Student Cramming Essay Example for Free

Student Cramming Essay Abstract This study aims to determine whether cramming behavior had a significant effect on the memory retention students who took Physics 82(Fundamental Physics II) during the second semester of school year 2006-2007. A test was given to these students after one semester (first semester, 2007-2008). A comparison was made between the scores of students who acknowledged frequent use of cramming methods and those that did not. Data shows that retention decreases with time whether the student crammed or not. However, students that crammed have faster rate of decrease in memory retention. 1. Introduction Cramming is defined as studying a relatively large amount of subject matter in a short period of time. It can be regarded as a desperate measure of students to pass exams, complete projects. The consequence of such manner of study is low memory retention [1]. This study aims to confirm or disprove this stereotype. It is possible that grades reflect only short term learning since they are given at the end of the semester and there is no assurance for long term retention. According to Duda, memory retention is enhanced if, for example, a five hour study session is broken down into five separate one hour sessions [1]. This applies to cramming where a single study session just before an examination is less effective than several short study sessions. A survey was conducted to verify these assumptions using UP Los Banos students who took Physics 82 during the second semester of school year 2006-2007. The survey was limited to these students who are currently enrolled in Physics 83 during the first semester of school year 2007-2008. Physics 82 covers fundamental concepts in electricity and magnetism. This study aims to: 1.Determine whether there exists a correlation between the chronological order in which Physics 82 concepts were taught and the students’ memory retention of these concepts. 2.Determine the percentage of students who acknowledged to have employed cramming methods for their Physics 82 semester. 3.Determine whether there is a appreciable difference between students’ final grade (1-5 scale) in Physics 82 and their survey grade for both for the crammers and the non-crammers. 1.1 Hypotheses 1. There no strong positive linear correlation between the chronological order in which PHYS 82 concepts were taught the previous semester, and their memory retention of these concepts. Earlier topics taught are more retained than earlier topics. 2. There is no significant difference between crammers and non-crammers final grade (1-5 scale) in Physics 82, and between crammers and non-crammers survey score. Grade is not a good indicator of cramming behavior. 3. There is no strong linear correlation survey score and Physics 82 final grade for both crammers and non-crammers. Grade is not a good indicator of memory retention. 4. There is no significant difference between the between the students’ final grade (1-5 scale) in Physics 82 and their survey grade both for the crammers and the non-crammers. Cramming has no significant effect on the student’s memory retention of Physics 82 concepts. 2. Methodology The survey population consisted of all Physics 83 students that took Physics 82 the previous Semester. The Survey was done in class hours of Phys83 to all students. The population needed was filtered out afterwards. The survey questions included 16 topics in Physics 82 which were divided into 4 sets reflecting the first to the last quarter of the semester. Questions were generated for each topic. Five basic equations and two to four conceptual problems were taken from the topics. This was to ensure that the survey was representative of the whole Physics 82 semester. The questionnaire survey was divided into three parts, personal information, matching type and multiple choice. The first part consisted of personal information and also asked the students to rate themselves in a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 was the highest. The information taken were the following: ofrequency of cramming in exams and/or projects: â€Å"I cram my study for the night before exams† ostudy routine: (1-2hrs), (monthly(1)†¦, weekly(5)) I do not study for quizzes/do assign ahead oPreparation time for exam(a night before(1)†¦, three weeks before(5) ) I review only near exam dates oStudents claim on good retention: â€Å"I forgot my Physics 82† oLikelihood of cramming in the future: â€Å"I expect myself to cram for the coming exams due to unavoidable circumstances.† From these the students were then categorized to two sets as non-crammers (labeled as R), having less than 65% of total points in part I, and crammers (C) whose high score in part I acknowledge their use and likely future use of cramming methods. The percentage of students C and R in the population were then taken. The following comparisons were made: (1) between C and R Physics 82 final grade, (2) between C and R survey scores, and (3 ) between Physics 82 final grade and survey scores of all respondents. In the second part, students were asked to match an equation with a concept. There were 20 equations and corresponding concepts. Each match was given 1 point. Examples of the questions were [2]: Column AColumn B 1.Coulomb’s Law 2.1 Volt K. 1AmpCoul=1Joule/Coulomb Part 3 (multiple choice) consisted of 8 conceptual and 8 computational questions. The following are some examples: 1. Which of the following is false about electric potential? A.is the energy per unit charge B.is dependent of charge passing per unit time in a conductor. C.it is a scalar quantity D.electric potential surfaces lines cross each other 2. Which of the following is true? I.An Ohmic Conductor has a linear Voltage and Current relationship. II.When Ohm’s Law is not obeyed the resistivity (Ï ) of a substance is constant in the equation E=Ï J (J is current density). A.I only B. II only C. Both I and II D Neither I and I 