Successful Students 9
9…. Don’t cram for
exams. Successful students know that divided periods of study are more
effective than cram sessions, and they practice it.
If there is one thing that study skills
specialists agree on, it is that distributed study is better than massed,
late-night, last-ditch efforts known as cramming. You’ll learn more, remember
more, and earn a higher grade by studying in four, one hour-a-night sessions on
Friday’s exam than studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short,
concentrated preparatory efforts are more efficient and rewarding than
wasteful, inattentive, last moment marathons. Yet, so many students fail to
learn this lesson and end up repeating it over and over again until it becomes
a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?
When you cram, you
are taking the shortcut, and shortcuts never produce any real worthwhile
results. Also when you take shortcuts, you feel rather rotten knowing that you
could have done better but didn’t. Shortcuts cut you short. You can’t plant
watermelon seeds and harvest fresh watermelons the next day. It takes time. Cramming
for a test or project and expecting to make a high score the next day is like
planting watermelon seeds and expecting to harvest and eat fresh watermelon the
next day. Plus cramming for a test or project doesn’t help you academically, so
why even do it. Plan ahead, prepare ahead. Give yourself plenty of days and
weeks to prepare for upcoming accountability opportunities.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT!!!
