All-nighters and caffeine may do the body good

Over the years students have honed their skills in studying for exams. Narendra Ramcharan, the math lab coordinator for the University Tutoring Center gives some insight into the whether common study habits are actually proven to be effective.

Whether it is pulling all nighters, innumerable caffeine runs or study parties, there are many ways to prepare. Through word of mouth and experience in the academic setting, college students collect and pass on a plethora of tricks to pass the final exam without studying.

Ramcharan discussed some basic study habits that work every single time and none of them consist of the shortcuts or tricks we hear about in the hallways.

“Firstly, I think students should create mock tests for themselves. They shouldn’t pretend they know [the material] when they don’t really know it. They should take the mock test in a real test environment that way [students] will know whether they really know something or if they don’t,” he said.

Although, some may encounter doing practice tests in some elementary classes, self-testing may be a very rare practice in college.

“Don’t wait until the last minute to start studying and know what it is you don’t know, I think is the biggest thing.” Ramcharan said. Ironically, the idea of taking finals is so that teachers can find out if you were really listening and paying attention in class and so they would like to test you on what you know. Yet, approaching studying from the aspect of tackling and understanding what you don’t know in the class can most likely put you in a better position come test day.

“Don’t get yourself in a fooled sense of confidence where you think you know everything, when you really don’t,” Ramcharan said.

The two main study habits of most students are multiple caffeine runs and pulling all-nighters. Many experts and articles in prestigious publications may tell you that pulling all-nighters and loading up on caffeine are very big no-no’s when it comes to studying. Yet, Ramcharan feels that maybe there are certain classes where pulling an all-nighter is actually beneficial.

“I think as a former student, there were certain classes that I would’ve pulled all-nighters as well [as regular studying] and then I would just go take the test.

It depends on the type of material; if it’s more facts that you have to memorize, all nighters are probably better. But, if you have to remember things like steps and certain procedures, those things have to come with practice and can’t come from pulling an all-nighter.”

Caffeine is known for helping people to be more alert when they start to fall asleep during the day, yet it comes with side effects common with most energizing drinks; the withdrawal period.

Ramacharan touches on the subject partly from personal experiences, “I’ll always have this withdrawal period where you have the high and then you crash at some point. During finals, you don’t have the time to crash and recover. But, it would be something good to take when you need to wake up in the morning.”

The University is known to offer events such as Midnight Breakfast around finals time, a break for all students to eat and begin studying again on a full stomach. “I didn’t have that when I was in school. Now that you ask, maybe they should have had some things like that.

But I mean, I probably would not have eaten because I don’t want to eat late at night, I would probably go to sleep right away.” Ramcharan is not such a big fan of the idea of eating late at night, yet not all students may feel the same way. "It sounds like a great idea to have an event like that before finals,” sophomore Larry Summers said.

“I thought it was a great idea, I loved it. I liked the one at [the University] a lot better than at the St. George dorm because of the variety of food,” alumni Carla Aponte said.

When asked about the volume of people that come into the Tutoring Center, Ramcharan solidified the already well-known fact. “I see a lot of students come in right before tests, which is not ideal. We can’t realistically help someone to get an A in a class if they come in to start studying right before a test.”

As the math lab coordinator, Ramacharan can attest to cramming right before a test as not being beneficial at all. “Math is something you really need to practice and do exercises, so that you know all the types of questions the professor could ask.

If [students] came regularly like once a week, for 30 minutes or an hour throughout the semester, just to get clarification for the week so that they are confident and they know the material. [This is better] than if they come in right before a test and they don’t know anything.”

The Tutoring Center experiences methodical spikes in the amount students coming in around midterms and finals, “Around finals, we kind of have an explosion of students.”

Ramcharan interacts with many students and thus, deals with many reactions to studying and the amount of pressure final exams bring. “I think they are overwhelmed...because they wait until the last minute. Also, a common complaint is that [the students] are not sure of what they need to study and need to prepare.”

Every person has his or her own way of preparing whether it is for a final, a presentation or for a job. The outcome of a test or presentation will always depend on how much we prepare for it and are thoroughly ready in advance no matter how many shortcuts we try to take.

So if you don’t want to fear d-day, drink coffee in the morning, review in the afternoon and maybe pull an all-nighter just to be sure.