Soggy May bank holidays are not celebrated by most people, but young people revising for school exams may benefit from them, after US researchers discovered that hotter temperatures lead to worse grades.
The data is extensive. Academics at Harvard, UCLA and Georgia State University used the scores of more than 10 million secondary students over 13 years, and compared temperature changes in hot southern and colder northern states. In every case, a half-degree rise in the average temperature over the year equalled a 1% drop in average exam scores.
Over in the UK, things be even worse, as the researchers found that air conditioning potentially buffers low scores. It is easier to find a British school with windows jammed shut than it is to find one with air conditioning. This makes financial sense: there aren’t enough hot periods in the year to make it worthwhile. But the month when average high temperatures do tend to edge past 21C (70F) – which is when the negative effects begin – is June, the same month that most exams take place.
All of which raises the question of why we use early summer – filled with distracting sports tournaments and occasional heatwaves – to make students sit their most important tests? Why not instead have young people sit their exams online when it is most convenient for their learning, and for their sweat glands?
As anyone who ever campaigned against the long school summer holiday will tell you, the deceptively simple idea of changing the academic year is actually very complicated. Schools are not unique in following a September-to-July pattern. So do large firms’ graduate intakes. And universities. And the law courts. Most crucially of all, so does Westminster, making it hard for politicians to argue for ending the system when wishing to maintain it for theirselves.
UK school exam marking is also some of the most rigorous in the world and the process relies on everyone sitting the tests at the same time. Overly rigid? Perhaps. But it comes with a serious benefit. The scores pupils need for a given grade change each year depending on average scores. Hence, if a scorching summer temporarily obliterates children’s intelligence, they at least shouldn’t be at any long-term disadvantage. And if this year turns out to be another drab, wet British summer, they can rest even easier.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion