The Problem: Cramming and Methodological Deficits

Many students – especially in the early stages of their studies – postpone learning until shortly before the exam. The result is “cramming”: Everything is memorized shortly before the exam and quickly forgotten afterwards. At the same time, many students have never learned how to take notes effectively, structure content, or self-regulate. These methodological skills are often tacitly assumed by instructors.

To address this problem, we use a special incentive system in many courses: the “exam booklet.” We explain the idea and process in the following video (2.5 min):

The Exam Booklet System

Why does it work?

The system uses positive reinforcement:

• Those who work regularly have an easier time in the exam and immediately notice this advantage: If a page is not submitted on time, it is missing from the booklet – this creates an incentive to engage with the lecture content every week
• The booklet acts like a “safety net” and reduces exam anxiety.
• Continuous work is directly rewarded, not just at the end of the semester.
• The abstract goal “pass the exam” is operationalized through concrete weekly tasks.

Empirical Evidence and Limitations

The system has been piloted since 2020 in approximately 10 courses at the University of Bamberg, in both undergraduate and graduate programs, and is highly valued by students. Instructors at other universities (e.g., Heilbronn University) have also implemented the system.

The evaluation of the type and extent of use is still ongoing. However, initial results are promising:

Challenges and Limitations

The system does not work equally well for all students. We have observed the following effects so far:

Unexpected burdens:

• Continuous stress: Regular submissions are perceived as a permanent burden.
• Course competition: Multiple booklet-using courses in the same semester can lead to overload.
• Motivation problems: Some students see the system as (another) annoying obligation.

Fairness challenges:

• “Shadow markets”: unreflective exchange of booklet pages among students
• Technical inequality: Different prerequisites for page creation can lead to significant quality differences
• False security: Excessive reliance on the booklet without internalization

To control the impact of these undesirable effects, rules, methodological guidance, and continuous support are needed.

We have documented our experiences in an implementation guide:

Impact and Benefits

Promoted Competencies

The weekly condensation of content is itself an important learning activity. Students systematically develop important methodological skills:

Information curation: Selecting relevant content from the wealth of material Structuring: Condensing and organizing complex topics Independent formulation: Summarizing in one’s own words instead of copying Self-regulation: Planning time and workload throughout the semester

The requirement that booklet pages must be created in one’s own handwriting prevents mindless copying of slide content and promotes active engagement.

Exam Culture Shift

Since students can potentially access the conveyed facts directly using their booklet in the exam, this creates an incentive for instructors to replace questions about knowledge reproduction with application and comprehension questions. This in turn leads to more meaningful exam questions and thus to deeper learning and better competency orientation.

Student Perspectives

The following quotes are paraphrased feedback we have received in course evaluations.

Positive feedback:

• “Finally I studied regularly instead of cramming everything at the last minute”
• “The booklet gave me security – I knew I had my most important notes with me”
• “Through the weekly summarizing I understood much better”

Critical voices:

• “The pressure to submit every week was sometimes stressful”
• “In the exam I couldn’t use my booklet at all because no definitions were tested”
• “Time investment was higher than expected, especially at the beginning”

Some students report that they hardly needed to use the booklet in the exam because they had already internalized the content through creating it.

The Booklet Tool: Software Support

Our open-source tool automates the organizational processing and makes the system practical even for large courses. After the initial setup and method instruction (on the side of 2–3 sessions, see Implementation Guide ), there is almost no additional ongoing effort for instructors.

• Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux – no complex dependencies
• LMS integration: Pre-configured templates for Moodle and ILIAS
• Batch processing: Hundreds of booklets in one run
• GDPR-compliant: Local processing without external cloud services

The Booklet Tool is freely available under MIT license:

Frequently Asked Questions

Scientific Publication

Please cite the following publication if you use the booklet concept in your academic work.