Cramming, active procrastination, and academic achievement

The purpose in this study was to examine whether or not the effect of active procrastination on academic achievement is significantly different according to how long before the examination students begin cramming and whether or not active procrastinators get a better grade than passive procrastinators when they begin to cram the day before an examination. The data were collected from 172 Korean undergraduates. The results show that there was no significant difference in academic achievement among the 3 groups of active procrastinators in terms of how much cramming they did, but there was a significant difference in academic achievement between active procrastinators and passive procrastinators in the group who began cramming only 1 day or less before the examination. The implications of this study are discussed.