Cramming Essentials

Help! I am half way into the course and still have no clue." Rest assured that we've got you covered in this situation. It is never too late to start a simple and effective way to study, even if you are closing in on the final. We do not encourage cramming at the last minute. The easier formula to success is to keep up - not catch up.
Granted, this happens! What do you do if you are down to the wire and have no choice but to try to stuff a lot of material into your head in a very short time? You have to cram, of course. Cramming is not a study strategy but rather a Band-Aid to save you from disaster. After it is all over, you will have to relearn the same material.
If you do fall behind but are willing to put in extra effort to make it up, just follow the simple steps below and you will do fine for the rest of the course. The goal of cramming is to create a set of super concentrated study sheets and focus most of your time reciting them.

How to Cram Step-by-Step:
For those crammers, you may want to put out extra effort in the last 2-3 days prior to the exam, but avoid at all cost cramming the final night. All your efforts may be wasted if you feel tired or mentally exhausted during the exam, which will block off your knowledge retrieval process. This is particularly true for crammers since cramming only puts information into your short-term memory.

Here are the steps:
Step 1: Get the Lecture Notes: If you have not attended all the lectures, get a decent set of lecture notes from your pal, or buy them from the note-taker if you have to.

Step 2: Rewrite the Lecture Notes: If you still have time, rewrite the notes into yours using the PhysMastery Lecture Notes. If you are cramming for the midterms or finals and running out of time, skip this step.

Step 3: Create the Cheat Sheets: Get a few blank pages. Go to your study zone and lay out the notes and the text side-by-side. One chapter at a time, write down all the key concepts, facts, formulas and equations onto a single cheat sheet. Be selective in what you record and limit your coverage. As needed, use your text to further your understanding by quickly reading the explanation and walking through the examples.

Step 4: Over Study the Cheat Sheets: After going through all the testing chapters, you should have a set of cheat sheets created from step 3. Study-study-study these cheat sheets. Say them out loud if you have to. Carry them with you so you can make the most of every spare minute you have.

If you have completed these four steps in the limited time you have, you should still be able to walk in and take the exam with confidence.

Rules of Cramming
I hope that you won't get yourself into the position that you must cram to survive. However, if you are running out of time to prepare for the upcoming exam, follow these simple rules:

Rule 1: Be Realistic and Practical: Cramming is not the best way to study so you need to set your expectations on how much you can accomplish. The key is to study enough to survive the exam and store what you know long enough to retrieve during the exam.

Rule 2: Study in Depth not Breadth: The most effective way to cram is to find out what topics are important and put all your efforts into them. Producing a concise study sheet will serve this purpose well.

Rule 3: Maximize Your Short-Term Memory: Deploy every memory method to cram the key terms into your short-term memory. Be sure to understand their concepts and applications.

Cramming is to make use of the short-term memory (STM), also known as working memory. It has a capacity limited to 5-9 items in a set, lasting 1-2 days. To be effective in storing information short-term, one method is called "chunking", where you arrange pieces of information into sets of meaningful clusters, which increases your capacity to remember.

To cram, focus on the essential - your cheat sheets.