Cram for Your Next Exam
I’m originally from Oklahoma, and I love wearing boots. For years I didn’t actually have dress shoes. Instead I had one pair of brown cowboy boots and one pair of black python-skin cowboy boots. I wore them to weddings, funerals, special occasions, class, dates, and anything else where my shirt had to have a collar and/or buttons.
But not everyone likes boots. Some people have even tried them on and not liked them. I don’t understand it, but I know its true. Some likes and dislikes have to do with where you live, your family heritage, your peer group, or a number of other things.
But this is universal: everyone hates cramming for tests.
If you are like me, though, you forget that until 12 hours before the test as you are bombarding your memory with 18 different mnemonic devices and trying to remember 45 vocab words from a different language. You have to cram for your next exam because you forgot, and it’s no fun.
If you are a habitual procrastinator like I’ve been in the past (and 99% of every other student alive), here are some of StudyRight’s reminders as to why you don’t want to cram for your next exam.
- You don’t retain as much information
- You lose that information faster
- You’ll have to learn the info again for a cumulative exam
- It takes more time to cram than to study with an incremental study process
- You feel terrible after your exam, even if you passed
- You do worse on your exams
- Summer school is lame
- It takes a multiple days to recover from an all-nighter
- If you’re awake when your classmates are sleeping, you’ll be sleeping when they’re awake
- Cramming is lame
- It ruins your weekend
This last point is especially important. At StudyRight, we’re not putting out resources primarily for that person who prefers to be in their room all the time, by themselves, learning facts to regurgitate later on a test. If that’s you, use what you can here, but just know that we’re not writing primarily for you.
We love education, but education is about a lot more than just passing tests.
If you can recite 1000’s of facts from history, solve insane equations, and speak 14 languages, it doesn’t do much good unless you’re connecting to people, unless you are making the world a better place. Learn history to grow in wisdom and to help our generation discover the lessons learned by earlier generations. Study math, physics, and chemistry, but do it to make a difference in the lives of people, to strike a blow against cancer, or engineer the next great productivity software. Learn those languages and help bridge cultural and linguistic gaps with internationals.
Make a difference, not just a grade.
Sure, there are times when cramming just has to happen. We understand that. When it does, try to have a helpful cram session. Some seasons in life require putting off your studies for a day or two, and some classes are just hard enough that cramming is the only answer.
But remember that your education is not just about passing a class.
Do not cram for your next exam. Life experience is often as important as class experience. Next time you are tempted to put off that study session until later, use these few reminders to keep the cram session from being the only answer.
How about you – why do you hate cramming?
