Section 4-2: Length of Study Sessions
- Cramming is not learning. Students who cram for tests have not learned the material. This causes a lot of extra work when the comprehensive midterm or final comes around, because you have to learn the material again (and again and again). It also causes problems when you get to the next level of class, like the second year program or the class that builds on that material. If you didn't learn it the first time, you are more likely to fail when you need to apply the material to learn something new.
Cramming makes 'going blank' on the test far more likely. Crammed information is stored in your short term memory. There's only so much room in your short term memory before some information starts replacing what you crammed in an hour ago. When you reach test time, the things that you crammed in first or last during your session are likely to stick with you, but the information that you worked on in the middle may escape completely.- Cramming usually takes place in marathon study sessions that involve loss of sleep and excess caffeine and/or sugar. That combination is deadly to later concentration. The next day, just in time to take the test, your body and mind are sagging and cannot perform efficiently.
Once you get the idea that studying is not a night-before-the-test cram session, you have more control over how long you study and how you break your sessions up. That's GOT to be a good thing!
The experts say that after twenty to thirty minutes of concentration, your brain becomes dramatically less efficient at learning and retaining information. It follows that many small, short study sessions will be more effective than one big long one.
This is not to say that you should only study for twenty or thirty minutes daily! It means that you should take that hour or two or three that you need to spend with your classwork and break it up into smaller chunks.
One way to do this is by changing activities every half hour or so. Start with a study task that takes a lot of concentration, like reading a difficult book. After fifteen to twenty minutes (a shorter time because it's hard work), switch to a different subject or assignment that's easier for you. Work for another half hour, then go do something completely different for a while. Come back in an hour or so and get going again.
If there's too much work to do to allow that kind of latitude, at least get up and exercise for five or ten minutes every half hour or so. Your learning will be much more efficient!
The Anti-Cramming ABC
Fill in the missing words from the word bank below:
| better | thirty | minute |
| end | wasted | cram |
| exercise | don't | prepare |
| study | effort | information |
| regularly | pencils | break |
A is for Anti-cramming
B is for (ways to study)
C is for Concentration (you lose it when you )
D is for
(cram!)
E is for Effort (wasted by learning temporarily)
F is for Final (exam that you don't want to cram for)
G is for Goal (is to study so you don't have to cram)
H is for Homework (don't leave it until the last )
I is for I told you so (the comments of parents when you fail the test you crammed for)
J is for Jump ( every half hour)
K is for Kitchen (head there for a )
L is for Learn (by studying the right way instead of cramming)
M is for Minutes (study for of them at a time)
N is for Night (not a good time to )
O is for Open (the books you need to study from, every day)
P is for (have them ready when you study)
Q is for Quiet (you might need it to concentrate)
R is for Ready (how you'll feel at test time if you study right)
S is for Study (the best way to for tests)
T is for Time (give yourself lots of it instead of waiting for the last minute)
U is for Unfamiliar (the way will look if you cram)
V is for Vague (the way you feel after an all-night cram session)
W is for (all the you put into cramming)
X is for eXcellent (the kind of grades that studying correctly will get you)
Y is for Yucky (how you feel after you've crammed for hours)
Z is for THE !
Try This!
(c) 2010 Sandy Fleming