What is the Best Way to Cram for a Final/Exam?

Cramming- we all say we do it in university. What is it and is there a way to successfully do it? Did your friend who said they crammed and got an A really do it?

Cramming crisis

In first year of university, I took a statistics course where the professor and lecture material made no sense, and made worse as the class was scheduled from 6pm-8pm at night in winter. After the first three classes, I skipped all the rest of the classes for the semester and just did the readings/questions blindly without knowing whether I was on target. Exam time came, and of course my exam schedule was back to back. I decided to pull an all-nighter, resolving not to sleep until after the exam the next day. If you’ve ever done an all-nighter with coffee and not slept, you start out feeling great- pumped from the coffee, feeling like Batman taking over the night, then it goes downhill to feeling like you’re studying in a fog, then on a hangover, and memorizing how to do stats proofs in that condition is like the Joker writing formulas on a a baseball bat and pounding your head with it. For all that, I got a mediocre B. Was I utterly wrecked after the exam? Was I in a sleep coma through the rest of the day? Did I regret stressing and torturing myself like that? Yes, yes and yes.

Cramming defined

People like to say they crammed for an exam, it sounds more fun than saying you studied regularly, and to be fair it’s a term used loosely that no one really cares to define anyway. So your friend who said they got an A by “cramming” was probably just doing their usual studying. To us, cramming is not simply trying to stuff material into your brain - that’s just studying in general. Cramming is studying in a specific set of conditions: A very short period of time prior to the exam, say a day or two of study time or less, and where you did not know the material well going into that study session. If you knew the class material well before that short period of time, well that’s just regular exam prep to refresh material you already know. 

If you’re reading this because your quiz or exam is in the next day or two, the truth will hurt, but the reality is that it’s an uphill battle at this point depending on how much work you’ve put into the course. If at the start of the semester, a genie had appeared and said you could earn $10 million if you got a 95% in the exam, you’d have put in tons of study time regularly the whole semester. So the amount and quality of preparation definitely matters - for regular studying and going into a cram session.

How to succeed at cramming?

Under our definition of cramming, it boils down to a few factors: how much time you have to prepare for the exam or quiz, how well you knew the material before the cram session, and how well you can game the exam. For some easier courses and those with multiple choice exams, cramming is sometimes very efficient - reread your class notes quickly, focus on getting at least two-thirds of the questions right, eliminate some responses to guess a few and bam, you’re at an A. But for many courses, especially harder ones with written responses, you’ll want to check out the guidelines below.

Cramming guidelines

1. Time: Time is our limiting factor here, so first figure out how much time you can set aside. Figure in a decent sleep before the exam as not having enough can impair your recall ability and so you don’t misread questions.
2. Topics: Identify topics or questions that have the highest chances of being on the exam. The best way to do this is to quickly skim topic weights and mark weights that have occurred in past exam papers. Make sure to check class notes too as professors can sometimes tell you what will show up.
3. Weight your time according to topic importance: Past exams are a crammer’s best friend. Work on answering the higher priority, higher mark, more recent past exam questions for the course. Another option is lecture material and class notes but be careful with this as it can take some time to go through. In a situation where each past exam takes 2-3 hours to review, the most you can get through in a day are 3-4 exams without your brain melting down, so allocate time wisely to each of these topics/questions as needed.
4. Known or unknown material? It’s better to focus on nailing the questions and material that you know relatively better. It is difficult in a stressful situation and likely inefficient with a short amount of time remaining to learn new content.
5. Memorize or learn? At this point, your best bet is rote memorization. Importantly, hand write exam responses and at the same time, speak your notes out loud to yourself - all 3 of physical, mental and audio retention combined will be more effective than just individual methods like reading in your head or highlighting.
6. Group study sessions? These can become a toss-up depending on the group. Has everyone in the group studied well in advance, are they willing to share notes, and do they want to help you? It could be that the group prepared so well, they share prep material with you, and they’ve got plenty of time to help you out. Or on the other hand, they didn’t prepare, don’t want to share what they’ve done, and are stressed themselves. Be upfront with the group why you’re cramming and hopefully they help you out with their notes.
7. Feeling lucky? If your professor likes to wildly vary topic weights and questions on the exam, pray for the best.

Key takeaways: Cramming is a high stress activity that largely relies on your professor creating predictable exams and if not, sheer luck. If you’re not cramming now and are just enjoying the read, congrats. However, if you’re in a cramming pickle now, try the cramming guidelines above and we wish you good luck!

PS. Don’t do it again!