How to cram for an exam: 5 Tips

Of course if you did everything you hoped to do from the first day of the semester, you would never need to cram study – but sometimes life, or laziness, gets in the way of our best intentions.  Don’t take this post as license to slack off until the last-minute; cramming should always be your last resort because it’s a poor strategy for learning.  Even so, cramming can help you make the best of a bad situation in the short-term, and if you do it make sure you understand that you’re doing yourself a disservice for the long-term.

1.  Clear everything else from your schedule

If you had enough time to study properly, you wouldn’t need to cram.  When you are cramming no TV show or sports game is important – at all.  (Yes, even if the World Cup is happening /right now/.)

2.  Eliminate distractions

Be honest with yourself because you know how you procrastinate.  Turn off your cellphone or leave it in another room.  Delete any apps that tempt you to play them for only a minute (you can always reinstall them later).  If you’re studying on your laptop, disable Wi-Fi.  Dealing with dirty laundry and dishes can wait until after your exam.

3.  Focus your studying on the material that you know least well

If you missed any readings or lectures, make sure you cover that material first.  It can be comforting to revisit the basic introductory material that you already know well, but that’s old news – get the most challenging items out of the way early on in your cramming before you become exhausted.

4.  Plan how much sleep you will need and what you will eat

You probably won’t get an ideal 8+ hours of sleep because you need some of that time for cramming, yet more studying isn’t necessarily better if you are at risk of falling asleep during your exam.  Figure out the bare minimum amount of sleep that’s necessary for you to function well enough, since optimal is already out of the question.  Don’t forget to eat real food before your exam.  Coffee is not a meal and cigarettes are poisonous.

5.  Don’t panic at the last minute

Realistically you are not going to learn anything helpful in the minutes before the exam.  Avoid talking to any of your classmates if you think they will stress you out.  Positive visualization sounds really cheesy – I know – but it can’t hurt; as long as you can imagine yourself being composed and performing well on your exam at least you will not obsess over being unprepared.