A New Study Suggests Rooms That Have Higher Ceilings Are Linked To Poorer Exam Performance Among Students

Even after hours of studying and preparation, many students don’t achieve the exam scores they were aiming for.

There are several factors that can affect exam performance beyond a lack of effort or knowledge. The most common culprits include stress, anxiety, poor time management, and inadequate sleep.

The classroom environment, it turns out, can also influence exam outcomes in unexpected ways. Researchers from the University of South Australia and Deakin University have found a correlation between high-ceilinged rooms and poorer test results. In their study, they claimed that the design of a building affects our ability to perform tasks.

The researchers looked at data collected from 15,400 undergraduate students across three campuses at an Australian university between 2011 and 2019. They compared the students’ exam results based on the height of the ceiling of the room in which the exams took place.

Their findings revealed that students received lower scores than expected when completing tests in rooms with higher ceilings.

According to Isabella Bower, the lead author of the study, it is hard to determine if the reduced performance was just due to elevated ceilings or if other factors, such as student density and poor insulation, played a role. These factors can cause fluctuations in temperature and air quality, which affects the body and brain.

“These spaces are often designed for purposes other than examinations, such as gymnasiums, exhibitions, events, and performances,” Bower said. “The key point is that large rooms with high ceilings seem to disadvantage students, and we need to understand what brain mechanisms are at play and whether this affects all students to the same degree.”

The results of the study support experiments that Bower has conducted using virtual reality. She and her team employed electroencephalography, a technique that involves attaching electrodes to the scalp, to measure the brain activity of participants while they’re exposed to different rooms.

The size of the rooms was altered to test their responses. The researchers also considered other factors, such as temperature, lighting, and noise.

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