Prepare, practice, sleep, and repeat are usually the pieces of advice that students who want to get better test results hear. However, cramming a semester's worth of information isn’t always enough. Sometimes anxiety takes over while being presented with a quiz and everything you ever knew evaporates from your mind.
To help combat the nerves before a test, a college student and social media creator, Yazmin Adalynn, tried pregaming her midterm. She was prompted to do so by some studies, which claim that slight amounts of alcohol can improve performance on tests. Below you’ll find the whole video of Yazmin going more in-depth about it, as well as some comments from people, who had mixed opinions on her approach to test-taking.
While you're scrolling through, don't forget to check out a conversation with an educational psychologist, consultant, and writer, Lori Day, who kindly agreed to talk with us more about drinking alcohol before taking a test.
There are many strategies that help to be better at test-taking
Image credits: yazmin.adalynn
This college student tried pregaming her midterm—a strategy that yet lacks substantial scientific proof
Image credits: yazmin.adalynn
Image credits: yazmin.adalynn
Image credits: yazmin.adalynn
Image credits: yazmin.adalynn
You can find full Yazmin's video here:
"Alcohol is known to negatively affect cognition in a lot of ways that outweigh any reduction in anxiety"
Image credits: prostooleh / freepik (not the actual photo)
Educational psychologist, consultant, and writer, Lori Day, says that students shouldn't use alcohol to improve test results, as the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
"While some studies may show a reduction in test-taking anxiety and enhanced relaxation, temporarily, alcohol is known to negatively affect cognition in a lot of ways that outweigh any reduction in anxiety. Plus, it is illegal for students under 21 to drink alcohol, so how could I or any other responsible educational psychologist endorse it?"
So far, the research on drinking and test-taking is quite contradictory. Therefore, it can't be fully trusted. For example, the study by Andrew F. Jarosz and his colleagues at the University of Illinois has found that a blood alcohol level of 0.075% gave participants a slight edge in creative problem-solving, which could mean that our creativity can be enhanced with moderate alcohol use.
Molly Carlyle's and her team's findings from the University of Exeter in 2017 were similar. Their study claims that drinking alcohol before taking a test can improve memory and information retention.
However, other sources, like one of the most quoted by Jonathan Howland from Boston University, suggest that binge drinking doesn’t affect students’ next-day test performance. There are also those studies that state that studying and drinking interfere with memory consolidation, a process where the brain transforms short-term memories into long-term ones.
In general, drinking has been associated with poorer academic performance, as students who drink have less motivation to do well in school compared to their peers. This has been proved by finding a link between frequent drinking and lower grade point averages.
It might be better to skip alcohol for test-taking and choose water or coffee
Image credits: pvproductions/ freepik (not the actual photo)
On top of that, Day says that there are many other risks to using alcohol to improve test results. "Alcohol, even in small amounts, can slow reaction times, impair memory, and reduce problem-solving ability. It negatively affects concentration by making it harder to focus, which is critical for reading and analyzing test questions," she explains.
"Students are more likely to misinterpret questions, rush through the test, or make careless mistakes. There are also short-term memory problems associated with drinking alcohol, like difficulty recalling what was just studied. Sometimes alcohol increases drowsiness, too, and students need to be awake and alert when taking a test."
Alcohol is also known to interfere with REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is responsible for us feeling awake, refreshed and alert after waking up. However, if alcohol has to be metabolized during the night, our sleep becomes progressively lighter and more disturbed. This could result in learning difficulties, poor concentration, decreased cognitive abilities, memory deficits, instability, and so on.
So to avoid these negative effects of alcohol on test results, it's better to find alternative ways to manage anxiety or be better at test-taking. "Strategies like deep breathing, meditation, proper nutrition and getting a good night’s sleep would be far more effective than drinking alcohol and more sustainable into adulthood," says Day.
"Developing a dependence on alcohol as a coping mechanism at a young age in order to get through taking tests is a poor foundation for all of the stressful moments awaiting kids in adulthood. And finally, I would add that more studying and less scrolling will help kids feel prepared for tests, and feeling/being prepared is the healthy way to approach exams. Drinking is not," she concludes.
While hydration is an important part of studying as our brain needs it to function properly, it might be better to skip the alcohol and choose water or coffee, which have been proven to enhance concentration and the amount of information we retain, facilitating learning and better understanding.
The reactions to Yazmin's video were mixed
