Reading Comprehension · Question 29 · Medium
According to the passage, why do many learners continue to cram?
Students preparing for placement tests often spend the night before an exam reading the same notes again and again. The method feels productive, because the material becomes familiar, but familiarity is not the same as memory. Psychologists have shown for more than a century that information is retained far better when study sessions are spread out over several days than when they are crammed into one long sitting. This is known as the spacing effect. A related finding is that testing oneself, by trying to recall an answer before looking it up, strengthens memory more than rereading does, even when the attempt fails. The effort of retrieval seems to signal to the brain that the information is worth keeping. Why, then, do so many learners continue to cram? Part of the answer is that spaced practice feels harder. Each session begins with the uncomfortable discovery of how much has been forgotten, and that discomfort is easily mistaken for a sign that the method is not working. Cramming, by contrast, produces a pleasant sense of mastery that lasts just long enough to mislead.
- Self-testing is not allowed before exams
- Cramming has been proven to work better for placement tests
- Spaced practice requires expensive study material
- Spaced practice feels harder, while cramming gives a pleasant sense of mastery
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Spaced practice feels harder, while cramming gives a pleasant sense of mastery
Explanation: The passage says spaced practice feels harder because each session reveals what has been forgotten, whereas cramming produces a pleasant but misleading sense of mastery.
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