1. The intensity of light is Io=100 Watts 1 meter away from its source. What is its intensity if the distance is doubled? A) I=Io/4 B) I=Io/2 C) I=0 D) I=Io/8 E) none of the above 2. In a DC R-L circuit, the current rises gradually to 5 ÃŽ ¼A in 8ÃŽ ¼sec. What is the induced EMF of the 10H inductor? A) 6.25V B) 0.625V C) 6V D) 12.5V E) none of the above Problem solving skills were also tested to gain insight on the student’s skills in operating some equations in part 2. Part 3 consisted of 16 items of 2 points each. The questions were structured so that 5 matching type items (Part 2), 2 conceptual and 2 computational multiple choice items (part3) represented each quarter of the Physics 82 semester. It was ensured that all items in the four quarters are of comparable level of difficulty. In order to test the reliability of the survey, we repeated some problems in the questionnaire so as to infer whether the students focused on answering the survey or merely guessed the answers. The questionnaire had a total of 52 points, 20 points for part two and 32 points for part three. Each quarter has perfect score of 13 points. A correlation between the sequence of these quarters and average points per quarter was taken. 3. Results and Discussion All of the 48 Physics 82 students who are enrolled in Physics 83 took part in the survey. Simple statistical methods were employed since the survey involved the whole population. In part I, it was assessed that there were approximately 32.56% crammers and 67.44% non-crammers in the population. The mean of the final grades of non-crammers was 2.36 while that of those who cram was 2.42. Since the grading system is in a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the highest, the one with lower mean implies a higher grade. Those who cram tends to have a lower grade than those who do not cram. This trend was also observed in the difference in the average of survey scores between the two categories where non-crammers had a 59.41% average and crammers had a 55.47%. The difference between the two averages was 3.94%. These difference is not significantly observable in the 1-5 grading system; thus, inference in cramming behavior based on grades is not reliable. Figure 3.1 Linear Regression of corresponding average survey score of students per quarter in the simulated exam to test natural degradation of retention through time. In figure 3.1 the trend of score increase is shown with a correlation of 0.566. This shows a natural degradation of memory retention through time since in the most recent quarter, 4th quarter, the average grade of the student in the simulated exam were higher than their average grade in the previous quarter. The average points of 1st 2nd, and 3rd 4th are then averaged in pairs that reflected first and second half the of the Physics 82 semester. Figure 3.2 Average scores of students per quarter in the simulated exam. The average of the second half is 7.802326 which is higher than that of the first half which is equal to 7.476744.This further justifies the degradation of memory of retention with time. Figure 3.3 Linear correlation of Physics 82 final grade and survey score Figure 3.3 shows the correlation between the survey score and the final grade of the students in physics 82 last semester. The negative correlation is due to the fact that 1 is the highest in the 1-5 scale Grading System. Students who got high grades in Physics 82 also got high scores in the survey. The correlation of -0.62263 implies that the final grade of the students is a strong indicator of memory retention where a high grade likely implies high retention. Table 3.1 Mean difference and median difference between physics 82 final grade and survey grade CategoryMean DifferenceMedian Difference Crammer-0.839-0.5 Non-Crammer-0.664-0.25 Table 3.1 shows the difference between physics 82 final grade and survey grade (1-5 grade system). The negative sign indicates that all the students have lesser survey grades compared to their final grade. There is a significant difference between the degradation of grade between crammers and non-crammers. The crammers’ grade decreased by 0.839 while that of non-crammers’ decreased by 0.664. The crammers significantly had less memory retention than those of the non-crammers. 4. Conclusion Memory retention undergoes degradation process through time. This degradation is further increased by cramming behavior. Memory retention has a natural degradation through time both for crammers and non-crammers. The earlier topics were less retained than the most recent topics. Cramming had a significant effect on the student’s memory retention of Physics 82 concepts. There was a strong linear correlation survey score and Physics 82 final grade as shown in figure 3.3. Grade is a strong indicator of memory retention since it was shown that those who got higher grades had better performance in the simulated exam. Thus, students who obtained higher grades tend to have more concepts retained. Cramming was shown to contribute to memory loss. Crammers had a 0.5 median drop in grade between Physics 82 final grade and survey grade whereas non-crammers had a median drop of 0.25. The result of this study is consistent with Duda’s study which affirms the negative effect of crammi ng. The structure of this study may be implemented on other subjects to further assess the effects of cramming behavior on memory retention and may involve other criterion on student academic performance. References [1]J Duda. Study shows test cramming has negative effects on grades. http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/94/91/01_2_m.html. Last modified on Feb 2, 2001. [2]H.D. Young and R.A. Freedman. University Physics: The Modern Physics, tenth edition. USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 2000. [3]Statistics.Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 Deluxe Edition CD.USA, Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. 2005

