18 Jun 2021

It’s a classic the-night-before move. You haven’t studied for the English exam your teacher warned you about two months ago because you’ve gone out for a cheeky HSP with your mates for three nights in a row. You’re absolutely dreading getting your notes up and re-writing your essay based on previous years questions. 

It’s 10pm the night before, you’ve finally opened your writing pad and you’re ready to go. You’re giving yourself 4 hours, 10pm-12am and 5am-7am tomorrow morning before school to cram. At this point, you’ve already screwed yourself.

 

It’s a feeling I remember all too well from high school and something I never shook off, even into my early uni years. I labelled myself the queen of cramming. And as they say, diamonds are made under pressure. Some of my most brilliant and ingenious work has come from cramming the night before. So who is to say it doesn’t work? Newsflash: Again, me. 

I’m contradicting myself hard here but when has intensively absorbing large volumes of information in a short amount of time, compared to planning out a study schedule and sticking to it, been the right way to go? If you’re looking for some inspo to start studying, here are some reasons as to why cramming sucks for ya.

You won’t retain crucial knowledge in the long-term

There is a massive diff between cramming the night before and studying consistently leading up to an exam. In the 1970s, researchers argued that deep processing led to better long-term memory than shallow processing. Come again? Well, their Levels of Processing theory basically states that taking the time to fully understand and gain a more meaningful analysis of your notes and resources allows for you to easily remember crucial info. Cramming, on the other end of the stick, can work in the short-term but you will not remember all the most important info. Maybe missing out on a key maths formula you needed? Or maybe examples in your prescribed text? There’s only so much you can bullsh*t in your work for it to actually be great - so my advice is to study in short bursts consistently!

Increases stress levels, has a negative effect on your ability to concentrate

Aside from the crippling anxiety from school already, if you’re leaving things late, your stress levels will rise, especially if you give a crap or two about your marks. You won’t be able to focus, you’ll circle a conversation in your head that you shouldn’t have left things last minute, wasting time to actually concentrate on studying and making things 100 times more difficult for yourself.

A lack of sleep can detrimentally affect your performance

Staying up late and waking up early to study? Stooooop it. You’re not doing yourself any favours. Look back on all those times you binge-watched TV (Ready Steady Cook and Good Chef Bad Chef, come through) or played your computer games for hours on end after school where you could’ve been studying. Hey, you always need a bit of “you time” but studying every now and then for shorter periods of time = better sleep and recharge = better performance in your exams!

Re-reading notes is not enough

It’s 10:00pm, you’ve opened your books and ready to get cracking. You’re skimming through your messy notes. You have no idea what any of it means. You’re frantically typing up notes, trying to make sense of it all. You get to your exam and remember none of it…dammit, Microsoft OneWord!

Open up a notebook and jot down key points. Make them look pretty and easy to understand. Bring out your highlighters. Underline things. Segment and separate them into lists. Draw up diagrams and mind maps as information in visual form will be retained a lot easier. Plus, getting into a habit of writing will help in the long run when you need to write at Sonic speed during the actual exam.