CRAMMING: A Pedigree Analysis

CRAMMING: A Pedigree Analysis

Time and not money has always been the most crucial thing that we need to budget, perhaps for us, scholars. If we forget to get a hold of it, we would end up regretful for not being able to do things the way they must be done.

                “Submit your outputs inside the submission box before the school bell rings.”

“Start studying now for your perio to avoid mixing things up when examination week is on.”

Do these sentences ring a bell? Of course. We’ve always been told to submit things on time over and over again and to study for our exams before their days come.

                When we are given with seatwork or assignment, the ideal thing we would wish to happen is to stay up late at night to finish it and to pass it on time the next day. But the real thing is we tend to do it minutes before the deadline and when things get worse, we end up copying our classmate’s preparation, kopyaration as what we call it. Admit it, this is so true. Though it’s not a universal truth, it’s a natural truth that men really adjust to stimulus like that and make responses that may or may not be right sometimes.

                Working intensively to absorb a lot of information or hurrying things with such pressure in a short period of time? Yeah that’s definitely CRAMMING. Cramming has always been a part of our vocabulary. Our teachers have scolded us for a number of times because of this but, unfortunately, we don’t get used to it because we can’t easily erase it from our ‘daily routine’.

Teachers always ask us why we can’t have our submissions on time, why we are always asking for extensions and why we are always unprepared for exams though they announced the schedule a long time ago. Well, as the teachers’ conclusion, they blame all our faults to cramming, cramming and cramming. But for us, students, we always defend ourselves by using the fact or reason that there are too many requirements needed to accomplish in a limited span of time and that studying while doing all those requirements is quite impossible. Yes, we say that if teachers want a good quality output then they should give us a sufficient amount of time. But let’s face it. Is there really too much load of things on our backs that the given amount of time is not enough to accomplish everything? Or is it really cramming, the seemed-to-be real problem, according to the teachers, that drags us from complying things on time?

In the field of studying, the saying ‘Money is the root of all evil’ does not apply rather the saying ‘Cramming is the root of all academic failures’ applies, maybe not to all but almost to all.  Well, in my opinion, the alibi that the quantitative factor of tasks is what pushes us away from finishing things on time is not really the problem. Okay to settle this down, let’s analyze it the way inheritable diseases are being traced through pedigree analysis. In pedigree analysis, geneticists start by studying and scrutinizing the effects of the disease to identify the real cause and to trace it in the family history where it really begun. Similarly, let’s begin with the ‘output-of-the-outputs’, the failing academic performance.  Failures in academics can be attributed to meager class participation, poor performance on exams and late or worse, non-submission of requirements.

Meager class participation. A lot of tasks given to us by teachers are usually in preparation for the next lesson because they are hoping that if they give these tasks then they can expect a better discussion. But the problem here is that, yes, we do all the tasks but some of us do them all in a hurry, so, the tendency is the information will not register into our brain. So when the discussion comes, all we can do is to stare either our teacher or the trees outside the window or worse is when the teacher asks us to stand up to answer a question, we are left speechless.

Poor performance on exams. When the exam week is on, then that’s the only time that we’re going to study. And when we forget to study the night before the big day, gosh, expect and fear the most terrible things that could happen. All we could do is to scan our notes in the fastest manner, if we have any, and say “Bahala na.” Because of this ineffective study habit, we end up having low scores and seeing our names at the bottom of the ranking.

 Late or non-submission of requirements. In submissions, we tend to ask for extensions or whatsoever. Why? Because we underestimated the time requirement for that specific task to be done and wasted a lot of hours, minutes, and seconds for nothing. We tend to do things minutes before the funeral line. And if time can’t handle it, we ended up submitting our requirements late or not submitting them at all. On the other hand, if we have submitted them on time, well, another problem arises. Is the quality of the output okay? Well, we definitely know the answer to that. A lot of students receive low grades because their outputs are not that neat, organize, well prepared, and etc.

Can’t you see? These three things have something in common; they are all siblings of what we call cramming. So how is cramming born? Well for the grandfather of these three siblings, teachers have something to say, “Time management, time management. That’s what you need to learn to avoid cramming and all its consequences for happening.”  

Tracing the family tree, we will find that the very cause of cramming is mishandling of time. If you would ask me, I think, there’s no such thing as time management. It’s just a misnomer because we can’t actually manage and control time itself. Time continues whether we like it or not. Time management is about pacing ourselves as time goes by. So the final solution for cramming lies on the value on how we spend our time to improve or to do things better and not on how we take control of time because it’s impossible.

Then how can we avoid this so-called cramming? Here are some of the tips that I can give, based on experience, to avoid cramming if you want (Note: This is optional but trust me these are really effective):

TIP#1: Invest Time. Even from the start you should know how to have your plans and schedules. Investing time means to look for your total available time.

TIP#2: Invest in Time. Now that you have your time, learn to list all your plans and schedules and divide them to the total time that you have.

TIP#3: Invest Early. If there is something to be done, finish it as soon as possible. If there are a lot of things to be done, then learn to estimate the time needed for each thing to be finished. This will put a little pressure on you but for a good cause.

TIP#4: Invest Daily. When it comes to your studies, learn to study every day. At least browse your notes for the day so that you are always prepared for any surprise quizzes. This will also serve as an early review for your final exams or perio.

TIP#5: Invest Wisely. Whenever you have a free time, use it for something useful and for more productive things. Avoid temptations like going to canteen, playing in the auditorium, or going to the library to access the internet in order to connect to facebook, twitter, tumblr, and etc. though it’s prohibited. 

TIP#6: Monitor Your Investments. Always make sure that your plans are being followed on schedule and if there are some adjustments then make some flex on your schedule.

TIP#7: Enjoy Your Investments. Finally if you have submitted all the requirements and answered all the exams, it’s time for you to have your reward. J

Just remember, crammers can fool the running time but they can never hold and control it. Crammers only complicate things even though they knew they can make it simpler by going with the flow of time and learning discipline by budgeting it properly. So, let’s not be one of them. Let’s fix things right and always keep things on track besides if we finish everything earlier or just in time, we’ll have more time for fun because nothing will bother us anymore.