At the beginning of every semester, cram fighters often get in the hang of procrastination simply by binge-watching series, hanging out with friends, or even scrolling through their phones. But let’s admit that this is an unhealthy habit for everyone that can lead to cramming. 

Considering the fact that cramming is what students usually do before their exams, it is deemed ineffective. Pulling an all-nighter can result in stress, anxiety, and poor retention of learnings.

If you want to get rid of this character, then worry no more! Here, we will introduce to you cramming — its definition and adverse effects. Also, this article will revolve around tips on how to overcome it during exam season.

Cramming, in the light of studying

The cram definition, according to a dictionary, is to prepare for an exam abruptly until it is due to begin. With limited time to study, learners usually tend to overload themselves with information.

This technique might be too overwhelming for some. Since students need to comprehend all of the learning in such a short period of time, they end up memorizing rather than understanding the material.

As much as we incorporate this method in studying, the cramming meaning also encompasses various downsides that can affect our well-being. Some of these include tiredness, unable to concentrate, bad sleeping and eating habits, and incapable of understanding the topics.

Ways on How to Avoid Cramming

In cram definition, effects rendered by exam-cram can be highly dreadful to our overall health condition. Luckily, there are numerous tips on how to avoid cramming, and these are considered student-friendly and time-effective.

Don’t procrastinate at all costs

According to cramming meaning, procrastination is the root cause of cramming among cram fighters. Not only studying is the biggest challenge among students, but also when do they begin to review.

The best way to recalibrate your procrastination level is to start early. Reviewing immediately maximizes your ability to learn the concepts proficiently. Students can be productive as they start to do things early, regardless of the degree of their progress.

Manage your time wisely

In considering all aspects of our daily routine, time is considered as the most essential one. Time management can aid you in organizing everything in place. Devoting most of your time to one task can be too overwhelming, as you need to accomplish other work.

When reviewing, it is best to effectively distribute your schedule into parts— as consuming time on a big scale might be too exhausting especially in exam cram. Also, include beneficial strategies, such as the Pomodoro technique. These strategies provide helpful impact as it provides partitions between schedules.

Organize and plan ahead

Having a ton of workload is exhausting, especially for cram fighters. And not knowing what to start first can cause panic to us even if we start early. That’s why organizing and planning ahead is the first step in studying effectively.

Start by listing all of the activities you would want to accomplish, and rank them according to priority. It is highly recommended that you balance the workload each day so that it will not be tiring for you. Also, organize and plan your activities wisely, or else you will end up procrastinating.

In doing this, you might want to purchase a planner— if you prefer spending money and writing your plans with a pen. Creating your digital planner in an application like Notion can be an alternative if you like doing it through a gadget.

In rewriting and annotating, we trust

Reviewing is not always about reading and comprehending, rewriting and annotating should be considered too. Usually, we read information-heavy notes, and this can be time-consuming on our part. These two are highly effective strategies to retain information easily.

In rewriting, it is vital to not write everything down. Choosing the main ideas, important concepts, and summarizing are the key points in productive note-taking. In addition, making use of graphic organizers, and mind maps are advantageous in connecting the relationships of the concepts.

On the other hand, annotation usually begins with scanning, skimming, and reading the material. Through this process, you can conveniently mark all the necessary points by underlining and encircling. Try using vibrant colors for various kinds of information, if you are going to highlight them.

F is for focus

One of the enemies of students while studying is they easily get distracted. In this case, their attention is diverted into something rather than reviewing. If you opt to stay away from this habit, then focus on your studying sessions.

To concentrate while reviewing, avoid all distractions that may hinder your productivity. Social media, game applications, and mobile phones are some examples of it. 

To deal with this kind of dilemma, you may turn off your mobile phone or even do a social media detox. Finding a study space with a calm environment is efficient for an individual as it is conducive to learning.

Studying smarter than ever

As the popular phrase goes, studying harder to pass, is overused and debunked as it requires you to invest more time in studying. Since this is deemed to be more ineffective, an individual must focus on studying smarter.

Incorporating resourceful tips while reviewing can be a big help to alleviate your difficulties. For instance, if you find yourself struggling with the memorization of terms, creating flashcards is an appropriate instrument for you to practice.

Through determining which approach is suitable for your studying habit, it will aid in decreasing the time you allot in learning. 

The mindset of cram fighters tends to incline towards cramming as a significant practice in digesting the learnings. Although exam cram is popular these days, it can result in poor academic productivity and risk in well-being as time goes by. One must incorporate smart and healthy habits in studying.

Are you aiming to be productive every day and you are browsing the internet on what to do? Luckily, in our article, we are providing you a printable planner for your daily schedule to keep on track.