College Days and the Cramming Syndrome

Circa 1990s..."Mr. Alcala, you're late again," my English professor, Mrs. Huelgas said as I entered the room for my first period.

It was a gloomy Tuesday. My head ached due to lack of sleep. I attended the drama recording session on the radio last night at the Bombo Radio-Naga City for a week's materials for 9 drama series. We started 6 pm until 3 am. Whew! What a marathon.

"I'm sorry, Madam,"I mumbled as I sitted at the vacant seat infront of her. My classmates understood but my professor...

"I told you...choose between your job and your studies," as she scolded me. "You should prioritize schooling before anything else."

"If you incurred 10 lates or absences, you'll report to the Guidance Counselor." I bowed my sleepy head as I mumbled the "Yes, madam" answer.

"I'm sure, you'll be cramming again with your projects this semester," she concluded as she segued to the day's lesson on Technical Writing 101.

This setup went on and on until I decided to switch course and school...from Development Communications in Ateneo de Naga University into Catering in Mariner's Polytechnic Colleges Foundation, Inc.

I never stopped working on the radio until 1999, before the new millenium and tried my career on seafaring.

 I am melodramatic about college days. I'm not a normal student, per se because I was working as a radio personality at the local station. I seldom enjoyed the company of my classmates because my vacant periods were spent collating data for beat reporting.

Anyways, the rigors of entering a college institution started by taking an entrance examination. If you passed for the cutoff number, then you can enrol to your chosen academy.

You can choose either you will enrol as blocktime student (regular schedule, like in office works) or freelance (choosing your own available time if your are working). I chose the latter.

As I attended in a Catholic-managed college institution, Ateneo de Naga University, we have an additional subject on Religion. We had arguments on it that nearly drove my former priest-turned-professor to expel me (I think, I'll reveal it to another hub).

During colleges days, you can categorize teachers as traditional and non-traditional ones. Traditional ones often credit their teachings  by the book while non-traditional are open to fresh ideas.

The satisfying period in college life is when you were declared as one of the Dean's listers (I did it several times) and then you brushed elbows with the school heads, including the Father President (Jesuit priest heading a Catholic school).

Fraternities and sororities were prohibited during our time`(1992-1995) due to reports of hazing incidents that caused deaths to several neophytes. Students' involvement in intra or extra-curricular activities were limited to regular school organizations.

Student rallies were rampant during my college days. I used to join the rally (because I was a reporter, then) and incurred many absences in all of my subjects. Our class beadle (secretary warned me that I will be subjected to the school's disciplinary action. One of my friends was declared persona non grata (undesirable person) that lost the opportunity to enter the portals of his alma mater again. I've seen here in one of the television interview acting as secretary of a prominent CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) leader.

I miss the action of college days...cramming for the projects, winning friends and hating teachers (superficially, hehehe!).

I have plans of getting my college diploma this semester. It's never too late, after all.

 The desire to excel academically can be atrributed to Cramming Syndrome. I call it that way because I was one of those college students who wanted to belong in the elite few of the class, as my English professor will say.

I'm not wearing a pair of thick eyeglasses to make me look nerdy, as if I am a genius, but  my thirst for knowledge  was tested during my college years.

I resorted to cramming because I cannot give up my work. It became my excuse to submit all the necessary reports and projects as requirements to pass one subject after another.

Cramming is good if you have fast, fresh and adulterated memory. I believe, my young mind, then can absorb volumes of information from the books in just a short span of time because I was able to pass the exams with flying colors.

Many teachers blame students that often resorted to cramming due to improper time management because it will result to mediocre performances of the graduates when they have jobs already.

Well, I'm happy  to share to college students who are reading right now that, group cramming, can produce positive results during periodic examination. I'm sure you belong to a group or friends in your class, so why not utilise  the method. The retentivity of collated ideas will be longer.

Unfortunately, we are often graded based from the results of our written exams. I hope that the educational system all over the world will also accept oral reasoning or practical performance because it is often applied during your actual job application.

Although, cramming is not a very good idea if you want to excel in college classes, it is always the last resort if yoú juggle your time with the odd jobs you are maintaining in order to pay the rent, pay your education and other expenses.

You're lucky if you have parents that will fully supportt your education during your college days. In my case, my parents cannot fully support me then, so I did an extra job to pursue my college career, even though cramming got into my system.

 I've tried taking an Architectural course via mail but it didn't pushed through. During the early 90s, the International Correspondence School (ICS) still offer a degree on Architecture but they exclude it before the millenium.

I received the first volume of the subjects on the course and answered all the written exams that were sent by the ICS.

Unfortunately, there was an advisory that the course was no longer available via mail. The ICS management advised me to change course. Basic Commercial Art (BCA) was a tempting alternative, but my budding career on the radio and lack of budget made me decline the offer.

These days, working students can  choose a college university online if they want to get a college degree. I think, this is a better idea in order to keep abreast with the latest technology and educational course, like IT courses of Information Technology (Informatics).

With the cost of college education, you must look for a  college institution offering cheaper tuition or matriculation fees.

• Cyber Bullying: A Threat to Everyone is a timely discussion about the battle between the rogue users in the internest vs the kind ones. The unguarded words being hurled by these people in order to hurt someone spread like viruses in many social networking sites, like the Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube.
• Is Your Child a Gifted One? reveals account on having gifted children in the family and how the parents cope with having one or two of them.

(Note: My browser cannot highlight and link the titles of my hubs. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please make a comment as you visit my first HubMob Weekly entry. Thanks a lot!)