Successful Students: 9

Successful Student

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 than study skills specialists agree on, it is that distributes 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 for 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 to 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!!!

You Can Succeed Every Day: Part 1

You Can Succeed Every Day

Part 1

My overall study method: I break up studying over several days and over the course of the evening and day. Cramming never works for me so I try not to do it. I will have longer sessions on nights before big tests, but I never stay up much later than normal before tests. I know that if I take the test tired the next day I will not do as well as if I was rested.

How I’ve overcome an initial bad grade: I usually look over the test or paper to see what I did that the teacher did not want. Basically, I do not stress out about grades that much because I know that I know the material. However, if I do get a bad grade, or one lower than I expected, I make sure that the next time a test is coming I study even more so that I won’t be surprised by the questions.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!!!