HOW TO CRAM THE RIGHT WAY: FOLLOW THESE TWO STEPS

Avoid cramming. Avoid it! You'll learn better, remember better, and perform much better on the exam by not cramming. But you know, however much you tell yourself you won't cram, you still will, so here's how to do it.

There are two rules you must follow. The first rule is: If you have studied all night and it's one or two hours before the exam -- do not go to sleep! Your body produces chemicals when you go to sleep which slow your thinking and inhibit your memory. These chemicals will cause you to remember less and think slower during the exam. So stay up for the hour and keep studying.

If you are going to sleep at all, sleep in intervals of three hours -- 3 or 6 hours. Because of the way our sleep cycle works, after three hours of sleeping your body is in a lighter state of sleep, and it will be easier for you to wake up. If you sleep less than 3 hours, your body will feel terrible when you wake up, and you won't want to get out of bed.

The second rule for pulling all nighters is: Study right up until the exam. Do not stop studying ten minutes or twenty minutes before the exam! You will lose a lot of the information if you stop studying. When you cram, the information is stored in short term memory, and if you take a break for 15 minutes to 30 minutes before the exam, you lose a lot of this information. You might have heard people say, "Don't bother learning that stuff now. If you don't know it now you'll never learn it." This is not true. Information in short term memory leaves your mind after a brief period of time, so keep the information in your mind by reviewing it as close to the exam as possible. Study up until the minute the exam is in your hands, and you will remember the information better during the exam.