Introduction
We know life happens and sometimes you need to cram for your exam. Let’s not point fingers at how you ended up here, but it’s game time and your exam is in less than 24 hours. Cramming is tough, but it doesn't need to be (too) stressful if you have a process. So here’s our 3-step framework for how to cram for an exam if you absolutely have to. But promise you’ll be more prepared next time.
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Content
It's crunch time your stress.
The exam is three days away, and you haven't been studying plus you're behind in lecture.
So raise that to the power of stress.
So you procrastinate in binge anime the cycle repeats.
You find demons in the shower.
Procrastinate.
Some more have a good cry, tell your crush how you really feel wait actually don't send that all of a sudden your exam is in less than 24 hours.
Well, it's time to cram.
So I, never endure scramming.
I also understand that happens.
And the only way to go is four I've been there too.
But if you follow this three-step plan, I'm, confident, you will not fail.
Your exam tomorrow step one is to focus on the high yield Concepts, first and foremost before anything else figure out what's most important to study.
This is huge a lot of students succumb to last minute pressure and enter panic mode.
They'll open day, one PowerPoint and raw dog.
Every lecture start to finish don't do this because not all information is created equal.
Some concepts are super complex.
It can take hours to learn.
And if your exam is multiple choice hate to break it to you, but it's only worth one point.
This is actually a good thing because it gives us two criteria to determine what to study number one is this concept high yield start by looking at the syllabus or asking your classmates and upperclassmen for the breakdown of the exam better.
Yet, ask your teacher what to focus on they're, the ones making the test a lot of sneaky teachers will say something vague like everything in the chapter is fair game, or you should know everything we covered annoying for sure.
But in these cases, you're on your own so use the 80 20 rule generally speaking, 80 of classes are tested on 20 of the core concept.
These are the fundamental concepts in each lecture that everything else builds off of most chapters only have a few important takeaways.
So as you study focus on these and ask yourself, what was the main point of a lecture? And how does that relate to the main point of the other lectures? This way you're always thinking big picture and trying to understand the 20 that's most likely going to be tested in criteria.
Number two can I easily learn this concept.
This is more subjective, but you need to gauge your comfort with each high-yield concept, if it's something you've mastered without trouble in the past or can easily wrap your head around then invest a little time to master it.
And guarantee those easy points on the exam if it's completely unfamiliar, then this flip to the back of your textbook or PowerPoint and read the summary or wrap up, also watch a few short videos on YouTube or another learning platform from there honestly, ask yourself can I learn this concept without spending the entire day.
If you can great, you have your next hour's work cut out.
But if not teach back the main idea from the chapter summary or YouTube video in your own words, just so you have the minimum usable understanding of it and then move on.
You can always come back to these topics.
If you have time later in the day, the main point with step one is to detach yourself from thinking, you need to spend the same amount of time on every lecture stop panicking by trying to get through every detail of every topic figure out if it's high yield.
And if it's reasonable for you to learn quickly cram with a plan.
We just talked about what to study now let's go over how part two use high return strategies.
Just like step one.
The goal of step two is to use study strategies that give you the highest return avoid passive studying no rereading notes or lecture slides.
No, highlighting no Mindless, note-taking panicked.
Students think they need to lay eyes on all the information.
So they speed read through every lecture, hoping their brain will remember something valuable again, don't do this rushing through information, just to catch a word here, or there isn't helpful, honestly, it'll backfire during the exam because of the mere exposure effect where we tend to develop preferences for things that are familiar to us, say, you're, reading a vignette for a test question.
And of course, it makes absolutely no sense because you crammed looking at the answer choices, you recognize a word and think, ah, yes.
I remember seeing this word, I, don't know what it is or what it means, but I'm gonna pick it because it's familiar for my cramming, not the best test taking strategy.
You're better off just guessing familiarity without comprehension can be dangerous.
Instead.
Here are smarter ways to go about it.
First use practice problems, but be strategic Panic students are afraid.
They won't have time to learn everything.
So they read their practice questions and their answers without trying to solve them again.
This is just to lay eyes on the information.
The problem is, they don't actually understand the answers has questions.
Most likely won't be the exact same as the homework or past papers.
So without understanding why the answer is the answer it's useless.
What you should do is learn the thought process spend a few more minutes thinking about what concept is being tested, and how that relates to the takeaway of the chapter here's, an absolute Game Changer trick see if you can think about how to change the wording of the question so that another answer choice is correct.
