Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: First things first, in case you were not aware, exams, at their core, are basically tests of memory rather than tests of intellect. You could argue that if everyone was allowed to bring in notes to exams, then everyone would get an A - regardless of how smart they were. Now, this article isn’t about whether or not the exam procedure should be changed (though incidentally, I think it should) but rather how knowing this fact can affect the amount students study for their upcoming exams.
When I was doing my A-Levels, my teachers told me a myriad of ways to improve my revision process, such as colour coding, diagrams and using lists (which in retrospect I realise are methods of improving memory). However, there was one piece of advice that really stuck: Only study for 30 minutes at a time.
At first, this suggestion sounds crazy. Surely the more you study, the more likely you are to succeed? Surely, less time hitting the books can’t actually help? Strangely though, it does. This sounds fairly trivial (not exactly the bombshell that I was leading up to) but this method can actually save you a lot of time and stress. Rather than spending hours going through everything you learnt in the last year the day before the exam, simply spend a small period each week, reading over notes, copying them or even drawing diagrams (whatever fits your learning style) and when you start to lose interest, simply stop. It’s that easy.
The reasoning behind this actually relates back to my minny rant in the first paragraph. Studying’s purpose is to improve your memory, so you can walk into the exam with a dozen different answers loaded, cocked and ready to fire. Trying to remember something when you are uninterested, tired or bored of it, is near impossible. It is the same reason why the students who spend hours revising right before an exam don’t do nearly as well as those who spent less time but were revising weeks before.
Of course, this method takes dedication from you, and the commitment to doing this approach week in, week out, or even day in, day out a long time before your exams. If you're doing an all-day sesh, work for 30 minutes and then take a 10-minute break, and repeat that cycle. Even put a timer on for the 30 minutes and challenge yourself to absorb as much as possible. Trust me, it really works.
