“Why Cramming for Exams Isn’t Effective: Insights from a Brain Development Specialist”

Lyudmila Fokanova

59 minutes ago

The Ministry of Education allowed the abolition of the OGE. Photo: Pixabay

Pupils and students have a lot of signs and ways to prepare for exams. But from an early age, children are told that they need to do cramming, learning theorems and rules by heart. But is it really correct and effective, said Nikolai Yagodkin, a specialist in the development of the brain and learning skills.

Experts today question the effectiveness of cramming. Practice has shown that most students face difficulties. According to Yagodkin, by repeated repetition we rub a corn on the brain. In addition, schoolchildren and students spend a lot of effort on memorization, as a rule, without delving into the essence of the issue.

But memorizing poems, foreign words or mathematical formulas is not at all useless. It is important to find a practical application for what has been studied. For example, to count percentages in a store.

Children don’t like cramming because they’re bored. The child has fatigue, which is why an aversion to knowledge is formed. In addition, the rapid “erasing of information from memory” creates a feeling of useless work, when the material is forgotten almost immediately after the exams.

The specialist named the methods that will best help memorize new information. First of all, this is reading and retelling the material in free form. Effective and playful learning.

It is easy to remember a large amount of information using mnemonic techniques. In particular, one of the effective methods is considered to be the “Roman room of Cicero”. Its essence is that in order to remember the main points, they must be arranged in a certain order in a well-known room. Then you need to imagine this room in detail in order to remember what is fixed in memory.

Effective and writing summaries. You can also write by hand, voicing the material aloud. Thus, both visual, and tactile, and auditory memory work.

Visualizing information is another good method of preparing for exams. It is important not only to fix the text, but also to supplement it with drawings or diagrams. You can highlight important points with felt-tip pens, colored pens, bookmarks, or stickers.

You also need to mentally prepare for the exam. It is better to just read the material, and then retell and return to it, noting obscure or difficult places to yourself. It is important to go to bed on time. The next morning, you can wake up early and have a good breakfast, and then run through the material with your eyes. It is also advisable to retell the text to someone again.

And, most importantly: before any exam, get rid of the thought of failure, because cortisol (stress hormone) inhibits mental activity. You can make affirmations and smile in front of the mirror, which will bring a good mood.

Previously, EG wrote about how to prepare for the exam in two days. There are ten simple tricks.