Procrastination: Why students tend to study at the last minute

Graphic by Islam Ashour

Contributor

Students get an announcement that a test is approaching and it means it’s time to crack open the books, scatter through the notes, and prepare to use all of the knowledge they have for that particular subject. Exams in college are loaded with pieces of material to comprehend and memorize. Yet, many students tend to procrastinate when they should be studying. According to a survey conducted at Desales University of 101 students, 95 percent stated that procrastination is a problem for most college students.

So why is it that students tend to cram, or wait until the last minute?

Distractions, distractions and more distractions

Many people are guilty of letting their minds wander when they’re supposed to be getting something done. Studying is no stranger to distractions . It’s so easy to get distracted: by other people, cell phones, open windows, anything really.

Charis Henderson, a freshman and nursing major at WCC, describes herself as a master procrastinator. Surfing the internet is her main weakness.

“It’s hard when you have a computer in front of you,” she said while—in fact—watching a YouTube video on her laptop.  Studying is boring. “….it’s really, really, boring,” she said.

Henderson usually studies for an exam the night before.

However, she’s learned that it is not a good habit: “In middle school it’s OK, in high school it’s OK, but here (in college) you need to study in order to survive.”

It’s a really thorough process that’s time consuming

In trying to balance homework, extracurricular activities, jobs and a social life, making time to study can get lost in all the action.

Tyla Smith is a third-year WCC student and part of the Washtenaw Technical Middle College program since ninth grade. She’s also a procrastinator who’s been trying to change her ways. “It’s difficult to break a habit,” she said. Smith is majoring in computer foundations and information systems. She’s thinking about going into law, and doing photography on the side. But quite often, she finds herself too occupied with other things to study ahead of time,

“I usually tell myself, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow….then the next day… I find excuses to not study until 2-4 hours before the exam.” In the past, Smith’s main excuse was simply being tired after a long day of doing other things. Most recently her health has been getting in the way of her studies.

It seemed really convenient at the time

Procrastination can become routine for many people. When repeated they repeat the behavior so often, procrastinators may start to feel that they can know enough to pass an upcoming test… or make up some points doing something else later in the course.

Freshman and math and science major Kaia Constantinides likes to study about three days at most, before a test. She describes herself as someone that likes to “perfect things.”

“I don’t want to overstudy,” Constantinides said, . “…I’m afraid that if material is spaced out too much, I’ll forget it.”

She feels that it can help her get through if the exam “helps her” enough with multiple choice and short-answer questions. But Constantinides knows that procrastination has some cons: “In the short run, it helps my exam, but in the long run, (not procrastinating) gives me more time to absorb, or understand things.

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