Cramming all the way!

When exams arrive, the time for studying is over. It is time to revise. And if you, like a lot of other students, have little or no revision to do because you have yet to finish going over your exam course, you are in for trouble. Now all you can do is cram. Yes, cram — not the right way to study and prepare for exams but sometimes the only way left for you when there is no time left. So we are going to look at some quick-fix ways to get you out of the exam and time pressure you find yourself in. But a word of caution here: you should not make cramming a habit and learning the concepts should be your primary method. Most people forget majority of what they cram in a few weeks as things we cram are fed into our short-term memory. This is the major reason educationalists are not in favour of cramming as a learning method or schools having a teaching and testing method that favours rote learning. To get most out of the little time you have, let’s look at the ways in which we can cram, and cram fast.

Plan, and plan fast Quickly look at the course you have to cover and the style of examination at your school. What you need to cram depends on these two things. Exam syllabus, style of question papers and last minute instructions and reinforcement lectures should be able to give you hints about the very, very important topics you need to learn. The rest you can just forget for the time being so as not to pressurise your poor little brain with the thought of the enormous amount of study load you have. Next you need to see what you already know, or at least have a decent idea about and which won’t take too much time to go through and revise. Leave that for a time when you are not at your best mentally and a simple revision will be enough for it. Start with the toughest and the most important topics and one that you remember the least.

Quiet, please! To cram or learn anything, most people need a quiet place, no distractions. Others can learn a lot when studying in a group or with a friend, explaining and quizzing each other. Do what suits you best but don’t waste time experimenting.

Notes and lectures Some teachers want to see those things in the answers that they have talked about in the class lectures. So with such teachers, don’t forget to consult your notes – they can be those that the teacher gave in the class or those you jotted down during the lectures. On the other hand, there are teachers who want you to focus on the book, so whichever reading material is the preference of your teacher, focus on that primarily and then look at the other books you have.

Deciphering textbooks When you are short of time, reading and learning the whole chapter is next to impossible. Most textbooks follow a pattern where the beginning of a chapter tells about the important concepts and terms, and the end sums it up. So if you are short of time and need to skim through things, pay particular attention to the beginning and end, but we can’t advice you to skip the mid section because a question can pop in from anywhere!

Cramming methods Repeat, repeat and repeat some more: Repetition is the key to cramming. You need to keep giving your brain the same message again and again for it to remember and reproduce almost semiconsciously. Repeating can be in the form of verbally repeating the lines, either loudly or quietly in your mind, writing it over and over again, going through it with a friend, etc. In fact, all the cramming methods that we will be discussing and which work best for you must be used repeatedly for learning. But be careful that you don’t waste too much time going over a topic again and again just because you read over here that you have to repeat things a lot. Be selective: Not everything you have to learn can be crammed, even if you have all the time in the world, so select what you need to cram. Try and memorise things that are made of short sentences, phrases, names, dates, etc. As for the longer topics, you can’t learn it all so if you have memorised around 80 per cent of it, skimp through the rest without wasting too much time on repeating. Knowing this much should do for one session and can fetch you decent marks. Learn the rest later when you are revising and if you have enough time leftover from learning the rest of the important topics. Be loud and clear: Repeating things loudly helps in memorising them. Some people have very good auditory skill and tend to remember what they hear, so repeat things loudly. You can also ask your friend, parent or sibling to read it loudly to you so that the words linger somewhere in your memory. Write it right: Memorising things become easier for me when I write them down a few times. You can try this too. Write down what you have to learn while repeating it loudly to yourself and you will be combining two methods and will hopefully get the maximum out of your cramming session. Acronyms and acrostics: Remembering things become easy if you shorten it in the form of acronyms and acrostics. According to the dictionary, an acronym is simply an abbreviation formed from the initial alphabets in a phrase or a word, e.g. ASAP is used for ‘as soon as possible’ and many of you must be using them in everyday messaging and emails. Why not make such acronyms out of the terms and phrases you need to memorise and you will be surprised as to how much you will be able to remember this way. Another memorising device is acrostics, where from a series of lines you pick up usually the first alphabet from each line and form a word and memorise it. Later on, just the word will help you recall each line. Flashcards and index cards: These are helpful for a quick revision and learning and even memorising but if you are making flash cards at the last moment, you are wasting your time. These need to be made earlier or use readymade ones. Make a chart, diagram or map: A pictorial depiction of lengthy text is easier to memorise, recall and then reproduce into words. These tips and tricks of memorising, if followed faithfully and complemented with some prior studying, should fetch you good result. However, it’s only those who have studies the whole year through who get top grades so you should have done so if you want to be among the top graders of your class. And if your exams are still some weeks away, start serious preparation without waiting for the exam timetable and syllabus to jolt you into action. Good luck!