Cramming

[Liverpool08]

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I usually tend to see alot of people on these forums to claim that they crammed. So far in my undergrad year when i usually tend to cram for exams like genetics and cell bio i never end up doing that well, and thats mainly because there usually is a ton of info on the midterm and when i try to memorize it all in one day, my mind would usually just shut down and i feel burned out/stressed and cant absorb and retain anything. Also alot of the material i would try to cram i would be seeing/understanding for the first time cuz i never listened in class, that by the time of the test i would have done enough to pass and get an ok grade but never enough to get A+. for the people that are here on this site that always get A+ for genetics and cell bio courses, when you cram the day before your exam, do u just constantly go over material, or is there some other methods that help, so that when i do have to cram, i dont just shut down and burn out. thanks.

 

[IrishRxMan]

First off, I wouldn't recommend cramming. You can't cram when you get into pharmacy school and if you get in the habit of cramming now, it will be hard to break later. The courses you are speaking of you need to actually work with the material as it comes to you, create your own notes for what you see as important and use them to study by. Easier said than done and it will be difficult to get in the habit, but once you do you will thank yourself.

 

[Liverpool08]

There's no doubt about what you are saying irishman, but what i cant seem to understand is that how ppl on these forums have 3.8-4.0 GPA and all they claimed to have done in undergrad is basically cram for all classes and get 90s in all courses, as if its a piece of cake. When i dare to cram for these tough orgo, genetics, and cell bio courses, even first year bio courses, i never ended up doing well just cause i would stress/burn out during the 48hrs from trying to fit in 3months worth of work into those couple of nights. I know that im no genius, but im average just like many ppl, but when i do try to cram it never seems to work at all, i just wanna know how to change that

 

[iBeast]

Cramming on classes like Humanities and Speech is fine...and when I say cram, I mean studying for it 1-2 hours before the class starts 😎

Don't cram on the hard classes. It never works.

 

[CoffeeDose]

Hi OP. I actually have a couple of friends who cram at the last minute in science classes and did well, such as organic chemistry or something. What I do know about them is that they are very smart and pick up the material extremely fast, even during lecture hours. Therefore, the day before the test, they just skim through the notes again and understand/remember them. For those people, I consider them to be exceptions, not the norm.

As for myself, I cannot cram, especially for hard science classes. I have to study ahead in order to do well. Like other posts, I also do not recommend cramming.

 

[diastole]

Hi OP. I actually have a couple of friends who cram at the last minute in science classes and did well, such as organic chemistry or something. What I do know about them is that they are very smart and pick up the material extremely fast, even during lecture hours. Therefore, the day before the test, they just skim through the notes again and understand/remember them. For those people, I consider them to be exceptions, not the norm.

As for myself, I cannot cram, especially for hard science classes. I have to study ahead in order to do well. Like other posts, I also do not recommend cramming.

I'm a bit like your friends. I attend all my classes and I concentrate on understanding the material when it is presented to me. I try to relate the new material to what I already know and that helps with long term memory. If I don't pick it up right away, I will go out and spend more time with it. Otherwise, I'm reviewing just before a test and it appears as if I'm cramming and getting good grades. The reality is that I'm just pretty good at realizing how well I know the material and figuring the amount of effort it is going to take to get me to gain real understanding of the material. I think the key is to pay attention in class and put in your best effort there and you won't have to study as much outside of it.

 

[tootoo30]

I usually try to learn the concept in class, so I only need about two days to study for the test. I have my own office at work, which makes it pretty easy to get about three hours in during the day and the rest when I get home. I have somewhat of a photographic memory so reviewing before a test is never a big problem for me...and then there's pharmacy school which I start in the fall, so I will see if it still works for me there too LOL

 

[xtsukiyox]

I agree with CoffeeDose and diastole.

I think most of the people who say they cram really are doing a little bit of work here and there - the suggested homework, etc - but they assume that that's a "minimum." If you do it a little at a time, it doesn't seem like nearly as much work, in my opinion.

My O Chem II final was the ACS O Chem test (cumulative over I & II). I did all of the homework in O Chem I, so when I went back to brush up on it, all I was doing is refreshing, not learning it all. O Chem II? Well, that was a trick.

