By Innocent Ngene
It’s 2 a.m. The exam is by 9 a.m. Your notes are still scattered, your eyes are heavy, and your only goal is simple: just pass. You read, you memorize, you repeat. By morning, you walk into the exam hall feeling confident. A few hours later, it’s over. And by next week, most of what you learnt is gone.
This is the reality for many students. Across campuses, a quiet culture has taken over – cramming. It’s fast, it’s not stressful, and most importantly, it works – at least for passing exams. But it raises a serious question: are we actually learning, or are we just training our brains to survive tests and exams?
I have seen students openly admitting this pattern of reading a night before the exam. A student openly said on TikTok, “I can read 100 pages overnight, and will still pass my exams.” Another student commented, “School has taught me how to pass exams, not how to understand things.”
I became particularly concerned about the comment, which made me want to know the reason why students enjoy last minute reading over having the real knowledge. Most concerning is that these students are not lazy. In fact, many of them are always going to night classes, sacrificing sleep, and pushing themselves just to meet academic demands.
The problem is not effort. The problem is the system and habits that reward short-term memory over real understanding. In many cases, the pressure to pass overshadows the goal of learning.
Sometimes heavy course loads, and exam-focused teaching methods leave little room for deep thinking and practical application. Students are often forced into survival mode, where success is measured by grades, and not by what they know. But let’s be honest: cramming is not entirely the system’s fault. Students play a major role. Procrastination, poor study habits, and over-reliance on “expo” mindsets contribute to the cycle. It’s easier to delay reading and depend on last-minute effort than to build consistent understanding over time. The danger is not just forgetting after exams, it’s graduating without confidence in what we studied. It’s entering the real world, unable to apply knowledge. It is holding certificates that don’t reflect competence. Some students say that cramming is simply part of student life, that it’s a necessary skill to cope with academic pressure. And to an extent, they’re right. Deadlines are real, and not every topic can be mastered deeply in limited time. But when cramming becomes the primary method of learning, something is clearly broken. That’s why we need to study to have the knowledge.
Education should not be a cycle of cram, write, and forget. It should be a process of understanding, applying, and growing. If we want to break this cycle, both students and institutions must rethink their approach. Students need to adopt more consistent study habits and avoid procrastination, while schools should encourage teaching methods that prioritize understanding over memorization. For institutions, there’s a need for a shift in teaching and assessment. Exams should focus more on application, through problem-solving questions, case studies, and presentations. This can help to test the knowledge of a student. Continuous assessment should carry more weight, which will help to reduce the pressure placed on a single final exam. Secondly, teaching methods also need to evolve. Instead of relying heavily on note dictation, lecturers can adopt more interactive approaches such as discussions, demonstrations, and practical examples that help students engage with the material. In some cases, open-book or concept-based exams can be introduced to test understanding. Equally important is reviewing course content to ensure it remains relevant and not unnecessarily overloaded. Students, on their part, must take responsibility for how they learn. Effective learning rarely happens overnight. Studying in small, consistent sessions helps build long-term memory and reduces exam pressure. More importantly, students need to move from passive reading to active learning, summarizing ideas in their own words, teaching others, and asking deeper questions about what they study. Practicing retrieval, such as testing oneself without looking at notes, has also proven far more effective than repeated reading. Instead of memorizing lines, students should focus on understanding how concepts connect and how they apply in real situations. While last-minute revision may sometimes be unavoidable, it should serve as reinforcement and not the foundation of learning. At the end of the day, passing exams may open doors, but real learning is what keeps them open.
