Students in the thick of midterms may want to take note of a recent study that empirically demonstrates what they may already know: Alcohol consumption before and during final exam period is detrimental to students’ performance. The effect is particularly significant for the highest-performing students, according to the study, which was released by the National Bureau of Economic Research in September.
Prior studies on the effects of alcohol consumption have focused on issues like death and teen pregnancy, which only impact specific individuals. The researchers — economists Scott Carrell of the University of California, Davis; Mark Hoekstra of the University of Pittsburgh; and James West of the U.S. Air Force Academy — decided to focus on college students to study how drinking impacts a broader segment of the population.
The study compared the grades of students who turned 21 just before final exams and just afterward. It used data on 3,884 students at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 2000 to 2006.
The researchers found that students who turned 21 before final exams scored an average of one-tenth of a standard deviation lower than those whose birthdays were after exams. No dip was found among students who turned 20 before exams, showing that there was more than a “birthday effect” at work.
Read the full story at the Daily Princetonian.
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