Whenever exams and tests are in the corner,
it is not uncommon to see students running
helter skelter looking for summarized notes
and materials to photocopy, cram
temporarily, only to forget after
‘downloading’ on the exam day. This practice
is very unique as it is done within a very
short time, sometimes as short as 5 hours
before the exam.
It’s really an amazing sight to see this set of
students do what they do; they show very
little desperation and only need a quiet
environment to absorb the whole junk of a
semester’s work load in their head. It is
noticeable that these categories of students
do not attend lectures during the semester
and when they do, they take the backseats
uninterested in what the lecturer has got to
say. These “crammers” as observed spend a
good part of the semester doing other stuff
that ranges from business to clubbing and
time wasting.
However, it would be very unsafe to say that
only these categories of students “cram”. It is
also noticeable among the best students in
class who specialize in lifting definitions,
terminologies, principles & theories into
their memories only to download verbatim
on answer sheets without altering the original
contents.
I am, for example, guilty of this, an
inadequacy that can sometimes be traced to
the persistent request by lecturers requiring
verbatim answers to questions in exams.
Thus, students worry less about expanding
knowledge, but rather they wait till exam
periods to cram their course notes and
materials.]
In the popular movie, 3 Idiots of Bollywood,
produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, this
cramming technique was effectively done by
the character, Chatur Ramalingam, also
called “silencer”. It was humorous to watch
its outcome for him when he was selected to
give the introductory speech on Teachers
day.
Going down the history lane, it would be
observed that the cramming culture is
inculcated into pupils as early as primary
school as they are made to cram the multiple
times table, metric tables, arithmetic s and
so on. I remember vividly my experience
with my class teacher while in primary 3
whose first duty every morning in class then
was to ask random questions on our
memorized “times table” and those who failed
to supply an answer in ample time had their
buttocks whipped with strokes of cane. This
is not to say such technique of education was
bad, as what I memorized then are still in my
memory today.
I sincerely think that the difference between
cramming in the earlier years and what is
obtainable now is CONSISTENCY. This can be
explained with Ebbinghaus’s “Spacing Effect”.
According to him, “spacing effect is the
process whereby animals (including humans)
more easily remember or learn items when
they are studied a few times spaced over a
long time span rather than repeatedly studied
in a short span of time” (H. Ebbinghaus,
1885). To explain this, while I was young, I
consistently had to read and memorize the
times table and thus it stuck, but what is
obtainable in universities these days is to see
students only cram when exams are around
the corner and because they do not
consistently read up their notes, source for
more information from friends and over the
internet, they forget all that is “crammed” in
a short time.
It is also quite unsurprising that majority of
college students forget a good chunk of what
they were tested on in the previous
semester’s exam few weeks into a new
semester. As Ebbinghaus demonstrated again,
if information was acquired in a stressful and
unhealthy circumstances such as cramming ,
its retention in the memory diminishes
quickly. Cramming, thus, may not be always
advisable if the goal is to be EDUCATED
It will also be unfair to say that cramming in
itself is completely wrong as it has immense
benefits; for example, cramming sessions
ensure students are able to see what they are
made of and improve on their current brain
abilities. Cosnider this: a person who walks
steadily over long distances will not have a
heart as strong as a person who runs at quick
bursts over short distances. It pushes them
to do beyond their abilities and also improve
on their short term memory.
Well, you might say, it is only useful for
grades, not true learning. That’s left for you
to decide. I’ll leave you with this question,
“Is cramming that bad?

