Why Cramming is Bad For You

I do a lot of tutoring, and around this time every year, I get an onslaught of university students looking for help with their final projects and online finals.  Quite frankly it is more than a little annoying.  From an integrity standpoint, final exams and projects are meant to be solved on individually.  I cannot help.

So many of these requests come from a lack of preparation.  I are in a position that you actually want someone to solve your final exam or project for you, you have messed up a lot over the semester.

Here is how to never be in this position again.

Drop classes

I always recommend university students register for 2 more classes than they plan to take.  Go to all the classes for a couple of weeks and do your best.  

After those first two weeks, you will know how much work each class is going to be and you can drop 2 classes to create a balanced workload. 

Make sure you are done adjusting your schedule before the final drop date so you don’t risk fines.

Read the book and the recommended reading

Once the semester schedule is set, gather all the books the professor has put on the syllabus.  Often the exam questions will come directly from examples in the recommended reading.  

Plan to read all of the relevant chapters before class.  Take notes from the book and use those notes as a base for the professor’s notes.  

Take proper notes

When taking notes from a book, it is not enough to just rewrite relevant information.  

Instead of rewriting relevant information, try to summarize it. Build charts, timelines, how-to’s, and comics.  Use the information, and take care to process it.  

While making charts and summarizing information, questions are going to pop up.  Create a list of questions to ask the professor, and a list of questions the professor might ask on an exam.  Answer the proposed exam questions in as much detail as possible, and then use the answered questions to study for exams.  Leave space after the questions so more detail can be added to the answers later.

In class, have the questions for the professor out as a reference.  As the professor approaches the topic either answer them based on the professor’s lecture or ask the question in class and get it answered.  As more possible exam questions appear, add them to the list.

I find the easiest way to do this is to take book notes on the left side of the notebook, and the corresponding lecture notes on the right side.  Then I write questions in the margins in a different color.  I have friends who keep the possible exam questions on a google doc that they keep open on their phones during lectures.  

Find a system that works and make sure to take the time to process new information.  Don’t just read it.

Go to office hours

There is no downside to building a relationship with your professors.  They can check homework problems and help correct them, give further insight to the material, teach tricks theory didn’t have time to cover in class, and give fantastic letters of recommendation when applying for jobs.

If you have a relationship with your professor, and they know how hard you work, they are more likely to grade in your favor.  

Before you even consider hiring a tutor, make sure you are taking full advantage of your professors and TA’s office hours.

Study every day, don’t cram

To move information from short-term to long-term memory, the brain needs to see it often.  Spending 24 hours to a week cramming will only help hold the information in short term memory. 

If you cram for your first midterm instead of actually studying regularly, the information won’t move to long-term memory.  As the subject matter progresses, it will become increasingly difficult to keep up with the new material because the foundation isn’t there.

Soon, you are stuck in a cycle of cramming, and your problem sets will become impossibly hard.

Don’t wait until the last minute for homework

Do everything in your power to have your homework done before office hours.  

If you come to office hours with specific questions and have clearly attempted every problem in the problem set, your professor is much more likely to be able to help you.  It is so hard to answer questions when the student hasn’t even looked at the problems.  

Problem sets are important.  Spend time on them and give your best effort before office hours so you have time to make corrections.

Talk to the prof about extenuating circumstances

Two days before finals, my grandmother died.  Less than a month earlier, my mom was diagnosed with cancer.  I was having a really bad year.  

So I sent an email to my professors.  Some of them dropped the final and gave me a take-home problem set.  Others offered me an incomplete.  One set an essay that they would take as the final and last exam.

Professors do actually understand students are people with troubles too.  If something outside of the norm has happened, talk to your professors so you don’t fall behind or wind up unnecessarily failing a class.

Finally,

If you have gotten to the point you feel the need to hire a tutor, and it isn’t a foundational class, you have done something wrong.

Tutors don’t have a relationship with your professor.  We don’t have the solutions manual for your book.  There is no way for us to present information the same way your professor would.

There are some exceptions.  Calculus is always going to be calculus.  But don’t expect your tutor to solve control theory problems the same way your professor does.  

Before contacting a tutor, make sure you have done everything else on this list first.  If that isn’t enough, schedule some one-on-one time with your TA or consider dropping the class and trying again.  Otherwise, you run the risk of getting more confused.

I know this has been a particularly rough year for everyone, and I can understand the temptation to hire someone to solve your final for you.  Please understand that doing so puts your future and the tutor’s career on the line.  I promise it isn’t worth it.

Good luck with finals.