Correlation between morningness – eveningness and final school leaving exams

Abstract

Pupils shift their time of day preferences from morningness to eveningness during the age of puberty. Therefore, early school start times may have a negative influence on school functioning, adolescent health and on grade point average. Here, we show that morningness -eveningness influences school performance as measured by the final school leaving/university entrance certificate. One hundred and thirty-two university students aged between 20 and 22 years participated in our study. We found a highly significant positive correlation between the average grading of the final exam and the morningness score, suggesting that pupils with morning preferences performed better in school achievement. Evening types seem at a serious disadvantage because the final exams are used for university entrance decisions.

Circadian Typology: A Comprehensive Review

“…In a study of adolescents, MT were reported to perform better on final school examination (Randler & Frech, 2006). However, the authors correctly noted that school start time is early, while adolescents biologically tend to shift towards eveningness at this time (Tonetti et al, 2008).…”

Morning or Evening person? Which type are you? Self-assessment of chronotype

“…For instance, morning-types are more conscientious and agreeable (e.g. Randler, 2008a), have higher scores in persistence and self-directedness (Adan et al, 2010), are more satisfied with their lives comparing to eveningtypes (Randler, 2008b), and have higher academic scores (Randler & Frech, 2006). Given these differences, it is not surprising that chronotypes also differ in their cognitive performances in a time of the day that matches or mismatches their chronotypes.…”

“…Alternatively to arbitrary cut-offs some authors have classified participants regarding their studied samples, contrasting for instance the P 10 with P 90 (Natale & Cicogna, 2002) or Q 1 with Q 4 (Randler & Frech, 2006). Additionally, other authors have used scale-scores as reflecting a continuum (Natale & Cicogna, 2002).…”

Synchronizing education to adolescent biology: ‘let teens sleep, start school later’

“…In Germany, eveningtype students in high school showed significantly more use of stimulants and depressants associated with managing sleep such as coffee, cola, alcohol and nicotine when compared with morning-type students (Preckel et al 2013). In Baden-Württemberg, a study found highly significant differences in Abitur scores (used for German university entrance) with evening types having lower performance (Randler and Frech 2006). Other studies show that evening-type adolescents may have increased risk of health and mental health problems (Giannotti et al 2002;Hsu et al 2012).…”