WEBVTT - Why Is Cramming the Worst Way to Study?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vog obam here with a familiar scenario. It's the

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<v Speaker 1>day before a big calculus exam and you haven't studied

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<v Speaker 1>for whatever reason. You're short on time, you have too

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<v Speaker 1>many other exams packed into the same day, too many

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<v Speaker 1>cat videos. You know. Around ten pm you finally sit

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<v Speaker 1>down to review the material. Six hours later, you catch

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<v Speaker 1>a short nap before rushing to school. You take the

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<v Speaker 1>exam and it seems to go fine, although it wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>your best effort. You pass and promise not to repeat

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<v Speaker 1>the cycle when it's time for your next one. This

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<v Speaker 1>is what's known as cramming, and while students, parents and

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<v Speaker 1>educators have long known it's not ideal in desperate circumstances,

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<v Speaker 1>it does work to some degree. And by some degree

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<v Speaker 1>we mean it might save your g p A. But

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<v Speaker 1>cramming doesn't provide long term learning. According to researchers who

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<v Speaker 1>study how we learn versus how we think we learn

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<v Speaker 1>a spoiler alert, we're usually really wrong in the use

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<v Speaker 1>of cramming. You may pass the test and feel like

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<v Speaker 1>you've got the material down, but research shows that a

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<v Speaker 1>dramatic rate of forgetting occurs afterwards. This is especially problematic

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<v Speaker 1>when one lesson provides foundational information for the next like

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<v Speaker 1>in math or a language class. Forgetting most of what

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<v Speaker 1>you learned is not the only downside to cramming. Researchers

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<v Speaker 1>have found that losing sleep while pulling an all nighter

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<v Speaker 1>also leads to residual academic problems for days after the

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<v Speaker 1>cramming session. You can imagine the negative effects of an

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<v Speaker 1>ongoing cycle of procrastination and cramming. More than a century

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<v Speaker 1>of research shows that if you study something twice, retention

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<v Speaker 1>goes up. Studying and then waiting before you study more

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<v Speaker 1>produces even better long term memory. This is called the

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<v Speaker 1>spacing effect. Rather than reviewing material right away, students benefit

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<v Speaker 1>from spacing out their study sessions. There are many arguments

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<v Speaker 1>about why spacing works better for a long time retention.

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<v Speaker 1>One relates to encoding. When a student studies something from

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<v Speaker 1>a book and reviews it immediately, the student will encode

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<v Speaker 1>the infra nation in the same way both times. That's

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<v Speaker 1>not very helpful long term. The more different times and

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<v Speaker 1>ways you can encode information, the better you'll understand it,

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<v Speaker 1>and the longer you'll know it. This means that even

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<v Speaker 1>studying the same material in two different locations can help

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<v Speaker 1>you encode it in different ways, Therefore you'll learn it

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<v Speaker 1>more successfully. Another factor at work is that research shows

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<v Speaker 1>that the harder it is for a brain to recall something,

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<v Speaker 1>the more powerful the effects of that recall will be

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<v Speaker 1>in the long term. For example, if you're at a

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<v Speaker 1>conference and meet someone new, you might recall their name immediately,

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<v Speaker 1>which probably won't help you remember it the next day. However,

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<v Speaker 1>if you need to recall the person's name an hour

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<v Speaker 1>into the conference and do so, you'll have a better

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<v Speaker 1>chance of remembering it a day or a week later

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<v Speaker 1>because you had to put in the effort to recall it.

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<v Speaker 1>A third reason why spacing works is that people pay

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<v Speaker 1>less attention to the second presentation of material that they've

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<v Speaker 1>just seen because the information is already familiar. When the

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<v Speaker 1>material is spaced out, it's no longer is familiar, so

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<v Speaker 1>people pay more attention if the spacing effect sounds like

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of waiting around to review material, and it

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<v Speaker 1>may indeed slow the learning process because you'll be studying

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<v Speaker 1>for more than one evening. Recent studies have shown the

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<v Speaker 1>positive effects of another study method, mixing up different material

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<v Speaker 1>while studying. This concept, called interleaving, consists of working on

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<v Speaker 1>or studying one skill for a short period of time,

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<v Speaker 1>then switching to another one, then maybe a third, then

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<v Speaker 1>back to the first. A twenty fifteen study tested interleaving

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<v Speaker 1>in nine middle school classrooms teaching algebra and geometry. A

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<v Speaker 1>day after the lesson for the unit was complete, the

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<v Speaker 1>students trained with interleaving scored better than the students who

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<v Speaker 1>received standard training. A month later, the interleaving group was

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<v Speaker 1>up seventy six. This is great news. Studying for an

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<v Speaker 1>exam or completing a big project doesn't need to feel

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<v Speaker 1>so daunting, and interleaving has benefits for writing too. Rather

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<v Speaker 1>than trying to block out two hours to study for

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<v Speaker 1>a math test, study math for thirty minutes before you

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<v Speaker 1>move on to French, and then work on an essay.

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<v Speaker 1>Go back to the math later. There's a message here

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<v Speaker 1>for teachers as well as students. Instead of teaching a

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<v Speaker 1>topic and a block and going to the next steps,

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<v Speaker 1>teachers can spend a short time on a topic, go

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<v Speaker 1>on to others, then return to the earlier topics. But

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<v Speaker 1>it seems that we have a lot to learn about

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<v Speaker 1>how we learn a two thousand nine study from u

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<v Speaker 1>c l A found that spacing was more effective than

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<v Speaker 1>cramming for the participants. Just six percent of those who

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<v Speaker 1>crammed learned more than those who studied using the spacing effect.

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<v Speaker 1>In three experiments, researchers tested spacing against cramming. Yet despite

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<v Speaker 1>the findings in favor of spacing, participants believed that the

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<v Speaker 1>cramming style was more effective. And U c l A

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<v Speaker 1>study found that staying up and foregoing sleep to study

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<v Speaker 1>is actually counterproductive. No matter how much a student studies daily,

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<v Speaker 1>if they sacrifice sleep in order to study more, they're

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<v Speaker 1>likely to have more academic problems, not less the next day.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Carrie at n E, pH

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<v Speaker 1>d and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartMedia's How Stuff Works. For more on this

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<v Speaker 1>and lots of other studious topics, visit our home planet,

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts. For

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