A Letter from Princeton

    (Li Laiyin graduated from Shenzhen Middle School and is now studying at Princeton University in the United States.)

    Dear readers,

    I’m not sure if this applies to you as well, but there is an activity popular among students called “cramming.” What is cramming? I hear you ask.

    Do you remember ever feeling utterly unprepared right before an examination? Do you remember those frantic few days of last-minute studying before heading into a test? Well, if you answered yes to the above questions, then you might have been an unknowing member of the club for a while now.

    When I was still a freshman at Princeton, I came to realize that cramming is much too prevalent on college campuses. Of course, we don’t want to generalize; not everyone crams and even those who do may have reasonable excuses or an infrequent cramming “schedule.” But I think it is safe to say that almost everyone has crammed for a test at least once in their academic careers.

    After much observation, it seems that the basic steps that guarantee a “successful” process of cramming consist of the following activities in the following order:

    1) ask the professor for topics included in the examination or skim the syllabus;

    2) skim all relevant material in 1/10 of the time it takes to read it thoroughly, which might include lecture powerpoint slides found online, hundreds of pages of reading material, textbooks, and past assignments as well as standard solutions provided by the professor or his student assistants;

    3) whenever possible, find a handful of other students in the class who also have a desire to cram well and form a temporary “study group” to hasten the process of skimming material and reviewing content; this group will last no longer than a week and naturally drift apart immediately following the examination period;

    4) exploit the professor’s remaining office hours during which students can meet with them and ask any questions of their choosing and hope the professor subconsciously guides one in the right direction within an hour or two.

    There may seem to be a hint of sarcasm and dry humor laced in between the lines here, but I assure you that these steps are not fabricated; whether or not they produce the results one may be looking for is another issue.

    Finally, I must add that I do understand why crammers cram. It might be a one-time thing that arose due to slight procrastination or a misaligned ordering of priorities; after all, there are so many things one must do and prepare for, especially in college. If it’s a habit, then I suppose persistent procrastination might be the main culprit, but each to his own, eh? But I guess I’ll have to love you and leave you now, I have to do some last-minute preparations for tomorrow’s lecture and discussion.

    Sincerely, Laiyin