cramming doesn’t pay, or does it
TRANSCRIPT
Cramming Doesn’t Pay, or Does it?
By: Dina GaughanMegan Poole
Amy Shuleski
Cramming can be defined as: To prepare students hastily for an impending examination or a project.
Basically, you'll find that cramming includes taking a lot of material and studying it in a short amount of time.
Cramming Defined
Many people resort to this for a variety of reasons.
Some don't have a lot of motivation to study and others have very little time to apply towards studying because they have a busy schedule.
Cramming Facts
In many cases, cramming can be risky, since it ends up causing stress.
You end up making your brain work harder than it would if you were doing regular studying.
While doing this every once in awhile isn't that bad, if you do it on a regular basis, it can actually become a threat to your health.
Cramming Facts
Cramming should only be used as a last resort.
It is much better to utilize other ways to study for exams and projects.
Who is most likely to cram?
Cramming Facts
A survey asked people how they studied for exams – working on understanding the underlying facts; learning by rote or cramming; or no particular method.
32% admitted to having used short-term cramming techniques to get through their exams and that this approach is increasing
Chartered Institute of Education Assessors (CIEA)
34% of women relied on cramming, opposed to 28.8% of men.
48%of under-24s crammed; only 17.4% of over 55s said they did so in their last exam.
Chartered Institute of Education Assessors (CIEA)
It is evident from this study that the education system is forcing students to memorize facts without gaining long-term knowledge or in-depth understanding of a subject.
Cramming is not the way to do it!
Chartered Institute of Education Assessors (CIEA)
As graduate students who work and attend school we find ourselves under pressure with time management and scheduling at times.
Lead us to…◦Topic: Cramming◦Hypothesis Statement: Cramming Doesn’t
Pay
Why we chose cramming?
10 Question Survey
Target Audience◦ Current Graduate Students◦ Male and Female◦ All ages
Distribution to current graduate students attending Wilkes University◦ Current classmates
Survey
Questions◦Demographic, Simple Category, Multiple
Choice◦Demographic, Simple Category, Single
Response◦Behavioral, Single Response, Multiple
Choice
Survey
Survey Questions/Results
50%50%
Are you male or female?
Female
Male
34%
41%
7%
3%
14%
What is your age group?
20-24 yrs old
25-29 yrs old
30-34 yrs old
35-39 yrs old
40 yrs old and over
Survey Questions/Results
What is your age group?
47%
43%
10%
What is your current total es-timated GPA (rounded)?
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
Under 2.0
GPA based upon age and gender
Row Labels Average of Current GPAFemale 3.73333333320-24 3.525-29 3.78571428630-34 440 and over 3.833333333
Male 3.63333333320-24 3.58333333325-29 3.730-34 3.535-39 3.7540 and over 3.5
Grand Total 3.683333333
Survey Questions/Results
Are you male or female?
17%
47%
37%
How many credits do you av-erage a semester?
3 Credits
6 Credits
9 Credits
47%
50%
3%
During class, you...
take a lot of notes
jot down only key topics
do not take any notes
Survey Questions/Results
What is your age group?Average of Current GPA Note Taking TotalA lot of Notes 3.857142857Key Topics 3.566666667No Notes 3Grand Total 3.683333333
A lot of Notes Key Topics No Notes0.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.5
Average GPA vs Note Taking
Survey Questions/Results
13%
87%
How do you study for most of your exams?
Groups
Individually
33%
7%
43%
17%
When studying for an exam, you typically begin to study...
Night Before
Hours Before
Days Before
Week Before
Survey Questions/Results
Are you male or female?
Average GPA of those who study in Groups vs. Individually
Row Labels Average of Current GPAGroups 3.75Individually 3.673076923Grand Total 3.683333333
Hours Before Night Before Days Before Week Before0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Begin Studying - Individ-ually
Hours Before
Night Before
Days Before Week Before
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Begin Studying - Groups
Survey Questions/Results
Are you male or female?
