Parenthood is among the most challenging and rewarding professions on the planet. It is not a secret that a parent might find this a huge responsibility. Therefore, they have this sense of unpreparedness and can make them stressed enough.
As a parent, it is your duty to check up on your children about their welfare, daily activities, and development outside your home— specifically their academic performance. It may seem an effortless task for parents to maintain their child’s excellence in studies. But in reality, there are much more obligations and sacrifices to accomplish that kind of achievement.
However, it is inevitable that you cannot give your full attention to your child’s educational capability every time. And that is one of the reasons why students end up cramming for their exams the day before.
There might be a possibility that this situation might occur to you and your child. As a parent, you want the best for your child, and you will help them with your best as possible. If you are dedicated to avoiding this circumstance in the future, then this article is perfect for you. Here, there are different strategies to encourage your child to prevent cramming in their studies.
Is Cramming Effective?
The cram definition in a dictionary states that when you do an exam cram, you are studying as much as possible in a brief span of time before the examination. Often, it exerts a massive amount of pressure into your brain.
The studying habit of cram fighters, as per the cramming meaning, involves learning under pressure and not following their schedules. Since some children are invested in doing activities rather than studying, they often resort to exam cram— which they will need your constant guidance and support.
Cram fighters might find exam cram beneficial, but it can do more harm than good. Hence, this strategy is unhealthy for your children if done excessively. Being a parent, you must be aware of the possible outcomes caused by cramming.
The S in cram fighters stands for “Stressed”
It is no surprise that stress is encapsulated in the cramming meaning. The act of cramming before the night of the exam might be exhausting. According to an article, most of the students who studied last-minute are not adequately prepared for their assessment. It is mainly because of reading their materials once.
Since students often do this late night to morning, they do not get an ample amount of sleep. In addition, their mind might not be fully functioning due to this reason. As cram fighters need to study last-minute, their body also required to rest needed for the processing of knowledge.
Possibility of getting an F
Cramming, in the end, results in undesirable academic results. Although cram fighters can simply retain the knowledge they have learned for a brief span of time, they may encounter difficulties or queries that are entirely unknown to them.
Students will find themselves thinking quickly, as they attempt to recall their learnings. Consequently, cram fighters usually lack time in answering the questions—leading them in acquiring poor academic scores.
Learnings just go up, up, and away quickly!
While cramming just before the exam day could help you ace the exam the next day, it will not enable you to retain the material for long term. The cram definition also highlights that it renders only a temporary advantage since the retention of long-term retention is low.
After studying for an exam, cram fighters will almost certainly be unable to recall the knowledge in less than a day or two. Exam cram may allow you to pass an assessment, but it cannot provide you an assurance that you will fully learn the knowledge you will demand in the future.
Avoid cramming for children: Guide for parents
The progress of your child’s development in studies does not rely solely on luck. Apparently, it depends on their effort, determination, habits, and attitude. Strong study ability is a key element of this strategy. As parents, you are wondering on what ways you can encourage your child to hone their studying skills. Fortunately, there are existing ways on how to guide them.
An action for distraction
As parents, you know that cramming is the partner in crime for some children when studying. One of the reasons why they did end up cramming was because of distractions around them. These distractions must be distinguished around their space and habits.
One of the popular distractions is gadgets. If your child’s attention is drawn towards using tablets, computers, or smartphones, then it may be a big problem at your end. A parent must teach them to turn off their gadgets to keep their focus steadily. Also, when you are checking up for some possible distractions, you must avoid them multitasking as this can cause them to lose focus.
Set up their study space
When your child is studying, ensure that their study space is conducive to learning. It is important to you, parents, that they are able to concentrate on what they are doing for education. Assess the environment if it is properly lighted and free of distractions.
Also, provide some functional materials perfect for learning such as sticky notes, highlighters, pencil, pen, papers in this space. Empower your kid to have a sense of authority in this area by liberating them on how they are going to layout their workspace. Also, remind them from time to time to tidy up their area regularly in order for them to be prepared before their study session.
Cultivate the culture of asking for help
There is always a difficult lesson that our children might stumble upon when they are studying. And it reaches the point that they are experiencing difficulties and cannot comprehend the material. In this case, parents must encourage their children to ask for assistance from them.
Another helpful takeaway in this guide is seeking for, accepting, and providing assistance through educating your child on how to develop foundational connections with other people and how to approach their friends for guidance.
Comprehension, not memorization
During your study session with your kid, you should always incorporate the idea of teaching about the concept behind the lesson, not just merely memorizing the entire material. It will allow for a more comprehensive knowledge through reasoning and theory.
On each day, we do time management
Effective time management is a critical component of efficient learning strategies. As an adult, we do know how to create and organize our planner. And this is a perfect opportunity to share this knowledge to our children and make sure that they understand how weekly planner works.
Encourage children to jot down crucial deadlines for schoolwork and activities, specifically if their instructor communicates these periods ahead of time.
After reading this article, it will not be a rocket science for you on how to guide your child in avoiding cramming for their learning assessment. There’s a whole variety of techniques available to parents to assist their children in developing the fundamental learning abilities required for academic achievement.
Worrying about making a planner for your child? We provided a template for you to write down about your kid’s every day schedule.