How To Break Up With Someone Essay -- Proccess Descriptive Relationshi

How To Break Up With Someone Almost everyone will have to break up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend at some point in his or her life. Breaking up is honestly a hard thing to do no matter what the situation. At some point in time, you found something special in this person that you are now going to have to get out of your life. Now these good times and special features must be bypassed so you can do what's best for you. An easy way to remember the tools you need is to remember the Wizard of Oz, because all you need is courage, a heart and a brain. The first step to ending a relationship is realizing it is going nowhere. Realization is the most important step. After making this conclusion, your brain knows what to do, even if your heart may feel different. In addition, a person tends to fall out of love easier when they think of their future (or lack there of) with a specific man or woman. When you recognize the relationship is not going to lead to a loving marriage, the logical side of you thinks of the next step, starting over without him/her in your life. This way of thinking also helps to console a broken heart after a break up.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second step is deciding how to tell your significant other. You can tell the person in many ways, but be cautious and consider their temperament and personality. This subject can be very painful and needs to be personalized. Let them know gently that at one point in time you cared for them tremendously and that they will alw...

Much Ado About Nothing : Acts: I & II

Benedick’s Soliloquy on ideal woman: (2.3.20-27) In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing Benedick, a romantic young Lord in Padua, is head over shoulders in love with Beatrice, Leonato’s niece. A moment ago he satirized the â€Å"fantastical† behavior of Claudius in love. As he readies himself for love, he contemplates the sterling qualities he seeks in his love lady. He desires her to be the embodiment of all rare virtues admired by men. He would not buy her unless she is â€Å"fair†, â€Å"wise† and â€Å"virtuous†. Furthermore, she needs to be â€Å"rich†, and â€Å"mild†, and   Ã¢â‚¬Å"noble†. He also expects her to be   a brilliant conversationalist as well as an â€Å"excellent musician†. Benedick goes about choosing his woman as a fastidious buyer go bargaining for the best property at lowest price. This speech is meant to provide fun and mirth to the audience; but it also demonstrates the male attitude of regarding women as property. If he succeeds, then he would be in possession of a gem of a woman, and could go about boasting of   his prize catch. We are indeed prone to laugh at such acquisitiveness. The commodification of woman is also deplorable. She has to be tailor-made with all virtues stitched in to satisfy the male ego. It is a folly for Benedick that he rules out the possibility   that if such a perfect woman existed at all , she might   not choose him. Benedick’s reaction to hearing that Beatrice is secretly in love with him: (2.3.181-213):2 paras. On her husband like qualities. On why he is so easily duped by his friends. In the speech following the trap   set by Pedro, Claudio and Leanato, Benedict starts behaving like a very compromising lover who is willing to bury past   his antagonism with Beatrice. As suggested by Pedro, Benedick begins his introspection – self-examination to improve his chances of being a good and worthy husband. Like a repentant lover and future husband he feels he has unfairly treated the fair Beatrice, and her love â€Å"must be requited†. (2.3.216) He also decides that he â€Å"must not seem proud.† (2.3.220). He concludes that she is fair, virtuous and wise for having fallen in love with him. He has now grown wise to listen to people’s criticism which would lead to the improvement of his personality. For having so long opposing and railing against marriage, he makes a 180 degree turn and pledges to â€Å"be horribly in love with her.† (2.3.226) He further argues that he must break his vow of celibacy so that â€Å"the world must be peopled.†(2.3.233). Being conditioned and brainwashed by Leanato, Pedro and Claudio he now discovers â€Å"some marks of love in her.†(2.3.236)His conclusion – â€Å"I am a villain; if I do not love her.† (2.3.253) – is a proof of his delusion. In this speech Benedick recapitulates after eavesdropping the mock-serious conversations of Claudio, Pedro and Leanato who aver that Beatrice is dying for his love, but   is too modest â€Å"to wear her heart out first.† (2.3.195) What he so long regarded â€Å" a gull† now has become veritable truth; as he says, â€Å"This can be no trick: the conference was sadly borne.† Like the typical lover with   Ã¢â‚¬Å"imagination   all compact†, he is duped by the   prank played by Pedro and Claudio. He is unable to see through the â€Å"sport† to mislead both   the proud lovers to hold â€Å"an opinion of another’s dotage.† (2.3.208) The old and the experienced Prince and Governor are successful in manipulating the romantic but arrogant lovers to confess their love and overcome their egoes. All Beatrice’s objections like â€Å"Against my will† and forcing her on â€Å"knife’s point †¦to choke a daw withal.† (2.3.246) are romantically interpreted as signs of love. Benedick’s behavior does confirm Shakespeare’s view of lover in Midsummer Night’s Dream: â€Å"The   lunatic, the lover and the poet/Are of   imagination all compact.† (Midsummer, 5.1.7) Their wild imagination hardly resembles the reality. Qualities I like in a man or woman. Do I choose any qualities admired by Benedick? Why? Or why not? The qualities I like in a man are tenderness, affection, and a capacity for enduring relationship. He must not treat woman as a prized possession for his personal benefit; but treat her as an equal partner. The qualities admired by Benedick are male ego-centric and would not satisfy any modern woman. â€Å"Wise†, â€Å"noble† and â€Å"mild† are admirable qualities in male as well   female spouse. Some intellectual qualities like brilliant conversationalist and excellent musician are   welcome personality traits, but not a necessity. But â€Å"rich† indicates love of wealth and dowry which often creates problems in marital life. Benedick gives the impression of a customer with a shopping list of virtues rather than a lover. To match his list a woman has to be perfect. No woman would like such an exacting husband. Work Cited: Craig, W.J.(ed.),   Shakespeare: Complete Works. London. O.U.P. 1974   

The Pandemic Is A Disease Outbreak - 1295 Words

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