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Cramming up for the exams

Examination time can be most stressful for some kids and their parents too. While studying regularly and revising the day’s classes after school on a regular basis and going over them again every weekend is obviously the best bet for scoring high in the examinations, late night sessions, frenzied cramming and tensions are common.

To ease the burden and reduce the nervousness, few tips to trick the mind into studying and retaining key facts might help.

Take short breaks frequently, the memory retains the information at the beginning and at the end of each session, better than what is studied in the middle.

Avoid drinking too much of coffee, tea or sweet soda drinks, to stay awake. Secondly, staying awake all night exhausts the mind, to the point that one might not remember anything. Ensure at least 5 to7 hours of sleep before the examination day.

Making short notes of key points in a lesson always helps. Try ‘chunking’. Chunking is taking individual units of information (chunks) and grouping them into larger units.

The simplest example is with a phone number – 2-5-6-4-8-9-0-4 could be chunked as 2564 – 8904. Based on this concept, Harvard psychologist, George Miller published his work on short term memory, ‘The magical number seven, plus or minus two.”

He suggested that the human mind could successfully retain 5 to 9 items in short-term memory banks. So divide the lesson into five to nine chunks or important nuggets. Write these on note cards, using separate cards for each concept.

Writing also helps in memorising the aspects better. Highlight or underline the key words – which will visually reinforce the information.

There are also a few funny ways to make studying less stressful, try these only if the exam is at least a week away.

One is playing the memory game. Make cards for all key facts, formulae, definitions or dates to be remembered, with the question on one side and the answer on the other. Read them all once or twice.

Then place them with the question-side up. Pick one at random, guess the answer and turn it over to check. Read it aloud, as vocalising also helps retain the memory.

‘Play’ this game off and on, or better still, with a friend, till you know the answers. Most likely, by the second or third time itself all the answers will be perfect. Another method is to sing a song.

It actually works. Make a ridiculous song, poem, or even a rap song from the key points or history dates. And sing loud whenever you get time.

While answering the, hark back to the song and it will come back in a snap, plus it also lightens your tension.

And the most important thing is to stop stalling and start hitting the books.

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