Why Cramming is Not a Good Idea
The school is supposed to be a child’s second home.
It is where they learn about various subjects that can be useful in their everyday lives. It is also where students meet life-long friends and teachers who can make a difference in their lives. Their respective parents have the primary responsibility of choosing a senior secondary school that will help mold their young children into well-educated and socially responsible adults.
Like working adults, students have to deal with balancing their academic and personal lives. More often than not, a lot of students resort to cramming for the next day’s major exam. For one thing, students need to have a good studying habit. However, it doesn’t always happen, which often results in cramming.
Can Cramming Do Any Good?
Cramming happens both in working adults and students but is often associated with the latter. It occurs when people delay doing specific tasks until the given deadline arrives.
In such cases, students tend to do other things and then pay attention to studying their lessons a few hours before an important exam.
This habit has become a common thing among many students. You might even have resorted to cramming back in your student days. It might work for some people as they claim that it makes their lessons easier to memorize. Students feel they have to study well and hard when they cram.
But does it work?
Studies have shown that students are not able to recall what they have studied after cramming. This is because cramming trains individuals only to memorize, not to understand concepts.
Cramming can also add to a student’s stress levels. It makes them feel pressured to cram for the sake of good grades. It also lessens the quality of their sleep, which can affect their academic performance. They do get good grades out of cramming, but they might not get the essence of what they are studying in the first place.
It Doesn’t Work For Adults, Either
As I discuss in my book, The CPA Exam For Dummies, studying for the exam requires 400+ hours of study. It’s impossible to cram for this exam, because no one can memorize the huge amount of material. You need study time to digest the material, so you can recall it for the exam.
How to avoid cramming
While some claim cramming works for them, it can only assure good grades but not life-long knowledge and a deep understanding of a specific topic. Rather, students should learn how to develop good study habits. Here are some ways to ditch cramming:
- Learn the concept of spaced learning.
It refers to studying a specific topic in a more extended period. It allows students to grasp the concepts and ideas surrounding that particular topic and make it easier to recall and learn later on.
- Take notes.
It is also a good idea to take down notes while studying for an exam. It helps students understand the topic more using keywords and formulas.
- Learn to organize your schedule.
Students should also learn excellent organizational skills – from listing upcoming tests, project deadlines, and so on. This is considered a life skill that can help a lot when they enter the workforce.
- Get enough sleep.
Sleep is vital to keeping their minds sharp and healthy. Experts recommend about eight hours of sleep every night so that students will wake up with well-rested minds.
Plan Ahead
Going to school is not only about getting good grades and being one of the most popular students around. Rather, it is also more on understanding the lessons and applying them to be better persons in society.
My next book, 50 Stories That Explain Accounting, will be out in 2020. More info to follow.
For live CPA exam prep and accounting classes, join Conference Room for free. Members will be notified of course dates, times, costs, and how to attend these courses.
Get your questions answered to pass the CPA exam, and to learn accounting concepts.
Go to Accounting Accidentally for 300+ blog posts and 450+ You Tube videos on accounting and finance:
Good luck!
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(email) ken@stltest.net
(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/