Lower grades and resits for morning exams. Yet many UvA exams still start early
Exams that start early in the morning tend to lead to lower grades on average, research shows. Yet a significant proportion of exams at the UvA still begin at 09:00 in the morning. Could this not be done differently?
Sleeping in, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, and then heading into an exam feeling fresh and alert. Younger students (in particular those under 21) benefit when their exams are scheduled later in the day rather than early in the morning. This is shown by research recently conducted at the University of Groningen. Students whose exams start between 08:00 and 09:30 in the morning achieve lower grades on average; as a result, their pass rates are between 1.1 and 2.7 percentage points lower than those of students who are assessed later in the day.
For the sample, twenty first-year courses from widely attended bachelor’s programmes at the UvA across various faculties were analysed. The courses examined include Economics, Communication Science, Law, Psychology, Medicine, PPLE, Media and Culture, Business Administration, History, European Studies, Econometrics, Political Science and Artificial Intelligence.
Yet it appears that during the exam period, which is currently in full swing, a large proportion of young UvA students are scheduled for exams in the early morning. A sample of twenty first-year courses from large, popular bachelor’s programmes such as Law, Business Administration and Medicine shows that half of the exams start in the earliest time slot: mostly at 9:00.
Particularly in Law and Economics – with more than two thousand students per bachelor’s programme among the largest degrees offered by the UvA – there seems to be a pattern: during the next exam period (in May), all first-year course exams are also scheduled to begin at 9:00 in the morning. In Economics, there is in fact only one exam scheduled this entire academic year that does not start early in the morning. This means that a large group of students consistently takes exams at a time when they are demonstrably not performing at their best.
All of this not only affects students themselves, but is also detrimental to lecturers, as the researchers from the University of Groningen conclude. Lower grades and lower pass rates result in more resits, more marking, and therefore a higher workload. The question, then, is: could this not be done differently?
Morning people and evening people
It is at the very least an interesting idea, shifting exam times, says Chair of the University Education Committee and Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology Ingmar Visser. “The fact that young people have a different circadian rhythm from older adults is a well-known phenomenon. It has also often been studied among secondary school pupils. It would be interesting to investigate whether this effect is also found at the UvA.”
However, Visser would not immediately advocate scrapping all morning exams, aside from the logistical nightmare that would entail. “There are morning people and evening people. For evening types, it is difficult to perform early in the morning, but what has not been examined here is how this works the other way around. Are there not also students who would struggle with exams scheduled later in the day?”
According to the developmental psychologist, students who naturally struggle with early exams do not simply have to accept this fact. There are ways to reduce the negative effect: “Memory works best when the test moment takes place at the same time, or under the same conditions, as the moment you study. So if you know the exam is at 09:00, make sure you regularly study at 09:00. It is not entirely beyond your control.”
So, according to Visser, exam timetables do not need to be completely overhauled, although he does emphasise the importance of this kind of research. “I am in favour of being guided by as much data as possible in order to improve education policy.”
288 exam sessions
The educational logistics office (BOL), the department responsible for the exam timetable, also says it is following this kind of research with interest. “The biggest challenge is capacity: there is a limited number of locations and computers, while demand is consistently high. During exam periods, the available capacity is used to its maximum,” a spokesperson said. According to BOL, a total of 288 exam sessions are expected to be organised this week, spread across six locations, with exams generally scheduled to last three hours.
On the possibility of scrapping early morning exams, BOL says: “If degree programmes wish to make different choices in the future, this can of course be taken into account in the planning. However, the more constraints are added to the planning process, the more complex the puzzle becomes and the more difficult it is to arrive at a timetable that is considered acceptable by as many stakeholders as possible.”
