With a daunting 9 a.m. test looming and having only read or looked over notes, cramming becomes many student’s last resort grade savior.
 
“You’ve got to get it all in your head 15 minutes before the test,” said Math graduate student Peter Lambert-Cole.
 
Although cramming will more than likely provide a test-taker with a higher grade score the following day, information retention rates for a later date will be significantly lower than if a student would take the proper time to space out the material among several days and hours.
 
“[The] major thing is not how much, but what we call the distribution of practice,” said Sean Lane, Associate Professor of Psychology at LSU who studies the effects of learning on memory.
 
Lane compared cramming for large exams to a marathon runner deciding the night before a race to run 200 miles in preparation — the mind needs proper conditioning, just like a body.
 
Although massed practice studying would not affect long-term memory retention as a whole, Lane said habits are hard to change.
 
But cramming might not be the only problem with student’s study habits.
 
Over-learning occurs when students repeatedly cram already known information into their memory and can also be a problem among especially zealous studiers.
“Turns out, it’s not all that helpful for long term retention,” Lane said.
 
Lane said the most effective way to retain studied information involves re-remembering the material using self-testing retrieval practices.
 
“I usually make note cards and study for an hour every day for three days [before the test],” said Mass Communications freshman Caroline Swope.
 
By looking away from the material or self-testing, whether it be with note cards or a list of trick questions, the brain soaks in the information signals more permanently, increasing retention rates.
 
Lane said it’s hard for students to really know when they’ve “learned” something, because they can build the incorrect belief that they’ve actually understood the information.
 
Intensely focusing on the material at hand for shorter intervals will yield much higher memory retention rates, Lane said.
 
“You have to learn how to direct your own learning,” he said.
 
Although some students will argue that the material learned in classes is useless for the future, Lane would argue the contrary.
 
He believes students mislead themselves using the argument that they will never again use much of the information learned in school.
 
Lane says knowledge grows exponentially — the more you know, the more you learn — which insinuates no learned information is too useless.
 
And if all else fails, it’s possible that students “might actually like the material,” Lane said.
 
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2007/october-07/the-science-of-cramming-2.html
 
http://www.laymanpsych.com/2009/10/the-psychology-of-learning-craming-and-why-it-doesnt-work/
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=1
 
http://www.helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm