By John Hand
BBC News
It's exam season and diligent students have been busy swotting up for weeks. But what about those who squeeze all their revision into the final few days - can cramming ever be a substitute for hard graft?
This is a guilty admission at a time when thousands of students are toiling their way through revision plans ahead of make-or-break exams - I am one of life's crammers.
Two decades after my A-levels, I am entering the exam hall again next month and old habits are dying hard.
I am sitting A-level Italian and, as usual, prevarication is top of my agenda - slightly ahead of panic - just three weeks ahead of the final written exams.
The first of the papers will test me on my knowledge of two Italian novels and a film adaptation - which so far remain unread and unwatched.
Three days later come two further papers which will challenge me to understand spoken Italian, translate a passage from English and write a couple of essays from scratch.
Don't cram - start with the 10 minutes you know you will do, have a break and start again
George Turnbull, Qfqual
So I have a dilemma: do I schedule an hour of solid revision every day between now and the moment I hear those unnverving words "You may now turn over your papers"?
Or do I resign myself to a final 48-hour frenzy of focused fact-familiarisation in the second week of June?
Of course, every revision guide advises a carefully timetabled study plan over several weeks or months, and that is clearly sensible for anyone out there banking on straight A-grades to earn a prized university place.
But my situation is different. I have a full-time job and other commitments which don't easily accommodate a spare hour each evening. And, to be honest, I have nothing to lose.
So is there ever a time when cramming works?
Call the doctor
I'm feeling a little more confident after two Italian oral exams I took last week. I finally settled on my discussion subjects with 48 hours to go, then threw myself headlong into study.
Add in some mnemonic memory techniques and I think I recalled enough when I faced my examiner.
Sometimes a quick cram is not enough to guarantee success when it's needed.
In my mind, the quicker I focused on what I needed to know, the less time I would have to forget it.
I've heard all the warnings that it is pointless trying to learn anything too close to an exam. But there is plenty of research pointing out that this is a reckless way to approach exams.
Ofqual - the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator - has an exams doctor who helpfully answers e-mail queries from worried exam candidates.
And George Turnbull's advice is simple and unequivocal: "Do not cram the night before an exam."
He also suggests students who plan long four-hour study slogs to soak up knowledge are only fooling themselves. Such marathon efforts result in "only 10 minutes' actual work [being] done".
"Start with the 10 minutes you know you will do. Then have a 10-minute break and start again."
After a while, he advises, you can increase the amount of time worked between breaks. After a period of five days of increasing study, you'll have earned an evening out.
The anti-cramming message is hammered home by the findings of a survey that suggests 40% of successful British students would fail their exams if they re-sat them a year later.
Research by the Chartered Institute of Education Assessors (CIEA) found 32% admitted to having used short-term cramming techniques to get through their exams and that this approach is increasing, with 48% of respondents under 24 employing the method.
Graham Herbert, deputy head of the CIEA, said he feared the findings were symptomatic of a test-laden education system, which, he said, was creating a nation of crammers.
And he warned me: "For some people it could work, just to get them through the exam. But to really improve your understanding of a subject, I would say that cramming is not the way to do it.
"It's evident from the study that the education system is forcing students to memorise facts without gaining long-term knowledge or in-depth understanding of their course material."
Even as an adult learner, I have sensed the pressure that my tutors are under to ensure good results - by how early they start focusing on how we can pass the end-of-course exam.
Memory tips
I figure that if there is one person I could count on to be in my corner in the cramming debate, it is Dominic O'Brien, an eight-time winner of the world memory championships who now co-ordinates the schools memory championships and runs mind coaching clinics.
But Mr O'Brien, whose books include How To Pass Exams, cautioned me that I really need to change my approach to ensure the best combination of knowledge and memory.
He said: "The key to remembering information is the five-times principle. Read the information and try to commit it to memory immediately, then review it 24 hours later. Read and memorise it again a week later, then again after a month. When you come to review it a fifth time after three to six months, it should stay in your long-term memory."
Unless I reschedule my exams for Christmas, I simply don't have that option but Mr O'Brien has a hothouse alternative. When he enters competitions in which he has to recall a 2,000-digit number inside an hour, he commits them to memory as 10 200-digit numbers then reviews each one after five minutes, 15 minutes and so on.
So it gives me a little hope that my mantra "it's never too late too learn" may yet pay off, even if I would advise against it for anyone whose future hangs on their results.
Just remember I'll be the one with the "Do Not Disturb" signs up in mid-June.WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO CRAM?
A survey asked people how they studied for exams - working on understanding the underlying facts; learning by rote or cramming; or no particular method
34% of women relied on cramming, as opposed to 28.8% of men
48% of under-24s crammed; only 17.4% of over-55s said they did so in their last exam
Source: Chartered Institute of Education Assessors
DOMINIC O'BRIEN'S TIPS
The three pillars to learning are good memory techniques, speed reading and note-taking
One memory technique for languages is "gender zones". Visualise feminine nouns such as "la cantina" (cellar) in your home or home town; masculine nouns such as "il campo" (field) elsewhere
To improve speed reading, use a pointer such as a pen to trace along the lines as you read
Take effective notes, make mind maps from key words and crystallise original notes down to helpful reminders
If you learn something new, review it within 24 hours to help lodge it in your memory
Advice from the exam doctor
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