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Guide for Successful Cheat Sheets

By a Former Data Mining Student
March 2015

The term “cheat sheet” comes from a time when college students tried to make small pieces of
paper that had answers on them. These were snuck into exams, and if caught with one, there
were serious consequences.

Modern cheat sheets are used in some courses with the blessing of the professors for several
reasons:

1. They reduce test anxiety because students can record details that they might otherwise
forget. In this way, students can focus on the over-all concepts, and record the details on
the cheat sheet.

2. They encourage the student to organize his or her thoughts about the course content.
This study and organization is the most important aspect of cheat sheets.

3. The process of creating these sheets is useful for learning. Simply writing down the material
by hand helps with information retention.

Crafting a great cheat sheet takes careful thought and preparation. Here are some things to
consider including: what to put on the sheet, how to put content on the sheet, and some extra
tips to help solidify it.

The ‘What’

An important aspect of creating a cheat sheet is knowing exactly what is going to be on the
exam. Professors may provide a study guide to students. At a minimum, know the last lecture
that will be on the exam, and if the exam will be cumulative or not.

1. Considering the above purposes, put on the cheat sheet information and vocabulary that
are easy to get confused.

2. Include information that you cannot easily memorize.

3. Fundamental concepts you should know, and should not need to write down. However, if
you are inclined to get nervous having a list of fundamental concepts to help your memory
might be a good idea.

4. Do not put too much information on a cheat sheet. Otherwise you will be scrambling
around looking for what you are trying to find. Writing too small, or too much, will get you
into trouble. It is better to have a well organized cheat sheet so that you can quickly find
what you’re looking for.

5. Put small worked examples that demonstrate the algorithm or concept.

These examples can help you remember the steps if you get nervous.

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6. Make it easy to visually navigate to what you are looking for. Use white space. Some
students use colored boxes or highlighting around different sections, or for different
concepts.

7. Tables are sometimes appropriate: tables or lists of examples and steps help trigger the
answers. Remember, you only need enough written on the cheat sheet to remind you
of the solution.

8. If you will be given a set of supplied tables, like the Chi-Squared probability tables, know
what will be supplied by the Professor as far ahead as possible. In this case you want to
avoid redundant information, and you will need to learn how to use the supplied tables.

9. Copy key diagrams and sketches. If you know that you might be asked for the relationship
between training and testing error, you want that graph handy. What graph is used to
determine K for the k-Means algorithm? Any other common graph that has been drawn
might be asked for.

The ‘How’

You want to write legibly so that you can read it. Cheat sheets are usually hand-written so you
cannot use a 6 point font and write too much. Trying to write the entire course on a cheat
sheet does not work.

Be sure to write legibly. Either use a pen that will not smear, or use a pencil (so you can
correct mistakes) and then put the cheat sheet in a plastic sleeve to avoid having the writing
smear around.

Organize and plan ahead with an outline about what information you need to record. Try to
organize the information so there is a natural flow of information across the page that makes
sense to you.

Acronyms save space, but if you cannot remember what an acronym means, then it is a waste
of space and energy.

Some student benefit from writing slowly to help them remember what they are writing. Some
students like to read things out loud to help them remember what is on the sheet and where it
is on the sheet.

One student who did very well on a former exam, was asked his strategy. He said that he
visited the material at least every other day to help keep it fresh in his head. He reviewed the
notes, examples, and homework assignments. He practiced the problems again, using his cheat
sheet to do them.

In this way, he was testing his cheat sheet. By testing the sheet ahead of time, missing
information was added as needed and incorrect formulas were fixed. A single missing minus
sign will cause the wrong answer.

Best.

- Thomas B. Kinsman