Here's a strategy that might work for you, it might not. Try it in a non-critical class that you do well in anyway, if you can.

My O Chem II instructor was not the best - I think he was bored. His lectures seemed to go all over the place, and the homework he assigned was not usually applicable. I found the homework to be very little help, and when it DID help, I just picked problems to do for myself instead of going by what the instructor suggested.

Here's how I "crammed" - I usually took a day off of work, and most of the tests were on a Monday. About Wednesday of the previous week (the class was M/W, so that's the last day we'd get new material), I'd start "living and breathing" O Chem. I'd start with taking detailed notes from the book over all of the chapters on the test (usually, 3). Then I'd make up note cards and the boyfriend (bless his heart) would run them with me at least twice. This would usually take me until Sunday. If there were many complicated equations, I would run over some practice problems, as many as I could fit in without burning out up until just before the test.

Make sure to get a good night's sleep the night before the test, especially if you've skipped on sleep beforehand. Also, eat before you go. I live in the desert (Phoenix, AZ), so I always made sure to bring a water bottle and make sure I was hydrated before the test.

An hour or two before the test, I would load up my short-term memory with any tables or lists I thought I'd need to know on the test. Here's a tip: Your teacher is NOT going to mark you down for extraneous information on scratch paper (or the backs / tops of pages, if you can write on the test). So, if you have to memorize a list or equation - write it down just after you're handed the test while you can still remember it from just outside the class room, so you can refer to it while you're working. I find this sort of stuff fades while I'm trying to work out more complex problems.

I certainly wouldn't suggest the "cram" method unless it's dire, and I wouldn't suggest it for a midterm. The trick is to plan ahead and to make sure you're not hitting yourself with chapters of new information all at once. Most likely, many of the people you're thinking of "cramming" have either already been exposed to the material or just pick it up that quickly (and, if they're the latter type, they make me sick! 😉).

EDIT: The method I outlined worked fairly well - if the class hadn't been structured the way it was, I would have ended up with a "B" in O Chem II. There was a bunch of extra credit available for the final, so I took 3 days off of work and bought the ACS O Chem study guide and studied my brains out... Barely made it to my "A." (I just found out on Friday, so I'm still a little stoked - sorry if it sounds like bragging.) 🙂

 

[Liverpool08]

Thanks xtsukiyox ur advice helped alot. It also confirmed what i wasnt doing which is basically keep up with material and do readings and atleast understand stuff before the midterm nears so that im not exposed to 3months worth of lectures in 2days and have to understand and memorize both, which i wasnt doing and i think is reason through all my troubles. then when midterms came around i guess, it wouldn't really be first time just u would be instilling the info again and for the final time. If more ppl have some thing to say feel free as all advice here is helping me thanks.

 

[aboveliquidice]

I usually tend to see alot of people on these forums to claim that they crammed. So far in my undergrad year when i usually tend to cram for exams like genetics and cell bio i never end up doing that well, and thats mainly because there usually is a ton of info on the midterm and when i try to memorize it all in one day, my mind would usually just shut down and i feel burned out/stressed and cant absorb and retain anything. Also alot of the material i would try to cram i would be seeing/understanding for the first time cuz i never listened in class, that by the time of the test i would have done enough to pass and get an ok grade but never enough to get A+. for the people that are here on this site that always get A+ for genetics and cell bio courses, when you cram the day before your exam, do u just constantly go over material, or is there some other methods that help, so that when i do have to cram, i dont just shut down and burn out. thanks.

I utilize a modified "cram" - where I study after school each day for an hour or two - really just going over the day's notes. Then, just before the test, I study my revised notes. It got my through my didatic years without any major hurdles.

Your study habits will adjust to pharmacy school - regardless of how much you study now, you will likely have to modify it for pharmacy school. I used to rewrite my notes and make note cards - It takes WAY too much time to do that in pharmacy school - you learn to be much more efficient with your time.

