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Comment by Quikinterp | Hacker News Reader

I've anecedotedly studied how much sleep is the most efficient before writing an exam, throughout the many I've taken at university. This is a bit different than long term rentention though, as my hypothesis was basically "if you think you're screwed for an exam, what's the optimal crammed studying/sleep ratio the night before?"

1. All nighter is never worth it no matter how little material you think you know.

2. If you're semi confident in the exam, prioritize getting a full sleep over a little sleep.

3. If you're not confident in the exam, definitely still aim for at least 5-6 hours of sleep.

That's what I've noticed when it comes down to cram studying, otherwise my performance goes out the window.

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One thing I did in school was sleep early and wake up early to study before the exam. I wonder if that was actually effective or not.

In my experience is good for light to medium study session, not heavier. If I try to do heavy study before the exam, I won't be able to perform well.

Looks like the brain has stamina that will be depleted little by little when used, either during exam or studying.

In my experience it gets more complicated depending on the days leading up to the event. Given good sleep for a good stretch of days up to the day before the exam, all-nighter can work out fine. But I guess there is a correlation between lack of discipline to get good sleep and not studying regularly so I can see that being a rare situation :-)

I think all nighters are bad idea, because my college mates who done them had ... less then smart answers to even simple questions.

They were smart, as people. But not sleeping whole night makes you dumb. And they inability to figure what was not memorized harmed their performance a lot.

Yeah this would make sense. I still do think all nighters would probably harm your memory retention even if you do it a couple days before the exam. I'd imagine the brain has more time to really process what you're studying if you sleep after doing so.

I always felt worse two days after all nighters than the day after. I feel like the next day isn't necessarily when you pay, once the morning comes around again you get a second wind

I have this same experience as well. During college, with exams in the mornings, I've also tried shifting periods: going to sleep really early just to wake up early and study for some hours until the exam. That did not work well - a consistent sleep routine is very important!

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