SHABIHA NUR KHATOON, OP
The teaching-learning process in schools is deeply flawed and there is an urgent need to overhaul existing teaching methodologies to discourage students from adopting
counterproductive practices that hinder their natural aptitude for learning
Movies mirror the society. Remember that iconic scene from the film ‘3 Idiots’ where Aamir Khan, aka ‘Rancho’, challenges his professor on a debate for how definitions should be given.
There are students who think writing the exact definitions on answer sheets during exam will help them fetch good marks. So sometimes without even understanding the concept they start to memorise to get good grades and this is also a reason why students cram.
But books are not going to help students excel in life. There is a need for proper education and a proper system in order to make students true learners. Cramming has become a tradition in our education system. From the junior level to intermediate, students are forced to learn lessons by means of cramming. They are forced to read out loud and repeat until the lessons are firmly fixed in their minds. They are not allowed to use their own words. It is not the mistake of a student who chooses to become a crammer but also the teachers who encourage them.
Cramming for an exam is a time-honoured practice. It’s stressful no doubt, but it’s also a technique that most students prefer. Stress cramming for an exam does not work, because the facts are likely to be lost from memory in a short time.
Instead it is best to learn through practice tests to protect the brain from the effects of stress, with a study showing that we remember more this way.
The findings published in the journal Science show that re-reading is far better than cramming as the stress level is less in active learning compared to cramming.
Under pressure, researchers examining 120 students found those learning off a page remembered only an average of seven out of 30 words and images. But those who learned the words and images, then sat a timed practice test, were able to retrieve 11 of the 30 on average from their memory.
Senior study author Ayanna Thomas, an associate psychology professor from Tufts University in Masachusetts, said: “Typically, people under stress are less effective at retrieving information from memory.
“We have shown for the first time that the right learning strategy, in this case retrieval practice or taking practice tests, results in such strong memory representations that even under high levels of stress, subjects are still able to access their memories.”
Co-author Amy Smith, a graduate psychology student at Tufts, added: “The results suggest that it is not necessarily a matter of how much or how long someone studies, but how they study.”
“Retrieval” practice, or using practice tests, had already been found to work better when revising. But the new study looked at how the two strategies worked under added pressure from stress.
The research team asked participants to learn a set of 30 words and 30 images which flashed up for a few seconds each on a computer screen. They took notes, typing sentences using the items they had seen, with some then taking practice tests and the rest studying conventionally.
Learning by taking practice tests, a strategy known as retrieval practice, can protect memory against the negative effects of stress.
Those who learned using the practice tests showed little damage to their memory from the stress, remembering an average of 11 out of 30 items compared to 10 for their non-stressed counterparts.
But those who learned by re-reading saw the items they remembered fall from just under nine items to seven on average.
Thomas said: “Our one study is certainly not the final say on how retrieval practice influences memory under stress, but I can see this being applicable to any individual who has to retrieve complex information under high stakes.
“Especially for educators, where big exams can put a great deal of pressure on students, I really encourage employing more frequent more low-stakes testing in context of their instruction.”
But the habit of cramming in students raises concerns about educational methodology. Sunday POST spoke to a few teachers on how defective cramming is as an academic technique.
Satya Sunder Das, principal of Divine Public School, said that students usually prepare for their exams at the last moment when they usually have weeks of preparations ahead of them. “Students believe that the only solution to cover the entire syllabus is to cram. However, cramming has many bad effects like bad output, exhaustion, anxiety and knowledge overload,” he said.
The principal pointed out a few reasons as to why students cram: “Some students find it difficult to regularly sit for studies. They tend to either get distracted or they have other interests. While another reason for cramming is that students like to feel that if they brush up the key points of a subject before an exam then it would stay in their heads for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, our brain doesn’t work that way. Certain students seem to choose it because it pushes them to work hard and gives them extra time to go and hang out with friends,” he said.
Cramming has a lot of negative effects on students. It results in reading fatigue before an exam. Students who cram are low on confidence because they have a lot of syllabus to cover within a short span of time. Students don’t realise that if they put in some extra effort, a difference can be made.
Smaranika Panda, CBSE tele-counsellor and faculty of Delhi Public School, Kalinga, said: “Cramming itself is not improper; the word cramming may sound a bit negative but in some cases rote learning is required, for example, the multiplication table or the periodic table. Rote learning is required because it is a combination of repetitions of record. Understanding is required but at the initial stage it becomes difficult for a student to comprehend the detailed philosophical aspect of the subject. So at times, learning through repetition has its advantages. Thus discarding the procedure of learning through repetition is also not appropriate.”
She added: “Cramming as such is defective mainly because students try to gather a lot of information within a short period of time and then present it in the exam paper and after that they forget all about it. It’s quite obvious that this kind of trend is not going to help in the long run.
“Cramming is considered to be an unhealthy practice; however children do it and there are reasons too like lack of time management skills and procrastination. Sometimes it so happens that students delay when it comes to studies and finally land in a situation where they have to memorise everything without even understanding the concept.”
The faculty also explains as to why students cram.
“Students cram because they feel if they are not perfect in their answers they won’t get full marks. This is something which is not for those students who are into procrastination or lack of time management; these are children who tend to be good performers. We cannot say that cramming is present among certain set of students, there are students who are good performers and are into cramming. These students get away cramming and get rewarded often when they score 90 or 95 per cent. Teachers make it very clear in their class what needs to be memorise and what needs to be understand. And they also make those drills like in junior classes, the multiplication tables are taught in a musical style.”
Anil Patnaik, coordinator for external examination, DPS Damanjodi, said that in cramming, children “rent” information, rather than ‘own’ it for a long period of time. A child who crams leaves important details, as a result of stress and pressure. It is said that working under pressure results well but cramming under pressure results in low quality work.
He says, “Cramming results because of lack of discipline and procrastination, a cramming child holds his book in hand until he enters the exam hall and till he gets instruction from the invigilator. The information gathered by cramming has got wings, it flies as and when the exam gets over, there is no long term retention. The only solution to cramming is self discipline and regularity in studies. Regularity in studies enables them for long term retention and teachers must inspire the children to understand the magic of long term memory. The practice of cramming should be eradicated, and students must be appreciated to be creative to write thoughts in their own words.
STUDENTS’ TAKES
Sristhy Saxena, a Class XII student of St Joseph’s High School, has to cram quite often as she has to complete her entire syllabus within a stipulated time frame. “If we write something from our own we develop more knowledge about it and understand the concept better. Actually what happens is we memorise everything under pressure as we have to cover our syllabus which is as big as an ocean. And by doing this we are not gaining anything, but we are left with no other option. I do it every time as I have to cover the entire syllabus within a short time frame. There are some topics which need understanding and we do that but there are also topics where we just memorise the content,” Sristhy says. Class IX student, Estelle Mehta speaks about the advantages of cramming. She says, “Cramming improves our ability to absorb and remember information at high speeds. In a desperate attempt to learn everything the teacher will most likely ask on the exam, I have found that my concentration reaches its peak. Cramming saves time; I always seem to be short on time as 24 hours is not enough for unfinished tasks. Studies have shown that spacing one’s study sessions is key to success in tests or examinations, but I have found coming back to re-study information I have already looked at weeks or even days before a test, because I forget most of it. So for me cramming really works.”