 

[triumphbr]

There's no doubt about what you are saying irishman, but what i cant seem to understand is that how ppl on these forums have 3.8-4.0 GPA and all they claimed to have done in undergrad is basically cram for all classes and get 90s in all courses, as if its a piece of cake. When i dare to cram for these tough orgo, genetics, and cell bio courses, even first year bio courses, i never ended up doing well just cause i would stress/burn out during the 48hrs from trying to fit in 3months worth of work into those couple of nights. I know that im no genius, but im average just like many ppl, but when i do try to cram it never seems to work at all, i just wanna know how to change that

normal people don't "Cram" and have a 4.0.. You can cram for crap classes.. hist and some stupid electives... and you may be able to cram for certain sections in classes that you really shouldn't be cramming for.. but you can't make a habit of it.

My usual pattern was to go way overboard studying for the first test of the semester so I knew I got off to a good start and adjust as needed from there to maintain the high grade.

cramming is what 3.0ish GPA students do. No offense to the slew of people that are going to claim they really did there best and could only manage a 3.0 gpa.. I'm sure you were ultra dedicated and etc. etc. etc. You don't have to convince me that you gave it 110%.

 

[charfdorn]

I usually tend to see alot of people on these forums to claim that they crammed. So far in my undergrad year when i usually tend to cram for exams like genetics and cell bio i never end up doing that well, and thats mainly because there usually is a ton of info on the midterm and when i try to memorize it all in one day, my mind would usually just shut down and i feel burned out/stressed and cant absorb and retain anything. Also alot of the material i would try to cram i would be seeing/understanding for the first time cuz i never listened in class, that by the time of the test i would have done enough to pass and get an ok grade but never enough to get A+. for the people that are here on this site that always get A+ for genetics and cell bio courses, when you cram the day before your exam, do u just constantly go over material, or is there some other methods that help, so that when i do have to cram, i dont just shut down and burn out. thanks.

The problem with cramming for science classes is that you actually need to retain the stuff for later. You could probably get away with it for the tests, and maybe even get that A, but when the PCAT comes around you're going to need to cram again. Don't bother with this approach. Instead, review the material every day. What I used to do (or try to do, anyway) was read the chapter in the book that we were learning either the day before or the day after the lecture. This is great reinforcement. I have a pretty good memory, so that was often enough for me. When it isn't, I use either study guides from the prof (if you have so kind an instructor) or the review questions at the end of the book. But that's review, not re-learn.

The part that I bolded is your real problem. You need to address this right away.

 

[xtsukiyox]

The problem with cramming for science classes is that you actually need to retain the stuff for later. [...] The part that I bolded is your real problem. You need to address this right away.

I agree, chafdorn. Try to learn the concept and fit what you're learning into the "big picture" while you're in class. (As a bonus, if you ask questions directed to the overall concept rather than necessarily to the specific example, your instructor will probably be impressed. 😉) Use the questions in the book to understand the nitty gritty.

My opinion - although I'm sure I'm going to have to memorize a LOT of stuff for Pharm school - is that it's fairly pointless to memorize great lists of facts, especially if you don't understand the underlying concept. In the "real world," you'll be looking these lists up in books / on the Internet (and in the academic world, you'll be loading these into your short term memory). Don't get me wrong - there are things you Absolutely Have to memorize, but these charts and tables are few and far between. If you have a head for memorization and a good memory, it really does help to memorize all of them, but for the rest of us, it's not realistic.

To the OP, I think you're starting to go through a change that most people experience upon hitting college. The timeframe changes based on personal ability and other situational modifiers (such as the classes you take, etc).

The change is from a high school student - who only does homework because it's required for the grade, attends class because otherwise your parents will get a call from the truancy officer or "The Office," and doesn't think of school as "cumulative" since each course doesn't really build on the last so as not to leave anyone behind - to a college student. A college student has different motivations - learning it for the future and building on past experience, thinking of the instructor more as a guide and leader than the "end-all-be-all," taking responsibility for your own education, and being in class because you know it's a good use of time rather than because you have to be.

The higher your natural ability, the longer you can skate through college using the same tactics and attitude as high school. You'll find you understand the game better and college is more rewarding, though, because your outlook on it has changed.

P.S.:

My usual pattern was to go way overboard studying for the first test of the semester so I knew I got off to a good start and adjust as needed from there to maintain the high grade.

I use this tactic for several reasons. First, I have no idea what the test is going to look like, and how harsh the instructor is going to be grading. Look at the first test as a way to learn how the instructor wants to teach and adjust your studying / note taking accordingly. Secondly, I'm fresh and not yet burned out. 😛