You have probably read articles about "How to Properly Study," and this is not one of those articles. Those articles tell you manage your time, go to class, read the chapter before class, etc… Who has time to do all that? I don't. The problem with most college students is that we are either too busy working or too busy partying. We do not allow ourselves enough time to properly study for anything. Let's face it, how many of you remember that you have a test until the night before?

I know from personal experience, that I have crammed for most of the tests that I have taken in my college career. As a student of psychology in human performance, I have learned some techniques that will get you through those unbearable hours before the test. These tips have shown to increase scores on tests for those who have followed the tips. The focus of this guide is to give you some techniques that you can use to store the information in memory and be able to remember it when the test comes along.

KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MATERIAL

Try to make it to class and listen to the lectures. I know this may be a difficult task if the class is before noon. It is important to know which chapters are the most important to the professors. The reason is that most of the questions will come from those chapters. This is a big advantage in studying so that you can spend more emphasis on the important chapters, and skim through the others.

If you know that the test is going to cover chapters four, five, and six, then order in which you study is important. For example, if the professor spends most of the time on chapter five, then that is a strong indication that it is an important chapter. Then you look on which is more important, four or six. Let's say that you determine that chapter four is more important than chapter six.

The order in which you read the chapters is important in what you remember. In many psychological experiments dealing with the theory of primacy and recency, people remember words or material that is at the beginning and the end more than they do the middle. Therefore, it is important that you read chapter four first. It is second on your list of importance. After you read chapter four, you read chapter six. Though it may not follow in sequence, the material is what you are looking to remember. The last chapter you read is chapter five. When the test comes along, you will be able to remember what you read in chapter five the best. This is important because most of the questions will come from this chapter.

TAKE BREAKS AND MOVE AROUND

How many times did you start cramming for a test and fell asleep before you finished? I cannot count the number of times I have heard that from fellow classmates. The key to effective studying is taking an appropriate amount of breaks. When you feel yourself to nod off, get up and do something to wake up a little. DO NOT FORCE YOURSELF TO KEEP STUDYING! When you force yourself to keep studying, that is when you fall asleep. When you start to nod off, your mind cannot handle anymore information. Forcing yourself to keep studying is pointless because you will not remember any of it the next day, so TAKE A BREAK!

When you take your break, get up and move your books to a different location. Do not sit back down in the same seat you were in before. Although the new location will not keep you awake, it provides a new atmosphere. The more locations that you study in, the better chance you have to recall the material during the test. I know this sounds a little strange, but it works. Information is stored into memory through a variety of ways, including paired with what is around you. This comes from the theory of encoding specificity. Therefore, the more locations that you study in increase the probability of triggering that part in memory where the information is located.

VARY THE CONDITIONS

What kind of mood are you in when you are cramming for a test? If you are like me, then you are probably panicking. You do not think you can learn all of the material in time and do well on the test. The last thing we want to do is fail the test. One thing that will help you is if you change you attitude throughout the study time. It is all right to be panicked and nervous when you study, but do not study the whole time like that. After a couple breaks, relax a little bit. Read the comics to put yourself in a happier mood. You do not have to read the comics but do something that makes you laugh.

During tests, professors like to put in answers that are comical in nature. I cannot remember a test where I have not laughed at one of the answers to a question. Just the laugh alone on the test can trigger the information you read when you were in a good mood. It works the same as above in storing information. Your emotional or physical state plays a role in encoding information into memory. Try to go through all the emotions that you experience during a test. Also, if you tend to get hungry, thirsty, or even sick during a test, remember them and write them down.

The purpose of writing them down is to give you a list of the types of moods you should mimic while you study. This will be a benefit for you when you take the test. If you experience one of those moods during a test, the odds of remembering the information that you studied are greater. This gives you a wide opportunity to remember the most information in a cramming session.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The more you follow these guidelines for cramming, the easier it will be to prepare for a test. If you do this once and it improves your grades, you will be more confident in studying using these guidelines. Eventually, studying for a test will not take hours upon hours and you will remember more each cramming session. Jordan Zapareski of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University never did too well on his tests. He always put off studying for the last minute because no matter what he did he always received the same grades. After learning these techniques, he has significantly done better on tests. "Studying always put me to sleep," Jordan said, "but after learning how to make effective use of my time, it's easy."

This guide to cramming is not a replacement for proper preparation, but simply tool to use in those desperate situations. You can use these tools when you to have time to study, as well. If you spent a week studying for the test and followed these guidelines, you would see even more improvement. This is not something that is new; it is just new to college students.

. comments or criticisms for the author or . zine .? we're intersted in hearing. not to mention we're interested in getting conversations going on the wwwboard. everything is open to the possibility of something more, get your mind as active as your mouth, or maybe get your mouth as active as your mind.
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