Have you ever waited until the last minute to study? Or something happened and you really didnt have the time? With all of our commitments, classes, work obligations, extra curricular activities, and social life its not hard to get caught up in our daily lives, lose track of time, or even forget you had some kind of exam to study for. When this happens dont freak out because cramming is the answer, dont think its the end of the world you can still pass the exam, if you get busy wanting to learn. If you sit down with a book and try to read the whole thing youre not going to gain much except maybe a few hours of sleep because you got bored. In order to have a marginally successful night of cramming there are a few rules that will help; such as make choices, be selective, and relax. First, be realistic about what you can do. You must except the fact that you cant learn everything when cramming, especially if your class attendance hasnt been very high and youve only skimmed two books out of a syllabus of two dozen.
Instead, pick a few important items to learn really well. The more information you try to cram in, the less effective you will be. Be bold and learn a few things backwards and forwards. Ideally, spend twenty-five percent of your time learning new stuff and seventy-five percent of your time reviewing. That way if you are realistic about what you can do the exam will come much easier. Second, choose your material carefully and study in depth. The more youve managed to miss, the more selective you need to be in organizing your cram session.
The Research paper on High School Study Exam Strategies
Metacognition has been defined as "having knowledge (cognition) and having understanding, control over, and appropriate use of that knowledge" (Tei and Stewart; as cited by Collins, 1994, p. 2). Wellman (as cited by Berk, 1997) refers to metacognitive knowledge as being made up of four interrelated component: knowledge of self, task, strategies and interaction. The conscious control over and use ...
You cant study it all. Study the topics one by one only moving to the second when you have an excellent grasp of the first. You may get lucky and pick the three topics the exam covers. Cramming works by pounding the material into your head. Repetition is the best way. You may try tape-recording yourself as you recite. Then replay the tape over and over until you can remember it without any help.
Try to remember the material your teacher placed strong emphasis on during discussion and focus your cramming mainly on that material. Equally important to studying would be remembering to relax. Dont punish yourself. If you are overly tense and stressed, you wont retain the material so easily. While you are studying remember to do some breathing exercises. Maybe play some music.
Find a relaxing place that is comfortable to you and away from any distractions. Study as much as you can but dont over do it. When you cant remember your name, give up and get some sleep. Go back over the material right before the exam, but dont get stressed out about something you cant remember. Relaxation is the key to retaining any sort of information. Even though you didnt put forth your best effort during class time you made your choices were selective, and relaxed, so you passed the exam.
Next time, you forget to study dont slam yourself just cram.
