A Guide to Cramming Effectively

Despite cramming being an ineffective way to perform well on exams, sometimes it becomes a necessity. And when it does, precious minutes of an already tight schedule can’t be wasted, so effective study strategies must be implemented. 

When sitting down to cram the day before an exam, it may be overwhelming to ingest a variety of topics covered on the coming test. When stuck on certain concepts and feeling time tick away, an effective way to comprehend difficult material in a time crunch is to learn the same topic through multiple media forms. Using multiple presentations of the content, such as pairing textbook reading with Youtube videos, increases retention as the different forms of content activate different parts of the brain, engaging more of the brain in learning the material, increasing retention despite a lack of processing time. 

However, despite multiple media forms being effective, it's important to not let the time constraint cause you to attempt to view these multiple presentations of content at the same time. People who multitask have lower retention levels because of their inability to control their mental focus on the many streams of information, meaning that playing a Khan academy video in the background while doing last minute homework problems is causing more harm than good, decreasing memory potential and wasting your little time left. 

Some other ways to learn content quicker in the final hours could be reading your notes aloud. Studies show that the simple task of verbalizing your notes increases retention as the brain is receiving the content in both auditory and visual forms, causing more engagement with the content. If reading aloud doesn’t appeal to you, another way to increase remembrance while reading notes is to annotate the pages read as this task has been proven to increase vocabulary uptake and mental processing of the reading, increasing retention even when reading notes for the first time the day before the exam. 

After using multiple media sources, going over your notes actively, and resisting the urge to multitask, the best way to cement your knowledge is through self-testing. Self testing has been proven to increase exam scores by provoking retrieval and retention, making it a step that should not be skipped even under time restraints. 

All these tasks will still take up time, especially if they are all left for the night before, but if you're thinking of pulling an all-nighter, don’t. Even if sleep becomes less of a priority in the face of cramming weeks worth of knowledge in your brain, getting at least three hours of sleep will increase your mental capacity for the exam as three hours is the duration of one sleep cycle, allowing your mind time to rest and process the information studied. 

And to end this guide to cramming, for some easy memory enhancers, a hydrated mind and choice foods can increase learning capabilities. A study by Cambridge University states that dehydration causes slower reaction times on working memory tasks, meaning you should drink at least 8 glasses of water on days you are cramming to prevent additional factors working against retention. After reading aloud notes, self testing, and annotating, picking up a glass of water should be a piece of cake, so don’t skip out. 

In addition to that cup of water, have some blackberries. The University of Tufts released a study showing that blackberries provide your brain with polyphenol, an antioxidant which encourages communication between neurons and improves the ability to absorb new information. 

Even though cramming is not the best plan for exam preparation, sometimes as a university student, it’s unavoidable, and at least if that is your course of action, be prepared with study tips and lifestyle alterations to set you up for maximum content uptake under a time limit.