This forces you to differentiate Concepts, which means you understand it better and it's.
Basically, what teachers do for tests for problem-based questions like math or physics, follow a guided solution.
First if it's available, then you can try similar problem on your own.
But remember from step one, if you struggle too long on any concept, cut your losses and just move on next use strategic, memorization, Panic students, try to rope memorize everything.
They read a definition, four or five times in a row, then close their eyes and try to repeat it problem is by the tenth concept, they've already forgotten.
The first one trying to Brute Force memorize everything is a Surefire way to failure exams.
The smarter way is to spend a little more time making connections with all the concepts in that section look for patterns, similarities and differences.
This allows you to chunk Concepts together to strategically memorize groups of ideas with mnemonics or images, I know, this sounds tedious, but it's way more effective to differentiate Concepts and understand their relationships spending, even 10 extra minutes identifying these connections can easily guarantee you two or three more questions on the test, which is a huge return on your study time.
Next take strategic breaks, most likely you're going to need to study 12 plus hours today, tough, but be strategic about it Panic students attempt to study all day long without breaks, even when they start to lose focus, their Torah Tendencies emerge.
And they stubbornly try to power through by hour.
Three they're completely burnt out and scrolling Tick Tock.
The smarter approach is to take strategic breaks use hit or high intensity.
Interval training set a clear study goal for a laser focused block of time.
And then take a quick break some rookies prefer to call this Pomodoro, but it's the same idea, for example, set your timer for 50 minutes and dedicate it entirely to learning a single high yield concept.
Then take a 10 minute break.
We focus much better with a clearly defined goal, and the breaks allow our mind to reset instead of burning out use that break time to move around and clear.
Your head.
Go take a walk, grab food or drinks or take a shower or something since you probably haven't done that today.
So these strategic study strategies all have one thing in common they're, super high effort, which feels uncomfortable, but discomfort means learning is happening.
And when we have very little time, we can't afford to study where learning isn't happening.
And this is why step 3 maintaining high energy studying is equally as important as the first two steps.
So we can keep our mental capacity, strong, no matter what I say, I know, you're gonna stay up all night, pound energy, drinks, skip meals.
And all that I probably don't need to remind you that this can negatively impact your performance, but here's how you can keep up your energy while studying even if it's last minute, first don't, pull an all-nighter.
If you want to study well into the night, that's your choice, but I can't stress, how important it is to sleep before an exam think about it this way, an athlete who had a match the next day wouldn't practice all day and then stay up all night, practicing they would be absolutely exhausted, just like our body.
Our mind needs rest in order to perform sleep consolidates.
What you learned into your long-term memory, my advice if not a full six to eight hours is to go to bed earlier for a few hours, wake up, early and continue studying nothing productive ever happens after 2AM, plus this will prevent the possibility of oversleeping and missing the exam.
Next it's, okay to skip meals, but don't skip food altogether.
Our brain uses up a lot of energy, and we need to keep it going.
But instead of taking a full-on lunch or dinner break just snack throughout the day, big meals can cause postprandial, hypoglycemia, AKA, food, Comas, which make it really hard to focus by snacking.
We avoid the tired feel feeling and keep a steady energy level throughout the day, pick snacks that are nutrient dense protein bars, almonds veggies or fruit.
You don't have to limit it to just snacks too like.
You can just break up your meals.
If you get a bowl from Chipotle eat a quarter of it, every break over the course of four hours instead of all at once and also grab a big 40 ounce water bottle for the day.
Staying hydrated is also super important.
And next be careful with your caffeine intake, it's.
Okay, to go above your normal caffeine dose for the day, but don't go too or too much caffeine can add to your anxiety rev you up so much that your productivity actually goes down.
I'd also be mindful of how late in the day you want to have another cup of coffee or Celsius or something you don't want it to interfere with your precious sleep.
So maybe call it quits after 4 pm, alright.
So here's, a mind-blowing, secret.
The three steps to cram for an exam are actually no different from how you should study for any exam.
Because if you improve your Study efficiency by focusing on the high yield Concepts and your study Effectiveness focusing on the high return strategies.
That means you'll learn more information in less time, which is the exact goal of cramming crazy, right? And because you're maximizing a high energy studying you free up time for self-care and actually enjoying life.
What if you turn cramming into your normal study routine? So at Cajun, koi Academy, we Empower our rookies to study smarter.
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