Average of Current GPA
Begin Studying Total
Days Before 3.85
Hours Before 3.5
Night Before 3.5
Week Before 3.7
Grand Total 3.68
Hours Before Night Before Days Before Week Before3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
Average GPA vs Studying for an Exam
Survey Questions/Results
Are you male or female?
17%
33%33%
17%
You have a ten page research paper due in 3 weeks (21 days). When do you
begin Studying?
0-4 Days Before
5-9 Days Before
10-14 Days Before
15-20 Days Before
Survey Questions/Results
Are you male or female?
60%30%
10%
How long after your research (from previous question) do you begin writ-
ing your paper?
Directly after
3-5 days after
6-8 days after
9 or more days after
HYPOTHESIS TESTS 2SHT mean
NULL : 1= 2u u Studying sooner does not impact your overall GPA.
ALTERNATIVE: 1<> 2u uStudying sooner does impact your overall GPA.
sample means stdev sample size
test statistic (obs) 4.468 Days Before 3.8611111 0.230444 18
critical measure 1.960 Night/Hrs Before 3.4166667 0.288675 12
obs > critical?
Yes std error
0.099472
one-tailed or two-tailed?
p-value 0.000008 2
a-level 0.050
p-value < a-level?
Yes REJECT THE NULL!
Thus, studying sooner DOES impact your overall GPA!!
HYPOTHESIS TESTS
NULL : 1= 2u u Taking a lot of notes does not impact your overall GPA.
ALTERNATIVE: 1<> 2u u Taking a lot of notes does impact your overall GPA.
sample means stdev
sample size
test statistic (obs) 3.086 A lot of Notes 3.8571 0.2344 14critical measure
1.960
Key Topics or None 3.5313 0.34 16
obs > critical?Yes std error
0.1056
one-tailed or two-tailed?
p-value 0.002 2
a-level 0.050 REJECT THE NULL!
p-value < a-level?Yes
Thus, Taking a lot of notes DOES impact your overall GPA!!
Correlation: How much do these X Variables Impact GPA (Y) ?
1 = perfectly positive correlated ; -1 = inversely correlated ; 0 = no relation
Note Taking 0.30097372 partial positive correlation
Begin Studying 0.07234832 partial positive correlation
Study in Groups/Individually 0.01460507 no relation
Start Research -0.0138435 no relation
Start Writing After Research -0.0108548 no relation
Gender 0.02588532 no relation
Age 0.00746443 no relation
Multiple Regression Y'i = b0 + b1X1i + b2X2i
Null: GPA is not affected by note taking, begin studying, group studying, start research, start writing after research, gender, age.
Alt: GPA is affected by note taking, begin studying, group studying, start research, start writing after research, gender, and age.
Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.662508854Overall correlation, near 1 is strongest, so strong model
R Square 0.438917982Goodness of fit, explains 44% of y
Adjusted R Squ. 0.260391885Goodness of fit (multiple regression), explains 28.7%
Standard Error 0.287531886Std dev of residuals (error in prediction) Wld be off .29 in reference to GPA
Observations 30
ANOVA Significance F
0.05039Reject the
Null!GPA IS AFFECTED!
Coefficients P-value Significant?
Intercept 3.075983997 1.31824E-09
Note Taking 0.300973718 0.012850667 yes
Begin Studying 0.072348324 0.202960492 no
Group Study 0.014605074 0.939969124 no
Start Research -0.013843493 0.367766578 no
Start Writing After Research -0.010854811 0.635528158 no
Gender 0.025885321 0.855338789 no
Age 0.007464432 0.430141733 no
Our first hypothesis test proved studying sooner positively impacts your overall GPA
Our second test proved taking a lot of notes positively impacts your GPA
Our regression proved GPA is effected by multiple factors, particularly note taking and studying sooner
Studies show that cramming causes more stress
Thus, without a doubt, cramming doesn’t pay!!
Summary
Survey questions/scales - More variety◦ Open-Ended (Age, GPA)◦ Opinion Based / Likert Scale (personal cramming
views, study habits, stress levels)◦ Multiple Response
Target Audience◦ More specific◦ Collect data from graduate and undergraduate
Compare◦ May lead to alternative conclusion
Survey Recommendations
Questions??