subject: Pointers To Rememer When Cramming For A Quiz [print this page] One should not seek to cram all test preparation into the final few hours before an exam. But sometimes such a situation is unavoidable. If you find yourself in such a situation, there are certain ways to make the most out of your late-night study session.
The absolute most important thing to remember is to take a deep breath. While your exam may be important, it is most likely not a life-or-death situation. Regardless, stressing out over such a situation will only hurt your ability to keep on-task and remember concepts.
If you understand that in the grade scheme of things, one test will not wreck your grade point average, you will be in a much better mental state in which to study. Come at it from the perspective that you would already be failing the exam, so anything better than an F could be considered a success.
The first thing to do is try to come at studying with a clear mind. Your minimal goal is to come away from the test with a better than failing grade.
The main purpose of cramming is to obtaining as high a grade as possible with a minimal amount of effort. This should raise you in your professor's and classmates' esteem.
Learning experts agree that the best way to approach such last minute cram sessions is to break down the subject matter into smaller packets of information. Much study material is already subdivided into chapters or subheadings. Pick out the concepts behind the chapters and parse it out from there.
Basically, you should master one area of your subject matter at a time. Once you have a firm grasp of that material, you can move on to the next section, and so on and so on until you've covered everything to be tested.
Once you have mastered the major points, you should have a far better concept of the subject at hand. At the very least you will most likely have avoided a failing grade.
