Does Last Minute Study Help?
I’m usually pretty good at exams but occasionally I flop one – even more occasionally I flop an exam where I know the content backwards. With a mid-semester exam this afternoon for statistics, a subject I’m definately weaker in than the majority of students, its hard not to spend the morning working on a last minute cram strategy.
The point is that I don’t particularly think that last minute study helps at all. Or even the day before study. What helps is that study one to four weeks ago that has had time to assimlate with the rest of the knowledge in my head about the subject in context. So last minute study really does nothing more than bring up that evil of pre-exam situations – new questions. That’s not what you want as you jump into the car to leave. About all I try to do in the final few days before hard exams is a strategy of rote – diagram and model recall, formulas and equations. High level stuff.
Statistics is an interesting subject although I consistently fall down at the question interface – deciphering simple terms. The real trick of statistics isn’t to plug the right numbers into the formula, its to select the right formula to suit the question. After that point there’s little to stress about.
Its the most failed unit in the MBA degree… so there is reason to study. In fact I spent five whole days last week from 7am to 11pm studying for this exam. But in the end you just have to stand back and say to yourself whatever happens happens. Touch wood, turn around three times and cross your naughty little heart for a strong mark.
