Why do students study more under pressure but remember less?

Every exam season, the same scene repeats itself in homes across India. Lights stay on past midnight, notebooks pile up, and a student who has barely looked at a chapter all year suddenly spends twelve hours a day buried in it. And yet, when results come in, the outcome is often disappointing. Not because the child didn't work hard enough, but because working harder under panic and working smart under calm are two completely different things and we keep confusing one for the other.