Cramming tips to save your semester

When you’re sitting in that first introductory lecture at the start of semester, it can be really hard to pay attention – blah blah unit guide and other gibberish. Then you find yourself sitting in lecture two, three and four, still not taking anything in. Before you know it, you’ve only got two weeks left to learn all the content you should’ve been listening to all semester and you’re looking up cramming tips on how to save your grade. Don’t worry, no judgement here, just super handy hints to get you through stuvac.

Work out just how fucked you are

So let’s start out with a damage report to find out just how much you need to shovel into that brain of yours. Getting down to it, you need to know where your grades are at and what marks you need in your final exams to pass the unit.

CourseTracker is a handy website will let you select your university, add your units and current grades and tell you what grade you will need to get you over the line. This can help you to figure out what classes you’ll need to prioritise your cramming for. The less marks you need to pass, the less concentrated coffee you’ll have to down – super simple stuff.

 

The Triage system

Used mainly in World War I to prioritise the patients who needed their arms chopped off, funnily enough the Triage system can also be applied to uni life. It’s important for you to prioritise and sort out what subject needs working on first and for how long.

Take a look at the assessments or exams you have coming up, find which ones are worth most grade-wise or which ones you definitely need to work on if you want to scrape a pass. Dedicate your cramming time accordingly. 

Minimise procrastination

There’s a pretty good chance you’re reading this because you’ve done too much procrastinating. Now it’s time to use your time more effectively. Get in the study space you’re most productive in, even if you have to sit in an empty tute room and study.

Focus on core topics

If you’ve ever wondered why lecturers say the exam is based on lecture content… it’s because the exam is based on lecture content. What you’ll want to do is focus on the core topics from those lectures, summarise them and commit them to memory (it also helps to attend revision lectures for extra hints).

Jam it into the ol’ brain

Here’s the most important part. Seeing as you can’t take a time machine back to the start of semester, you need to cram and actually remember it. This is where all the notes and summaries come together and get stuck in your memory.

Write out the key concepts on cue cards, read them aloud and quiz yourself. The more ways you can engage your senses when memorising information, the more likely you’ll be able to retain it.

Patch up the gaps in your knowledge

Finally getting around to looking at all the content from a semester is daunting AF. Everything may seem important, but stick to cramming the key points into your memory and you’ll have the basics ready to build upon. 

Put the content to good use

It’s time to do those practice exams drafts, for two reasons. One, it’s an excellent way to cement what you’ve crammed so far and see what you still need to learn. Two, because unit coordinators aren’t that creative and there’s a pretty huge chance that the content in previous exams will be similar to what’s on your next one.

FRIENDS

So no one told you life was gonna be this way *clap clap clap clap*. That’s right, reach out to your friends and classmates to help you study (as opposed to watching re-runs of Friends on Stan). Running through content with people in your unit is helpful for both you and them as well. It’s another way to quiz yourself and commit all the course content to your memory!

Hope you learnt something…

This stressful cramming experience wasn’t much fun, huh? Let’s pay attention more next semester.

STUDY TIME!

Now that you’ve finished reading this, go and read something that’ll help salvage your semester!

Harrison Johnstone

A country kid at heart with city slicking aspirations in his head, Harrison is an aspiring journalist, video editor and human being.

Image: University of the Fraser Valley, Flickr Creative Commons license