source: http://www.jarushub.com/whats-wrong-with-cramming-to-pass/

bilexg: Whenever exams and tests are in the corner,
it is not uncommon to see students running
helter skelter looking for summarized notes
and materials to photocopy, cram
temporarily, only to forget after
‘downloading’ on the exam day. This practice
is very unique as it is done within a very
short time, sometimes as short as 5 hours
before the exam.
It’s really an amazing sight to see this set of
students do what they do; they show very
little desperation and only need a quiet
environment to absorb the whole junk of a
semester’s work load in their head. It is
noticeable that these categories of students
do not attend lectures during the semester
and when they do, they take the backseats
uninterested in what the lecturer has got to
say. These “crammers” as observed spend a
good part of the semester doing other stuff
that ranges from business to clubbing and
time wasting.
However, it would be very unsafe to say that
only these categories of students “cram”. It is
also noticeable among the best students in
class who specialize in lifting definitions,
terminologies, principles & theories into
their memories only to download verbatim
on answer sheets without altering the original
contents.
I am, for example, guilty of this, an
inadequacy that can sometimes be traced to
the persistent request by lecturers requiring
verbatim answers to questions in exams.
Thus, students worry less about expanding
knowledge, but rather they wait till exam
periods to cram their course notes and
materials.]
In the popular movie, 3 Idiots of Bollywood,
produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, this
cramming technique was effectively done by
the character, Chatur Ramalingam, also
called “silencer”. It was humorous to watch
its outcome for him when he was selected to
give the introductory speech on Teachers
day.
Going down the history lane, it would be
observed that the cramming culture is
inculcated into pupils as early as primary
school as they are made to cram the multiple
times table, metric tables, arithmetic s and
so on. I remember vividly my experience
with my class teacher while in primary 3
whose first duty every morning in class then
was to ask random questions on our
memorized “times table” and those who failed
to supply an answer in ample time had their
buttocks whipped with strokes of cane. This
is not to say such technique of education was
bad, as what I memorized then are still in my
memory today.
I sincerely think that the difference between
cramming in the earlier years and what is
obtainable now is CONSISTENCY. This can be
explained with Ebbinghaus’s “Spacing Effect”.
According to him, “spacing effect is the
process whereby animals (including humans)
more easily remember or learn items when
they are studied a few times spaced over a
long time span rather than repeatedly studied
in a short span of time” (H. Ebbinghaus,
1885). To explain this, while I was young, I
consistently had to read and memorize the
times table and thus it stuck, but what is
obtainable in universities these days is to see
students only cram when exams are around
the corner and because they do not
consistently read up their notes, source for
more information from friends and over the
internet, they forget all that is “crammed” in
a short time.
It is also quite unsurprising that majority of
college students forget a good chunk of what
they were tested on in the previous
semester’s exam few weeks into a new
semester. As Ebbinghaus demonstrated again,
if information was acquired in a stressful and
unhealthy circumstances such as cramming ,
its retention in the memory diminishes
quickly. Cramming, thus, may not be always
advisable if the goal is to be EDUCATED
It will also be unfair to say that cramming in
itself is completely wrong as it has immense
benefits; for example, cramming sessions
ensure students are able to see what they are
made of and improve on their current brain
abilities. Cosnider this: a person who walks
steadily over long distances will not have a
heart as strong as a person who runs at quick
bursts over short distances. It pushes them
to do beyond their abilities and also improve
on their short term memory.
Well, you might say, it is only useful for
grades, not true learning. That’s left for you
to decide. I’ll leave you with this question,
“Is cramming that bad?

source: http://www.jarushub.com/whats-wrong-with-cramming-to-pass/

All I can say is "Cramming" is only good/useful and advisable to an extent. Real and sustainable knowledge isn't acquired by cramming.

La cram ,la pour: as u cram it, u pour it down. I av a friend who does dat alone, he can cram pages.his brilliant though, he came out with 2nd class upper

The problem with cramming is that the knowledge does not stick to your brain. Also when an applied question is posed, the 'crammer' becomes stranded. But I think cramming is being encouraged by this our system where the lecturers are interested in getting their notes/textbooks reproduced for them on the exam answer sheets rather than applied knowledge.

Cramming is not bad anyway but you are left with nothing almost immediately afterwards.

Emperorking20:
All I can say is "Cramming" is only good/useful and advisable to an extent. Real and sustainable knowledge isn't acquired by cramming.

eleojo23: The problem with cramming is that the knowledge does not stick to your brain. Also when an applied question is posed, the 'crammer' becomes stranded. But I think cramming is being encouraged by this our system where the lecturers are interested in getting their notes/textbooks reproduced for them on the exam answer sheets rather than applied knowledge.

Emperorking20:
All I can say is "Cramming" is only good/useful and advisable to an extent. Real and sustainable knowledge isn't acquired by cramming.

so u mean its goodness all depends on usuage?