Executive Function During Exams

Exam Week: A Unique Obstacle

Few periods of the school year test a student more than the fortnights that bookend the fall and spring semesters. Students face a gauntlet of cumulative exams – academic endurance tests that measure concentration and willpower just as much as subject fluency. Instead of spreading these academic tribulations over several weeks, schools, largely out of logistical necessity, jam these exams into one week, maybe two. Three other factors compound the threat of exam week. Both of them are related to mental health. 

First, students face immense pressure during this period. In high school and progressively through college, semester exams make up a healthy share of a student’s final average. A back-of-the-napkin calculation reveals a long-held academic secret: the vast majority have more to lose than to gain from exam scores. Here’s a helpful heuristic for high school exam-to-average predictions. To change a student’s average by one point (from an 89 to 90 or vice versa), students must score seven points higher or seven points lower than their current average. Thus, it’s a lot easier to drop below your target score than to improve your average. For borderline grades, the math is brutal. If a student has an 89 heading into the final exam, they would need to score a 96 to break the 90 threshold of ‘A-.’ A mere 75 drops them from a ‘B+ to a flat ‘B’ at most schools. Exams rarely improve a student’s grade. 

Second, exams are an academic snapshot akin to a blood test. Doctors often say that blood tests can be misleading. That’s why they tell patients to fast before doing bloodwork. The healthiest ultra-marathon runner can show cholesterol problems on blood tests if they eat the wrong breakfast before the lab. Similarly, the best students in the class can bomb the final exam. Every teacher has seen it before. A student walks in with a 97 average. She pays attention in class and shows up to tutorials, but the final goes poorly. It’s perplexing, but it happens every year. Maybe they had the flu or couldn’t sleep the night before the test. Sometimes a student just has an off day – the questions don’t make sense in the moment, or they can’t recall that one key concept. Students know this is a possibility, even with the best preparation. 

Third, exam week lies just before a period of deep rest and relaxation, meaning it’s prime time for burnout. The last few feet of the marathon are often the toughest. As the semester dwindles to just a few days, students can become complacent and run out of gas at the critical moment. Anyone who has taught a class on the last school day before Thanksgiving knows what I am talking about; students struggle to stay focused when a break is right around the corner. It’s difficult to focus on exams when it’s almost over. 

Seeing the Benefits & Rising to the Occasion

Despite the ominous preamble to this blog post, exam week isn’t all bad. It offers a truncated version of the school year and a litmus test for a student’s Executive Function (EF) skills. We teach EF skills in four phases or pillars. These four pillars should be in the spotlight during exam season: organization, time management, learning skills, and impression management. Like the rest of the school year, success on exams is about more than subject-matter knowledge. Students who meet their exam week goals focus on the process. They use habits, systems, and tactics to perform at their best. A student’s EF skills are on full display during exam week. Therefore, it’s a great time to assess progress and identify areas for improvement. 

In the section below, we chart a course for exam week success using the four pillars of Executive Function. At Illuminos, we believe that every student is capable of succeeding in school; exam week is no exception. With the right approach, any student can conquer the unique challenges that the last two weeks of the semester offer. 

Exam Week in Four Pillars

Effective organization is essential for acing cumulative exams. Students must structure their study time, responses to essay questions, and approach to test day. Unfortunately, many students tend to overlook the organizational component of exam preparation. The familiar image of a ‘study bunker’ is often misleading. Watch any historically accurate war movie. The bunker isn’t a disorganized, chaotic mess. It’s organized. All of the tools are in the right place, within reach. There is room to work and maneuver. A ‘study bunker’ should follow suit. 

First, students should pick the right environment for studying. Find a spot that’s quiet but not too quiet. Natural light is a plus. Most importantly, pick a spot designed to make good decisions easy – not in a room with a TV, your cell phone, or with an attention-seeking dog. Next, put the right things within reach and the wrong things in another room. The right things are extra paper, a computer changer, water, healthy snacks, and all helpful study material. The wrong things are cell phones, unhealthy snacks, and anything that tempts procrastination. A student who makes the right choices before studying has fewer choices to make while studying. 

Time management is also vital during exams when preparing for the test and in the exam room. Planning study time instead of diving in is recommended. No self-respecting architect pours the foundation before drawing the blueprints. Students should break down each subject into concise chunks with clear deliverables and schedule breaks accordingly to avoid burnout and overstudying. Slow and steady wins the race, particularly when preparing for cumulative exams.

These tactics prevent cramming. Cumulative exams require cumulative efforts, not hours of furious pag-turning. Likewise, students should not overlook the importance of diminishing marginal returns.

Study skills are essential to long-term student success. As a student matriculates through the grade levels, the emphasis shifts more and more toward student-directed learning. In college, professors expect students to do most of their learning outside the classroom. Class time, in their minds, is for clarifying questions and framing the key issues for the exam. Thus, students should craft their own study technique arsenal as early as possible. 

Students who perform best on exams have commonalities in how they study: a macro-to-micro approach, realistic self-testing, and interleaved practice. They focus on understanding broader concepts before diving into the details. They design practical practice tests well before the exam to gauge their understanding. They want no surprises on exam day, so they work hard to minimize guesswork. Lastly, students who crush exams lean on the concept of interleaved practice. Interleaved practice means controlling the pace and space between study intervals to reduce short-term memory bias. A student who knows the material after three hours of going through flashcards might forget it after a few hours away. Changing the routine and creating time to forget is the key to exam-day confidence. 

Impression management, the final pillar of our curriculum, should not be overlooked when preparing for final exams. After all, the exam doesn't fall from the sky; a teacher puts it together and grades the end product. Review sessions are not about learning; they’re about decoding. Teachers will hint at what’s coming on the exam. They will also suggest formats for short-answer questions and tactics for time management. Attending review sessions and office hours also shows teachers that students care about succeeding in the class. Social capital is an excellent investment. 

Closing Thoughts

Executive Function is the key to crushing exam week. You don’t have to do it alone. We’re here to help during exams, sure, but during the school year and summer as well. Whether it’s encouraging office hour appointments, helping to schedule study group sessions, or finding a one-on-one academic coach for this stressful time period, accountability goes a long way to keeping your child confident and sharp during exams. 

For more ideas like this, please check out our blog. If your child could benefit from one-on-one academic coaching, please reach out today to learn more about our services.