Study habits to avoid #2

Cramming

Let’s face it, nearly everyone has crammed for a test, and it is likely that more than half of all students don’t study any other way.

Unfortunately cramming has a causes a lot of problems, and isn’t really efficient. Let’s break it down:

High anxiety

When you are cramming, you have a short period of time to learn a lot – which means you are going to be a bit stressed about it. Unfortunately this creates a bit of a feedback loop, because stress makes it harder to remember things. Which in turn will make you more stressed, and so on. So aside from feeling like crap because you are panicky, a bit jumpy, and probably a bit nauseous, you are also going to be seriously inefficient in what you do remember. Let’s not forget that high anxiety during cramming will follow you into the test, and guess what? High anxiety will likely cause you to forget stuff.

Wasted time

In addition to the time you waste being inefficient because you are stressed, cramming itself is an inefficient way of studying. There have been studies to show that your peak concentration only lasts about half an hour. Meaning that after that it takes more effort to remember less stuff. Now think about how inefficient it would be if you were to cram for 3 or 4 hours. Not very. 

No long-term retention

The way our brains work means that when we are cramming, we only make short-term memories. Which might be enough to get us through most of the test tomorrow, but sets us up for bigger failures later on. See, the way education is set up means that teachers assume you know things covered previous – that you actually remember, and understand, the stuff they tested you on last term. This means that, if you crammed and no longer remember something, it is going to be much harder to learn the next step.

So, what is the alternative? Study a little bit every day. I know it sounds boring, and it takes discipline. But in the end, you spend less time studying overall, and you improving your learning dramatically. What looks like more work on the surface, is actually less work, less stressful, and gives you more time for guilt-free enjoyment of the things you really want to do.

For further reading on particularly bad methods of cramming to avoid, check out this article: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-dumbest-things-students-do-when-cramming-exams/

Information for this post largely sourced from:

Tucker, K. (2016). Disadvantages of cramming. Retrieved June 21, 2016 from http://classroom.synonym.com/disadvantages-cramming-tests-3960.html