Can revision be counter-productive?

“Studying: ends in the word dying, and slowly leads to it.” (The Urban Dictionary)

With term three just around the corner, pressure is mounting for the most distressing and terrifying time of the year: exam season.

For some, this is the final push after three years of pain and torture, for others, it is a first time experience that promises to turn the toughest of all men into a pathetic crumbling mess of nerves and stress. But regardless of whether you are a finals first-timer or not, we are all looking to answer the same question. How can we get the best results possible? In other words, how can we maximize our exam performance? Let’s try and see if economics can shed some light on the issue.

First things first: we would obviously expect our exam performance to be positively related to the hours spent revising. Fair enough, mystery solved, end of story. Or is it? Studies show that increasing time spent in revising has diminishing returns. Moreover, studying has a snowball effect on the amount of stress on students, which proves to be counterproductive at the time of the examinations. Hence there is a trade-off between stress build-up and exam preparation.

In these circumstances, standard economics theory tells us to study up to the point when the last hour spent on revising gives us as much benefit as it costs us in stress. This merely means that besides studying like a champ, engaging in de-stressing activities is just as important. Not rocket science so far, is it?

So what kind of things might help to loosen up a bit? Surprisingly, studies suggest that people who consume moderate amounts of alcohol tend to do better compared to those that don’t consume at all. So a couple of nights out in a pub might actually be beneficial in terms of reducing stress and achieving academic success, of course careful steps need to be taken so as not to take it too far. If you are one of those individuals who lose all moderation control after the first round, a good alternative might be exercising instead of getting smashed.

Just as it is important to engage in relaxing activities, it is even more critical to avoid anything that might create unnecessary anxiety. In particular, a study carried out in 2001 on US colleges showed that students who dated were more prone to have lower academic performances. Basically, being involved in the dating exercise is associated with negative effects on the psychosocial functions and health of students which include anxiety and tension related complications.

So here is another pillar in our recipe for exam success: stay away from romantic affairs and dating – actually that is precisely the reason why I didn’t have a date last Valentine’s.

In the end, economics simply says to maximize study time and minimize stress. So far we have taken for granted that we would be maximizing those study hours but, as any student knows, one of the most challenging things in life is to actually find the motivation to open a textbook and read.

A term used in the jargon is that we tend to have time-inconsistent preferences. That just means we are committed to studying but we are committed on doing it later. And later never comes. Therefore, the key is to find the way to be time-consistent, so make up a revising schedule and stick to it although it hurts. Put up with the pain for a few weeks and then you will be free to destroy your liver all summer long.

Anyway, hopefully economics gave us a basic survival guide on how to perform on exams; maybe it just restated the obvious in a rather complicated way. Either way at least you now have a rather well founded excuse for not feeling guilty while having a blast with your friends during revision times or for being lonely and single.