Students with morning classes achieve worse grades – Study

Researchers at the Duke-NUS Medical School have found that university students who have classes in the morning have worse grades than those who have fewer or no classes in the morning, writes Chin Hui Shan for The Straits Times.

The study looked at the scores of 33,818 students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) across six semesters between 2016 and 2019. The students were from all faculties except medicine, which has a different grading system. Students with only morning classes had lower grades than those with only afternoon classes, the study found. The researchers defined morning classes as any class that starts before noon.

Associate Professor Joshua Gooley in the neuroscience and behavioural disorders programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, one of the co-authors of the study, said students who go from having no morning classes to having three or more morning classes may see their grades drop from an A- to a B+, or from a B+ to a B for a course. The Duke-NUS study also found that students with 8am classes are more likely to skip class and have less sleep than those with classes that start later. Researchers said the lack of sleep impairs one’s attention and memory processes, which may prevent students from reaching their full learning potential in class.
Full report on The Straits Times site