Engineering students love to cram their way to the exams, especially during finals. It isn’t the wisest of the study habits but every engineering student does it anyway. Why? Maybe this engineering student’s guide will help.
While there is no definite answer to that, engineering students need to know what to do exactly with the remaining time before the exam. When there is no longer the luxury of time to study everything you need to learn, you have to deal with it by not resorting to a lot of ineffective methods of studying. The ones mentioned below only give you an impression that you are studying – but you are actually not learning anything, it just appears like you do.
Hoarding books and photocopies doesn’t help.
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: Giphy)
If you think gathering every study material keeping all of them on your study table will make you smart, you are dead wrong. With little time left for you to study, you can’t afford to waste time hoarding books, photocopies and printouts you will not read anyway. A fort of such materials in front of you as you study even hurries your mind thinking you have to go through them all; therefore not really absorbing what you are studying. Make it a quality study instead of quantity if you are to cram.
Highlighters aren’t magic.
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: MTV)
Engineering students when studying important theories need not to use all 64 Crayola colors in your study materials. Highlighters may provide some spice when studying as the colors make the material more attractive, but you are supposed to study and not paint. These pens are not brain scanners either – everything the highlighters go over do not go directly to your mind. It would be more effective if you write key points of your reading material on a separate sheet to improve retention.
Stop building a nest.
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: Tumblr)
Some engineering students make it a point that in order to study effectively, they make themselves the perfect study nest because it gives a studying feel. Everything has to be in right place – from the lighting, the position of the books, the coffee, the calculator, the pen case, everything. It gives an excuse that you are busy having the perfect study setup that only wastes time. Stop doing that and start studying.
Staring at solved problems isn’t studying.
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: Tumblr)
To be able to really absorb the process of problem solving, engineering students cannot simply stare at solved problems: it needs to be worked on and solve again on your own. Your mind will understand the process more if you do it rather than just look at it. The best practice in answering engineering problems is to solve, solve and solve. It is one way to prepare for an exam by answering lots of practice problems.
Do not go around screaming “I’m screwed.”
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: Tumblr)
What this says about you is that you seek for attention because you did not study, and that you are proud for being useless. You know you could have studied but chose not to. Stop this cry of desperation.
When you complain that the lectures did not prepare you for the exam,
you are just wasting your time.
Engineering student’s guide to cramming (Source: Giphy)
Do not point to the teachers for not providing you everything prior to the exam because that’s not how it is supposed to work. Engineering study is where you should be able to think critically and analyze well – mostly on your own. You can’t expect the teachers to spoonfeed you every bit of the lesson, or more importantly, do the thinking for you. Notice that the ones who get good grades despite there are certain lessons not fully discussed manage to pass – that’s because they know that studying is a student’s task, not their teachers’.
Source: Cracked
