Cramming Costly in the Long Run

“Just staying up until like 3 or 4 [a.m.] the night
before the test,” Gabriel says. “And you know,
I’d do well on the test.”

“I would say 99.9% of students still cram,” says
Michele Hill, Ph.D., a life skills specialist at Georgia State
University.

Cramming may work in the
short term, but research shows that the method has its limits
and its long-term consequences. A recent Harvard study found
that when students cram for a test and
don’t get a good night’s sleep, their test
scores go down. Other studies show that even with a good night’s
sleep, the benefit of cramming is temporary.

“It doesn’t build in long-term learning, and
so the second they’re done with the exam, the information
is lost so there’s no building on their information
over time,” Dr. Hill says.

And knowledge is cumulative: One year builds on the next.
Without long-term memory, a student will have trouble later
on in life.

“[I’m] definitely cheating myself ’cause
I wish I knew that stuff now,” Gabriel says.

Experts say parents should explain that keeping up with homework
is less stressful and a lot
easier than trying to jam weeks of study into one long night
of work. In fact, instead of studying a lot right before a
test, a better idea is to study just
a little after each class.

“If you were to take your class notes and review them
within 24 hours of having that class, you actually retain
80% of the information … that’s a lot,”
Dr. Hill says.

Gabriel says that one good way to keep kids from cramming
is to make the subjects interesting enough so that they want
to learn it for real.

“I just didn’t feel like applying myself enough
to learn and hold onto the information,” he says.

Can cramming for a big
test actually benefit your child? Most experts agree that
it depends on the type of test administered. If the goal is
to recall factual information, such as on a science or history
test, cramming may do the trick. But experts warn that if
your child is looking for lifelong learning, cramming probably
won’t help him or her retain the information.

“The whole literature on massed practice [cramming
much study into a concentrated period] vs. spaced practice
[stretching out the learning period] favors spaced practice,”
says Gerald W. Bracey, an educational psychologist and associate
professor at George Mason University.

In fact, a 2001 study conducted at Harvard Medical School
shows that pulling an all-night cramming session has a negative
effect on students’ grades. For their study, researchers
following a control group that slept regularly for four days
while the variable group was deprived of sleep the first night.
At the end of the four days, the two groups performed image
recognition tests. The group that got less sleep performed
more poorly, the researchers said, because sleep deprivation
has a negative effect on the cortex, the part of the brain
that is responsible for storing information.

Experts say that in order to avoid cramming
for tests, your child needs to plan ahead. The University
of North Carolina offers this advice for helping your teen
study successfully and avoid the following common “study
traps”:

• “I don’t know where to begin?”
  Take control. Make a list of all of the tasks you have to
  do. Break your workload down into manageable chunks. Prioritize!
  Schedule your time realistically. Interrupt study time with
  planned breaks. Begin studying early, with an hour or two
  per day, and slowly build as an exam approaches.
• “I’ve got so much to study
  and so little time.” Make sure you preview.
  Survey your syllabus, reading material and notes. Identify
  the most important topics emphasized and areas still not
  understood. Previewing saves time, especially with nonfiction
  reading, by helping you organize and focus on the main topics.
  Adapt this method to your own style and study material,
  but remember that previewing is not an effective substitute
  for reading.
• “This stuff is so dry, I can’t
  even stay awake reading it.” Get actively involved
  with the text as you read. Ask yourself, “What is important
  to remember about this section?” Take notes or underline
  key concepts. Discuss the material with others in your class.
  Study together. Stay on the offensive, especially with material
  that you don’t find interesting, rather than reading passively
  and missing important points.
• “I read it. I understand it.
  But I just can’t get it to sink in.” We remember
  best the information that is most meaningful to us. As you
  are reading, try to elaborate upon new information with
  your own examples. Try to integrate what you’re studying
  with what you already know. You will be able to remember
  new material better if you can link it to something that’s
  already meaningful to you.
• “I guess I understand it.”
  Test yourself. Make up questions about key sections in notes
  or reading. Keep in mind what your teacher has stressed
  in the course. Examine the relationships between concepts
  and sections.
• “There’s too much to remember.”
  You can better recall Information if it is represented in
  an organized framework that will make retrieval more systematic.
  You can organize new information by writing chapter outlines
  or summaries, emphasizing relationships between sections
  and grouping information into categories whenever possible.
• “I knew it a minute ago.”
  After reading a section, try to recall the information contained
  in it. Try answering the questions you made up for that
  section. If you cannot recall enough, reread portions you
  had trouble remembering. The more time you spend studying,
  the more you tend to recall.
• “But I like to study in bed.”
  Recall is better when study context (physical location,
  as well as mental, emotional and physical state) are similar
  to the test context. The greater the similarity between
  the study setting and the test setting, the greater the
  likelihood that material studied will be recalled during
  the test.
• “Cramming before a test helps
  keep it fresh in my mind.” Start studying now.
  Keep studying as you go along. Begin with an hour or two
  a day about one week before the exam, and then increase
  study time as the exam approaches. Recall increases as study
  time gets spread out over time.
• “I’m gonna stay up all night
  ’til I get this.” Avoid mental exhaustion. Take
  short breaks often when studying. Before a test, have a
  rested mind. When you take a study break, and just before
  you go to sleep at night, don’t think about academics. Relax
  and unwind, mentally and physically. Otherwise, your break
  won’t refresh you and you’ll find yourself lying awake at
  night. It is more important than ever to take care of yourself
  before an exam! Eat well, sleep and get enough exercise.

Realistically, times may exist when cramming is your teen’s
only alternative. You can help your teen in this type of situation
by sharing with him or her the following tips from Eastern
Illinois University:

• Maintain a positive attitude.
• Do not allow doubts or worry to interfere with your studying,
  and make the best of the time you have.
• Take frequent but short breaks – getting up and
  moving around a little is a good break.
• Anticipate possible exam questions.
• Write down the main points as you identify them.
• Study from the top down. Select the most general and significant
  ideas to review first, then learn more and more details
  as time permits.
• Use your textbook well. Read summaries, review questions,
  practice tests, etc.
• Write down the main ideas of each lecture from your notes.
• Know your sleeping habits. When does lack of sleep begin
  affecting your performance more than lack of study?
• Have a back-up waking system in place.
• On the day of the exam, briefly review your condensed
  notes.
• Be sure to eat a nutritious breakfast the day of the exam.
• Have a positive attitude when you enter the exam room.

Eastern
Illinois University
Harvard
Medical School
The
Washington Post
University of North Carolina