Archive for the 'Exams' Category

Does Cramming Work?

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on January 7, 2009
in Better Grades, Exams, Memory Skills and Study Less
. 0 Comments

Cramming - Don’t Do It!

Time can really get to you when you are trying to study. Many people wait until the last minute and they end up trying to cram all the information in within a few hours.

So, this brings up an important issue - DOES CRAMMING ACTUALLY WORK?

When people are preparing for a test or exam, often cramming will turn into a habit that is overused. Many students resort to cramming for a variety of reasons self-justifying our behaviour with the lie that we have busy schedule… Am I right?

In many cases, cramming can be RISKY, since it ends up CAUSING STRESS FOR NO GOOD REASON!

As such, you end up making your brain work even harder in a shorter period of time, than it would if you were doing routine study. If you cram on a frequent and regular basis, it can actually become a HEALTH RISK.

One of my engineering school classmates had to drop out because of study-related, stress-induced health problems thinking he could take some time off and come back - that didn’t happen. Once out of school, he ended up ‘taking it easy’ with a less ambitious crowd and well, the rest is history. Not only did he not get back to Engineering, he never stepped back into a university classroom.

When possible, you should definitely use other methods of studying - other than cramming.

Not sure where to find great ideas? Consider reading my revolutionary learning e-book “Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.” It offers a lot of helpful knowledge, proven study tips, techniques and strategies that can help you study more effectively and get better grades.

SO DOES CRAMMING EVER WORK?

When you are healthy, well rested and don’t have a lot of “other stresses” in your life, the brain may deal quite well with a bit of cramming that occurs in the last minutes or hours of study before an important exam or quiz.

However, in most cases, if it works at all, you usually only end up with GRADES THAT ARE AVERAGE, instead of the BEST GRADES you could achieve if you studied more effectively.

One of the main problems with cramming is that you never get a great grasp of all the information and the relationship groups of information may have with each other - those inter-relationships are usually what teachers put in the exam!

Cramming can also lead to CONFUSION. Sometimes it can make information you already know even more confusing. You’ll also find that it’s hard to put the facts in your long-term memory as you are probably dealing with FATIGUE and FRUSTRATION as well.

If you don’t want to put your mind through all this, then make sure you avoid cramming for your exams and is you DO cram, you use my strategies to make the best of it!

It doesn’t matter whether you are studying in high school, college or business. If you are looking for ways to study more effectively it’s well worth checking out my ebook “Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.”

Onward and upward!
Marc

P.S. If you have any personal experiences or feedback on cramming, post it here on the blog as a comment!

Easy Study Tip: Study By Objective Not Time!

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on December 29, 2008
in Better Grades, Exams and Study Less
. 0 Comments

When we first begin school, our parents and our teachers tell us that we should set aside a specific amount of time to study each day. Don’t make this mistake!

Many people continue to study by giving themselves an allocated time per day or per week to study a certain subject, all because they don’t know how to study any differently.

If you study with this “time” objective in mind - work will expland to fill the available time. If you give yourself two hours to read a chapter, guess what - that’s how long it will take.

If you are after results (and let’s face it we all are) change your approach to study by learning by objectives, not by setting yourself a timeframe.

This doesn’t mean that you should cut back on the amount of time you spend studying, it just means that you will be more focused on the outcome of your study rather than the time allocated to do it.

It sounds logical right? Most of my study tips are!

This study shortcut (found in Chapter 7 “Studying shortcuts guaranteed to work wonders”) and other great study tips, techniques and strategies can be found in my e-book Getter Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.

These will help you study more effectively and provide you with the short cuts to ensure you get better grades with the least amount of effort every time!

Onward and upward!

Dr Marc Dussault

P.S. If you have your own favourite section or chapter or if you have any questions, post it here on the blog as a comment and I’ll give you direct feedback, consider it a personal tutorial - at no cost!

Easy Study Tip #1 - Read BEFORE You Go To Class

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on December 24, 2008
in Better Grades, Exams, General and Study Less
. 0 Comments

Whether you are thinking about saving your grades or you just feel as though you need a bit of a boost as the semester wears on, you will find that one of the simplest things you can do to get your grades up and to keep them up is to read your materials before you go to class.

It seems simple, but the truth is that reading this information beforehand can give you an impressive edge when it comes to understanding the course material and to helping it sink in.

Doing your reading will go a long way towards facilitating a better understanding of the lecture materials.  The truth of it is, that the lecture and the text are meant to be complementary, not repetitions of each other. Reading ahead will help you fill in the blanks during the lecture.

With so many of us in competitive class environments, you will find that reading ahead can give you a head start on a number of things. If there is something that is puzzling you in the text, you will discover that you can ask questions when they are relevant and fresh in your teacher’s mind.

This will get you a better response than if you are going to be reading the material late and then getting to it weeks after it was discussed. Reading ahead can also help you understand the concepts more thoroughly.

You will find that as you read, you will start to get a grasp on what is happening with the information, and then what your teacher says in class later on will further emphasize it. Think about how much more effective a student you will be if you simply read ahead before going to class!

There are plenty of great and easy study tips like this one in Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort, the most comprehensive e-book on the market for this subject!

Onward and upward!

Dr Marc Dussault

P.S. Yes I know, these study tips are simple - this is just one of many that can improve your grades with the least amount of effort! So what are you waiting for?

Ace your next exam by solving it in advance!

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on December 9, 2008
in Exams
. 0 Comments

I am including another testimonial from Andrés who lives in beautiful Costa Rica because I think he adds a very personal perspective to the process of Getting Better Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort that will inspire and motivate you.

My grades have gone up and are still going up with very little extra effort. The thing is that I caught it right on the edge and believed I was doing the right thing from the beginning. I have no doubt that doing what I did at the very end of the semester could help me if I apply it at the beginning of the semester. It’s exactly what you say in your book just that you have to practice like you had the test that same week.. for a couple of weeks and don’t stress by trying to do it all at once.

Once you have a system you can use it in the exam and since you have practiced many times  you can check with your teacher to remove any mistakes before the exam. That’s where I lost  points in my exam, that I could have prevented.

From extremely low marks on my university test grades I have gotten back on track with some incredible success. Why is it that once you actually think that you are doing something productive and it is extremely beneficial it ends up being not so great after all?

It’s hard to get out of old habits and I will still be giving it all my effort. This has been a life-changing experience that takes me to a new breath of life above my own frustration. There are unlimited possibilities but limited time to find them. I believe it is not until you’re put to test that a door opens for you. The answer is that you live within your world of thoughts and experiences. Nobody perceives it like you do or thinks what you think.

Sincerely,
Andrés Acosta Egea
Costa Rica

Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault

P.S.

If you have your own testimonial or QUESTIONS you would like to ask me, please post it as a comment to this blog and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

Reduce Exam Stress and Anxiety NOW

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on September 3, 2008
in Better Grades and Exams
. 0 Comments

All too often in life, it seems that the times in which we felt most productive were times when we actually had the least amount of time to spend.

What do I mean?

Think about that looming deadline set by your boss or that all-too-rapidly approaching final exam.

Do you find yourself not doing the work you’re supposed to do, when you have plenty of time to complete it yet when you’re giving yourself a time table and short sharp bursts of urgent timelines you excel above and beyond what you ever expected?

In simple terms, when you HAVE TO DO SOMETHING, YOU DO IT, when it’s not a must, you let it slide…

Are some examples of prioritizing:

Not important and not urgent. At the end of the semester you need to hand in a book report. It will probably take at least 10 to 20 hours to read the whole book (unless you speed read), and at least 4 or 5 hours to write the whole report. You have been given 3 months to complete it and it is worth at least 10% of your final grade.

You need to begin with it at the earliest momeny in order to avoid it becoming urgent.

You really want to avoid letting an important task become an “urgent and important” task. You can easily avoid this type of situation by psychologically giving yourself one-fourth of the time to complete the task, which will result in a faster completion time. Therefore, allowing extra time so that you can review and “polish” the final product into something truly amazing.

Not important but urgent. A quiz is scheduled for tomorrow, but you haven’t been to able to review anything. Although it’s only 5% of your total grade, you want to get the maximum mark you can.

You know perfectly well you could have done this sooner, and more easily, in between other tasks. Now, however, you need to worry about it unnecessarily.

Stop it!

Important but not urgent. You have a project that is worth 35% of your final mark.  It’s due in a month and you estimate it will take you 20-25 hours to complete.

On top of chunking it down into bite-size chunks you also need to give each bite-size chunk a deadline and timeline, so that you have a realistic expectation and understanding of your workload. This will take the pressure off you, so you can relax when you set time to relax and be very focused in the times you allot for each chunk to be done.

Important and urgent. Your final exam is in 2 days time and 70% of your final grade depends on it. You have not done enough till now. The amount of new material to be covered is so great that you are not sure where to begin. You start panicking.

This is not where you want to be spending your time.  You want to spend as much time as possible on important but not urgent issues.  Of course, this takes planning and preparation But you will find times when you need to manage important and urgent situations in your education, life and work.

The ideal coping method is to take a more objective look at the issue, and take the time to think it over calmly. There is no situation that can be best dealt with in haste; every difficulty needs some thought put into it, and every difficulty can be better overcome if you plan a little before diving into the situation.

Once you’ve worked out how to keep this balance, and how to take advantage of deadlines on the really urgent assignments, you’ll have developed a system that will help you successfully complete any task you’re assigned at school or work.

I cover these in much more detail with more detailed examples in my book. Get it now and reduce your exam stress today/tonight.

Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault

P.S.

Successful students are NOT smarter than their classmates - they just DO things differently. Prioritization simply means putting in the SAME or LESS effort at a different point in time. Most students CRAM for exams with a LOT OF STRESS when in fact they could have done much better by studying the night before the night before the exam without duress.

That’s what I did when I was in the MBA program. I forced myself to study the night BEFORE the night BEFORE class on PURPOSE. So that I had the NIGHT BEFORE to review anything ‘else’ that I might have forgotten or had trouble with.

I was much less stressed than my classmates, slept better and YES got better grades. More importantly I enjoyed the process. Many of my classmates did not have fun learning - they were stressed, anxious, nervous and not much fun to be around. That was the case for the academic colleagues as well as family.

In some cases, it was almost the trigger to a divorce. In several, it meant they were not patient with their kids which is a terrible thing to see - WHEN IT’S TOTALLY PREVENTABLE…

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