Why Cramming the Night Before Your SAT Backfires (and What to Do Instead)

It's 11 pm and you're paging through your notes, desperately trying to memorize three months of SAT prep the night before your big test. Is it worth it? Probably not.

Cramming can hurt your performance on test day

Staying up late and ramping up your stress levels will mess with your sleep, leaving you to arrive at your test exhausted and foggy. That makes you more likely to mix up concepts and make careless mistakes. It also chips away at your ability to concentrate and do your best when it counts.

You need to be well rested to test well

Your brain and body need rest to perform at their best and to have the mental stamina to get through an hours-long test. You'll gain far more from an extra hour of sleep than you ever will from cramming all night.

What you should do the night before

Some light review is fine, but don't spend a lot of time on test prep the night before your test. Instead, use that time to handle the logistics: make sure your calculator is charged or has fresh batteries, print out your test ticket or save a screenshot (better yet, do both), get your photo ID ready, and pack a snack for the break. Beyond that, try to have a relaxing evening, give your brain a chance to rest, and get to bed early.

How to avoid needing to cram next time

If you find yourself needing to cram a ton of new material before a test, that's usually a sign you didn't feel fully prepared going in. Before your next test, build a study schedule that focuses on the topics you're weakest in, and take and review practice tests spaced out across that schedule. Put the work in well ahead of time, and that 11 pm scramble won't even cross your mind.