• MAKE CHOICES  --  Don't try to learn it all when you cram. You can't. Instead pick out a few of the most important elements of the course and earn those backward, forward, and upside down. If you cover a lot of material lightly, chances are, you will recall none of it during the exam. A useful guide is to spend 25 percent of cramming time learning new material and 75 percent of cramming time drilling yourself on that material.

 

• MAKE A PLAN  --  Cramming is always done when time is short. That is all the more reason to take a few minutes to create a plan. Choose what you want to study (suggestion #1), determine how much time you have, and set deadlines for yourself. Making a plan can save you time and allow you to work faster.

 

• USE MIND MAP REVIEW SHEETS AND FLASH CARDS -- Condense the material you have chosen to learn into mind maps. Choose several elements of the mind maps to put on 3x5 flash cards. Practice recreating the mind maps, complete with illustrations. Drill yourself with the flash cards.

 

• RECITE AD NAUSEAM  --  The key to cramming is repetitive recitation. Recitation can burn facts into your brain like no other study method. Go over your material again and again and again. One option is to tape-record yourself while you recite. Then play the tape as you fall asleep and as you wake up in the morning. Repeat out loud what you have chosen to study until you are confident that you will be able to recall it.

 

• RELAX  --  Because you do not learn material well when you cram, you are more likely to freeze and forget it under the pressure of an exam. Relaxation techniques can be used to reduce test anxiety, both before and during the test.

 

• And one more thing . . . . don't say DON'T, either.

•Adapted from Becoming a Master Student, by David Ellis, 1994 Houghton Mifflin Company