Exploring the Construction of Crib Sheets: An Abstract

Abstract

At a time when university students report feeling stress at unprecedented levels (Time 2018), it is widely acknowledged that exams can increase anxiety levels, which in turn creates a variety of negative effects including impaired concentration, thinking, and reasoning abilities (Beck and Clarke 1997). Instructors need to be cognizant of student stress and consider designing courses to reduce the impact of exam related anxiety. This study focusses on the value of crib-sheets (student-created aids that can be used in exams). Typically, this aid will be a one-page, student-created note sheet with the aim to reduce the need to memorize information. Crib-sheets serve as a mid-way alternative between closed and open book exams and continue to interest researchers in their potential as a study aid to help students synthesize course material (Hamouda and Shaffer 2016). A student can benefit from creating a crib sheet not only by processing taught information, but also by developing an effective tool and stress coping mechanism, similar to a child’s security blanket (Drake et al. 1998; Trigwell 1987). This aid is claimed to be especially helpful when the exam type calls for more than mere reproduction of learned facts, freeing cognitive capacity for higher order thinking thus improving exam performance (Erbe 2007). The study draws on information processing theory and contributes to the body of research on its application in the domains of cognitive learning theory and constructive learning theories. The study investigates how crib sheets that can be used in exams, can assist the study process whilst also serving as an authorised support that can reduce exam stress by having students see their preparation. The authors examine the construction and use of crib-sheets in the marketing discipline and the results reveal that crib-sheets have potential that may work as an effective tool to alleviate pre-exam anxiety, thus indicating that they are perhaps better if used in new or additional ways than as an in-exam memory substitute.