technique usually occurs during the revision week (week before exams), also known as “swotvac” or “stuvac” In education, cramming or last minute study (also known as mugging or swotting, from word swot, similar to "sweat", meaning "to study with determination") is the practice of working intensively to absorb large volumes of informational material in short amounts of time. It is often done by students in preparation for upcoming exams, especially at the last minute. Cramming is often discouraged by educators because the hurried coverage of material tends to result in poor long-term retention of material, a phenomenon often referred to as spacing effect. H.E. Gorst(year) stated in his book, 'The Curse of Education', “as long as education is synonymous with cramming on an organized plan, it will continue to produce mediocrity.” Generally considered as a negative study technique, cramming is becoming more and more common among students both at the secondary and post-secondary level. Pressure to perform well in the classroom and engage in extracurricular activities in addition to other responsibilities often results in the cramming method of studying. Cramming is a widely-used study skill performed in preparation for an examination or other performance-based assessment. Most common among high school and college-aged students, cramming is often used as a means of memorizing large amounts...
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...Staying Up For Better Test Scores Alan Ward PSY/315 July 10, 2014 Ian Rosen Introduction When it comes to taking a big exam we all approach it in different ways some are good and some not so good. But we all have our own ways that we think are the best for getting that high score. Many people study for days or even weeks for exams in hopes of raising their knowledge on a given subject. Others stay up all night in hopes of cramming the information in and these people believe this is the best way to gain and retain knowledge. We will be testing which is better, to stay up at cram for an exam the night before or to study long term. We will attempt to quantify which method is better by examining the end result, the grades achieved on these exams. Staying Up Teens who stay up late at night cramming are more likely to have academic problems the following day doing poorly on the test they studied for” finds a new study by, (University of California, Los Angeles UCLA, 2012). This staying up late tends to actually become a problem over time as students begin to give up more sleep over time. This lack of sleep has compounding effect and long-term implications. Students were asked to keep diaries of sleep patterns and test, quiz, and retention performance over fourteen days. The data showed that kids who didn’t get enough sleep were not only more likely to have problems understanding during class, a result the researchers had expected, but they were also more likely...
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...Improvement of Study-CHAPTER 6 “TESTS” REVIEW SHEET 1. T/F A test score is a measure of how well a student has taken notes in class. 2. T/F It is easier to do well on exams if you exaggerate the pressure on yourself. 3. T/F The key to successful test preparation is managing review time. 4. List and explain the three types of review used before tests. 5. Explain how flashcards may be used in test preparation. Flashcards are like portable tests questions. On one side you could write the questions, on the other side the answers. Create flash cards regularly as the term progresses. 6. T/F When a classmate asks the instructor a question, one should not consider that the question might appear on the test. 7. Short Answer. Explain how studying with people can be effective. Studying with friends is fine, but if your common interests are pizza and jokes, you might find it hard to focus. 8. List three suggestions for forming a study group and five suggestions for conducting a study group. To Form a study group: • Choose a focus for your group • Look for dedicated students • Hold a planning session To conduct a study group: • Set an agenda for each meeting • Assign roles • Teach each other • Test one another • Compare notes 9. Fill-in-the-blank. For test preparation, one should arrive _early________ so he/she has time to do a __relaxation____________...
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...Is cramming before a test better than not studying at all? Is underlining material a good way to retain information? A new school year is a good time to look at the latest research on the best ways to study. What works and doesn’t may surprise you. A 2013 study called “Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques” and published in “Psychological Science in the Public Interest,” a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, evaluated the 10 most commonly used learning techniques and concluded the following about effectiveness: Least Effective Study Techniques: *Highlighting and underlining textbooks and other materials *Rereading *Summarization *Keyword mnemonics — the use of keywords and mnemonics to help remind students of course material *Imagery use for text learning — creating mental images to remind students of material Why are these commonly used techniques not as effective as believed? The report says: These techniques were rated as low utility for numerous reasons. Summarization and imagery use for text learning have been shown to help some students on some criterion tasks, yet the conditions under which these techniques produce benefits are limited, and much research is still needed to fully explore their overall effectiveness. The keyword mnemonic is difficult to implement in some contexts, and it appears to benefit students for a limited number of materials and for short retention intervals. Most students report...
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...won't sink in very well. Make some flash cards if they will help you learn. 3 Take breaks. Study for 20 minutes at a time, and then take a 10 minute break so that the information sinks in. This is a tried and true learning method. When you're feeling overwhelmed, take a break, let the stuff you just learned sink in, and come back to it. Repetition is the key to studying well. 4 Test your knowledge. After you think you've learned everything you need to know, have a friend/family member quiz you on it, or make up a quiz for yourself, then hide your notes and fill it out. Take back your notes and correct your little quiz and see how you did. Did you get all the answers right, or do you need to study some more? 5 Avoid Cramming. For most people, cramming (studying for something the night before) doesn't really work. Most people need a few days to review their notes for the information to really sink in....
