High school and college students are no strangers to overwhelming amounts of schoolwork. As students, schoolwork takes up a majority of their waking hours. In a society where school and educational attainment are given high regard, school requirements can easily induce high pressure on these kids.
Of course, students deal with it differently. Some kids are great at managing their schoolwork and other activities. Others suffer. Some have developed the habit of cramming for everything.
Cramming: A Detrimental Habit
By definition, to cram is when we fill something to a point where it overflows with contents. In school, cramming is when students consume too much information within a narrow time window. This is most observable during examinations, where students would hold off studying until there is not enough time to properly prepare for the exams.
Cramming can also apply to other school requirements, such as projects and papers. Students would dismiss these until just before the deadline. By the time they attend to them, there would not be enough time to do them correctly.
Students should try their best to avoid this practice. Continuously doing this can lead to detrimental effects. Let’s shed light on what would happen if a student developed the habit of cramming.
Bad Quality of Output
The quality of schoolwork that these kids do might be harmed if they continuously cram. Students who do this essentially create their deliverables under immense time pressure. When we create something hastily, we often don’t take time to perfect them.
Of course, this compromises the quality of work that these kids submit. They might submit papers with many mistakes, and their projects might be sloppy. Their works might even be subject to plagiarism. While this can be easily solved with a plagiarism fixer, it would be nice to avoid doing it in the first place.
Compromised Learning
One of the biggest damages that cramming can do is its effect on how students learn. When students cram for exams, they don’t fully understand and process the information they are taking in. They are only memorizing them for the sake of the exam.
Once they do not need the information anymore, it can be easy to forget everything they read. This can lead to a poor understanding of their topics. Ultimately, cramming does not lead to mastery. Distributed learning has also been shown to be more effective than processing information in immediate succession.
Prioritizing Compliance
Students who cram often prioritize compliance rather than learning. They will only care about submitting their requirements without caring too much for its purpose. Again, this is harmful to their to the way they learn. They fail to capture the essence of their topics when they only care about compliance.
Added Stress
Continuous cramming will induce stress. The constant time pressure can be too much for students to handle. Their tasks also accumulate over time. This means that they will have to do plenty of things in a short period.
Of course, it can be exhausting having to finish many tasks in one go. When this happens often, it can compromise the quality of life of these students. Constant stress can also lead to several physical and mental health issues.
With that, it is only fair to say that cramming should be done to a minimum. Students who are also looking for success in their chosen fields should try to avoid doing it. It can affect their performance once they become professionals.
Avoiding Cramming
Despite knowing the detrimental effects of cramming, it can still be hard to stop doing it completely. Once one becomes comfortable doing it, it may be hard to stop. When one practices cramming constantly, it may help to identify the reasons behind the delay.
Knowing the reasons can make it easier for them to address the habit. Common reasons can include anxiety over their schoolwork. The internet and social media have become a distraction for many students.
It would also help to develop discipline and good study habits. Students can have a schedule dedicated to schoolwork. Also, once students receive their assignments, they should attend to them as soon as they can. Starting early will always be better than finishing late.
Students should not punish themselves when they cram. Procrastinating can be hard to avoid. But they should always be ready for the consequences that come with it. Until then, students should make sure to avoid cramming at all costs. As said before, once they start cramming, it can be a difficult habit to kill.
