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Marathon, Hurdling, or Sprint? The Effects of Exam Scheduling on Academic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Goulas Sofoklis

    (Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 434 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA, USA)

  • Megalokonomou Rigissa

    (Department of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

Abstract

Would you prefer a tighter or a more prolonged exam schedule? Would you prefer to take an important exam first or last? We exploit quasi-random variation in exam schedules across cohorts, grades and subjects from a lottery to identify distinct effects of the number of days between exams, the number of days since the first exam, and the exam order on performance. Scheduling effects are more pronounced for STEM exams. We find a positive and a negative relationship between STEM scores and exam order (warm-up) and number of days since the first exam (fatigue), respectively. In STEM, warm-up is estimated to outweigh fatigue. Marginal exam productivity in STEM increases faster for boys than for girls. Higher-performing students exhibit higher warm-up and lower fatigue effects in STEM than lower-performing students. Optimizing the exam schedule can improve overall performance by as much as 0.02 standard deviations.

Suggested Citation

  • Goulas Sofoklis & Megalokonomou Rigissa, 2020. "Marathon, Hurdling, or Sprint? The Effects of Exam Scheduling on Academic Performance," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 1-36, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:20:y:2020:i:2:p:36:n:10
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2019-0177
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    Cited by:

    1. Goulas, Sofoklis & Gunawardena, Bhagya N. & Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Gender Role Models in Education," IZA Discussion Papers 17271, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Stefano Cabras & Marco Delogu & J.D. Tena, 2023. "Forced to play too many matches? A deep-learning assessment of crowded schedule," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(52), pages 6187-6204, November.
    3. Glaser, Darrell J. & Insler, Michael A., 2022. "The deleterious effects of fatigue on final exam performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    exam schedule; cognitive fatigue; exam warm-up; practice; scaffolding; gender gap; STEM; student performance; lottery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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