Paper
Cramming vs Scheduled studying
University of Iowa
Media Tafreshi
Cramming vs. Scheduled studying
Abstract
Students
nowadays are spending less time actually studying and more time cramming for
classes. Research that has been done over many years that shows that scheduled
studying is much more effective than cramming before an exam or a test.
However, this research may be different and outdated as to what it would have
been like if it was done today. In this report, students at the University of
Iowa were surveyed to see what type of studying they do for themselves in their
own classes and what fits best. The survey also shows what different types of
studying can do to grades and progress overall.
Introduction
What
is the best way to study for the best grade and how? That’s a question that can
have so many answers to it. There are different ways to study for school exams
and tests. The two biggest known ways to prepare for exams or tests are
cramming and studying. Both have been done quite a lot by many students over
time, but which one works best and why?
Cramming often happens when
students procrastinate and put off studying until the last possible minute they
can. For people who have a set time and schedule to study, they have much less
stress before the test, they can retain information long term much easier, and
they can study for less time for an overall long period. This may be simple for
some, but for others it is hard since there needs to be a lot of time set aside
for organization of planning what times and when to study. For cramming, there
are also some benefits of this method. For example, the less time spent
studying, people can spend it doing what they want to do with their time. Also,
no planning is required for this! Since there is not much time spent studying,
it will be harder to retain long term information. Instead, the brain will only
retain 20% of what is learned, also called short term retention.
According to Gradepower, “A big
reason why cramming does not work is that it dramatically increases a student’s
stress levels. This stress has a negative effect on their ability to
concentrate, making preparing for a test even more difficult”(GPL, 3). Students
already have enough stress on their minds, adding onto it before a test is not
the best way to study if they actually want to learn the material. It is better
to plan out a schedule to study for shorter periods of time but for an overall
longer period.
There
are some pros to cramming as well. According to Oxford learning, “Cramming is a
quick way to review material and re-familiarize yourself with key concepts and
maybe even get a decent grade”(Oxford, p. 3). So there can be benefits from
cramming for tests as well as cons.
This
research is important because it shows what method is best for getting a better
grade on exams with everyday people who do these different methods of choice.
Methods
Participants:
The people who
participated in this study were college students from freshman to fifth year
students at the University of Iowa in the Fall of 2018. Twenty-three anonymous students
partook in this survey.
Procedure: Participants waived their right to
be independently labeled, thus making this an anonymous survey. The students
who participated in this were asked to take part in an anonymous survey. These
questions were in relation of the students preferred method of studying. There
were four questions in the survey to complete. The first question was, “What
grade do you get on an exam when you cram?” The second question asked, “What
grade do you get on an exam when you schedule your study time?” The third
question asked, “If you space out your studying, how many days before the exam
do you start studying?” The fourth question asked, “If you cram, how many hours
of studying do you do before an exam?”. There were four to five choices of
answers for each question so that people can answer as accurately as the
possible can.
The
graph above shows how many days before the exam people start studying if they
space it out. The figure shows that more than half the people surveyed spent
three to four days before the exam to study on a schedule. This displays that
people spend a decent amount of time devoted to studying.
The
figure above displays the results of the grade people get when they schedule
their studies. As shown above, the graph displays that the majority of people
who organized and space out their studying get A’s and B’s on their tests.
The
graph above shows how many hours are spent studying if students are cramming.
The majority of the results are that 39.1% of students spend seven or more
hours cramming for an exam, which is very unhealthy.
The
figure above displays the grade people students get on an exam when they cram
for it. As shown above, less than 4.3% of students get an A. Mostly they get a
C or a B.
Discussion
This study represents the
participants at the University of Iowa and their specific methods of studying
for exams. This study also shows their grades pertaining to which method of
studying they choose to do.
The study showed that when students
choose to schedule their study time and space out the days and hours that they
study, they eventually got a higher grade on their tests. The students who
crammed for their exams were shown to have the lower grade on their test. This
survey shows that spaced out studying for a shorter time is much more better
and effective than cramming for a long period of time.
References
Does
Cramming for Tests Work? (2017, May 30). Retrieved from https://gradepowerlearning.com/does-cramming-work/
Oxford
Learning. (2018). The Pros and Cons of Cramming | Oxford Learning. [online]
Available at: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-cramming/
[Accessed 28 Oct. 2018].
Appendix
What grade
do you get on an exam when you schedule your studying?
A.
A
B.
B
C.
C
D.
D
E.
F
F.
Other
If you
space out your studying, how many days before the exam do you start studying?
A.
1-2
B.
3-4
C.
5-6
D.
7+
What grade
do you get on an exam when you cram?
A.
A
B.
B
C.
C
D.
D
E.
F
F.
Other
If you
cram, how many hours of studying do you do before an exam?
A.
1-2
B.
3-4
C.
5-6
D.
7+
Your Abstract needs to include the results of your survey and the implications of your research.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction could be more concise by removing unnecessary words and phrases. I don't have a hard copy of your paper so I can't mark exactly where. You make statements in your introduction paragraph (people who study have less stress, cramming takes less time, the brain will only retain 20% of what is learned, etc.); these statements need to be supported with sources.
I think it is an important part of any survey to include demographic information such as age and gender. These factors can affect your data. Four questions is not enough for a survey of this nature. In addition, your first two questions, "What grade do you get on an exam when you cram?" and "What grade do you get on an exam when you schedule your study time?," are impossible to measure accurately. The grade is not only reliant on the method of study. The grade may fluctuate depending on the class, the specific chapters covered, the grading method of the teacher and a number of other factors. And suppose that someone has crammed for 10 tests in total. It is unlikely that they've received the same grade on each test, so how are they supposed to choose only one answer to your question?
I cannot tell if your visuals are effective because they don't appear properly on your blog. Also, I would specify what you define as "cramming".
The word "cramming" has negative connotations already. We have been taught in school that cramming for a test is a poor choice and shows laziness and a bad work ethic. I believe this sways your results, because people are trained to believe that cramming will negatively affect their test scores.
Your discussion section needs significantly more information. You need to talk more about your findings and discuss the implications of your research. I believe you also need to include a section on the flaws of your study and how you'd improve this survey if you were to do it again.
Two sources are not enough, and neither of your sources are academic, nor were they published by an organization or governmental program.
After reading your paper I thought overall it was good, except you did have some minor mistakes that would help the flow of the paper a little better. Some of the things you should work on is the actual formatting of the paper, I noticed some minor mistakes with how some of the parapgraphs didn't include a lot of the information you were supposed to have. like for instance in methods you're supposed to have participants, procedure, and also the thing your missing is analysis. Another thing you can focus on to get the reader even more engaged in your paper would be explaining the data more, you have a sentence or two which really doesn't help the reader understand the graphs and pie charts that good. if you were to explain more in this section it would really help out with your paper. Also in your discussion you don't really talk about everything, you kind of only talk into a paragraph or two, which doesn't really help someone understand you conclusion. My recommendation for your paper is too really go online to icon and to look at all the examples, this will really help out with all your information. also another thing you should work on is your references, in your references you only have two. you needed at least 4 credible sources and all I see is two, suggesting two things. one thing would be trying to out source your information by collecting a lot of evidence to help pursue or lead to the major point your concluding with in the paper, another would be its a requirement to have at least 4. over all though I thought the paper was a good foundation but now you need to really build it up.
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