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...characters he uses as a vehicle is Bitzer. It is through him that Dickens touches on the subject of cramming. Bitzer is considered one of Gradgrind’s best students. Why? Because he adheres to the stern requirements of the school’s curriculum which includes cramming and memorizing. Dickens exhibits this notion in the manner in which Bitzer defines a horse. Bitzer defines a horse in its factual term like it has “Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eyed teeth…shed hoofs. Hoofs hard, but...
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...School is a cramming school located in Maotanchang town, Lu An city of Anhui Province in China. Despite the prosperous cities like Shanghai or Guangzhou near the coast, Maotanchang town is in the middle of China, inside foot hills of Anhui. Maotanchang town did not enjoy the economic growth of China’s opening economy, but instead, it specialised in becoming a Gaokao cramming town. 2. What make Maotanchang a cram city? 2.1 Inland Cities’ Inherited Disadvantages In 1979, Deng Xiaoping established several economic special zones in coastline cities of China, including Shanghai and Guangzhou. These cities, has become some of the richest cities in China. And their open economy and advantageous geographic position plays a big role. But small towns like Maotanchang didn’t enjoy much of the opening of China economy. According to The Economists, Anhui’s GDP is only equivalent to Pakistan, while Shanghai’s GDP is equivalent to Finland. The poor location Anhui province is in and the lack of labour, infrastructure facilities made these inland cities hard to enjoy the same growth as coastal cities. Coastal cities contributes XX% of Chinese GDP in 2014, however inland cities only represent XX percent. 2.2 Education Specialization as a Solution to Economic Struggle Lacking specialised industries, Maotanchang thus focus on education, and become a “cramming” specialised...
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...However, the researchers showed that there was a small disparity between the two groups when it came to cramming. The amount of classes students missed throughout the semester was negatively correlated to their GPA in the high test-anxious students. It was the same for the low test-anxious students but it was a lot smaller than that of the other group. Test anxiety can happen because a student does not prepare enough for an exam that they have to take which causes them to become anxious. This finding is important because if a student studies more than it will reflect on their GPA if there is an increase. Then they will not be as anxious for a test if they prepare well. This can be demonstrated by looking at the students GPA both before and after the study to see if there is a change in it. A methodological strength in this study is the usage of the...
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...With so much information in such little time, we begin to think short term instead of long term; we stress over the here and now so much that we disregard the future and possible consequences out immediate actions may have. As stated by Dyson, “Everyone knows about the big problems, but their behavior focuses on the here and now.” This is demonstrated in our everyday lives; such as how we continue to pollute and destroy the planet knowing it could lead to an uninhabitable planet for future generations, yet we disregard this issue because we need oil now or we need somewhere to dump out trash now. In addition, this can lead to cramming instead of...
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...Study habits are hard to deal with and some students fail because of it. But of course, it was their fault why they fail. They prioritize their happiness rather than their studies. Students are called procrastinators. They tend to do things in a short span of time. It's either a day or hours before the deadline or at the time of deadline and that is what you called cramming. They prioritize on things which make them happy then cram the things they really need to do. Some of the students said that, their brain works properly when they cram because they worked faster than they usually do. That's true because I also had that kind of experience though there are some cases in which cramming doesn't work that well. In cases, like reviewing before the exams. Some students do some 'a-minute-review-before-the-test' thingy. They like it because they think they can answer the test when all of the things that they review are still fresh in there mind. On the contrary, some students fail on that thing. Like they'll memorize it for now then forgot it after a minute or so on. That's because their brains are not used in that kind of thing. And that's the reason why they fail. You can change those kind of habit but not in a simple way. You know, 'old habits, die hard'. But if you have the will, you can change it. It's just all about knowing what's your priorities, time management and having the will of changing your...
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...the most important moments in their lives. During someone’s time in any fine institution they will find themselves procrastinating, cramming, getting emotional, and even partying. With all that in mind we all have to realize that college is the first stepping stone that many people make in their lives and it greatly influences how their future will turn out. Many students have been through the typical parent’s lecture about studying hard and never waiting till the last second to do their work, but in reality more and more students starting their first year of college will procrastinate to a certain extent. Although the term procrastination is nothing new to any high school graduate, it can be much more dangerous going into college. Because of the new way of life college brings many students, many do not realize all of the distractions college brings. All of the partying, work schedules, college clubs, and social interactions really take their toll on new students and some do not realize how much is too much. With this in mind it is recommended that new students start off slowly and make time schedules to see how much time they have to balance everything out. That way they do not overload their schedules and start procrastinating because, once it starts, grades can be expected to decrease, as well as sports performance, and attendance. Cramming is another word that comes to mind when working with college freshman. Although it is related to procrastination, it is a direct result...
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...In myth 21, Lilienfeld, et al, discuss why it is not possible to learn complex information while asleep. That particular myth, as well as other myths discussed in their book, illustrates people’s misunderstanding of how human memory works. For example, one difficult-to-dispel myth held by very many students is the idea that cramming is an efficient and effective way of studying for exams. Another myth is the notion that one can study effectively while watching TV or surfing the net. Many students will acknowledge having ‘successfully’ engaged in both techniques throughout high school and even in college. How would you convince those students that such study methods are most inefficient? Going through high school in a college-based program, I thought cramming and multitasking were okay while I studied but I didn’t believe that it was effective or...
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