Last-minute studying helps some prepare

Freshman Paige LaCour said cramming for finals is like playing Russian roulette -- sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.\nLaCour is like many other college students who have "last-minute cram sessions" before entering their final exams. And while most students might find cramming an effective way for studying, psychologists say this method is one of the least valuable for college students.\nAssistant psychology professor Cara Wellman said cramming is an ineffective way to study because there is a limit to one's short-term memory. In order to do well on a final exam, she said the student must have committed most of the information to his or her long-term memory.\n"(Cramming) alone is not an effective way to study for an exam," Wellman said. "All by itself as a way of studying is not good because short-term memory lasts a matter of seconds to minutes and won't get you through the whole exam."\nWellman said a student will be able to remember more by increasing the amount of studying in one or two weeks before the exam, and spacing out studying is also important.\n"The difference between long-term and short-term memory is that short-term is just memorization, and long-term is understanding the material," Wellman said. "The more you think about it, the more you will remember it. That's another reason for not doing it last minute."\nBut sophomore Chelsea Stroup said cramming works for her because the information is "fresh in her mind" for the exam and uses this method often.\n"I have a really bad memory," she said. "Reading and re-reading over and over again is always helpful."\nStroup said she usually crams for about one hour on one subject, takes a break, then returns to the material to hit the important parts she forgot on her break. She said learning to cram at night shortly before she sleeps helps her remember what she's studied.\n"I feel if you cram, you get the really important points of the test," she said. "If you go to a study session and then cram after that, you know what to study."\nLaCour agrees that cramming works, but said it's not the most desirable way to study. She attributes her cramming method to a lack of study time and the dying presence of "dead week."\n"If I study hardcore for an exam, I usually do better than when I just cram," she said. "But it's hard to find the time to do extensive studying, since dead week isn't really dead week anymore. Sometimes it's all I can do."\nWellman said another negative aspect of the "last-minute cram" is a student's lack of sleep. She said there are two reasons why staying up all night to study for an exam won't work.\n"Sleep-deprived people make mistakes on things that require thinking," she said. "The more complex problem solving, the more mistakes you'll make."\nThe second reason, she said, is students will remember more information if they sleep longer in between what they've learned and when they're trying to recall the material.\nWellman said the best advice she can give students is to "not freak out."\n"Take a few deep breaths and get through one question at a time instead of thinking, 'What will happen if I fail this and how will it affect my whole life?'" she said.\nBut for LaCour and Stroup, the options seem slim. When asked if they plan to cram for exams this week, both said, "of course."\n-- Contact nation & world editor Christina Galoozis at cgaloozi@indiana.edu.