MAYBE THE USUAL STUDENTS' PRACTICE OF CRAMMING FOR A TEST MAKES SENSE: A MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

We always teach students that cramming for a test is a bad idea, that they should study at the same speed throughout the semester - but many still cram. We ourselves are not that different: when we prepare papers for a conference, we often "cram" in the last days before the deadline instead of working with a regular speed for the whole time before the conference. The ubiquity of cramming makes us think that maybe it is not necessarily always a bad idea. And indeed, a simple model of a study process shows that an optimal solution often involve some cramming - to be more precise, a study schedule, in which in some periods we study much more intensely than in other periods, is often more efficient than studying at the same speed.