WHAT’S WRONG WITH CRAMMING TO PASS?
Abiola Ayodeji Gbemisola
Abiola is a 300 level student of Economics at the
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria He tweets from @bilex_g
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?
References:
1. nathanielzhu.hubpages.com/hub/Benefits-of-Cramming-before-a-Test
2. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacing_effect
3. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/forgetting_curve
yes it is bad
Splendid one! Cramming is seen only as a means to an end…memory traces of crammed material disapper from lack of referral, which you call consistency.
Nice article.
Well.I think from ur points,you also agree it is bad.
Cramming has its benefits,like u stated,but it should never be d 1st option.
yea. You r correct Ibrahim.
Tnxx for the comments guys. To determine if its wrong or not may depend on its usuage.
Nice article. But like u said, if u want education, u can’t cram. I think d reason why we have so many ‘unemployable’ graduates in Nigeria is because they crammed mostly during their undergraduate days and as such cant apply wot they have learnt. Cramming may be good in the short run but the effects in the long run might not be that good. Study to get knowledge and u will pass your exams quite well. Just my opinion
What a nice piece! Though I do cram sometimes but I have come to discover that it doesn’t help a lot when you still have to go further in d same course in which you crammed the foundation and dumped it later, so I agree its bad
An absolutely interesting article!
As you rightly pointed out, cramming (memorizing) is one of the vestiges of elementary education in Nigeria. The lesson most of us learnt was “cram or be flogged”…”cram or fail”…”cram or no vacation” etc. Hence it is only natural that we grow up with such notion bearing in mind that all we want to do is pass at the expense of acquiring sound education. Perhaps this also alludes to the fact that examinations are not a true evaluation of a person’s abilities. The system of education being run in Nigeria should be reviewed as it does not allow for thought evolution.
Well, it all depends on one’s definition of cramming, for am not aware of anyone that would read without cramming anything. No matter how genius you’re, you can’t escape memorizing some terminologies as you can’t just twist their definitions. As an undergraduate one of the best students in my class was a very good at memorizing and can as well explain what he crammed; this is not the same for all students though.
The writer also saw the negative effects of cramming at an interview of recent, when his interviewer asked him to tell him what M2 and Philips curve is ( He is an Econs graduate), even though he answered but not in a very perfect manner. such is the evil effects of cramming.
Cramming is not good but it is sometimes helpful