Mindful exam performance

There are times when we all need to perform at our best under pressure. There are times when everything that you know has to come together and be expressed in a few moments under the vision and judgement of others. This happens to greater or lesser degrees every day in the workplace but nowhere is it as formalised as in education. At school, university, or TAFE you learn material and then have to reproduce it under exam conditions. It is a tough task and no wonder a multi-million dollar industry has sprung up in “coaching” and “tuition” to help people through those examinations. According to a new study however, there is a very cheap, in fact free, alternative way to improve your performance on examinations — the practice of mindfulness.

This was discovered by researchers who assigned university students to either take part in a mindfulness class or a nutrition class. The classes met for 45 minutes four times per week and were taught by professionals in each of the fields.

The mindfulness class offered physical and mental strategies to stay focussed on the present moment, even in the face of interrupting thoughts and perceptions. The aim was for the students to integrate these mindfulness strategies into their daily life over the two weeks of the training.

The nutrition class covered basics of sound nutrition and strategies to make yourself eat well. Subjects in this group kept a daily food diary but were not necessarily required to change their diet.

Before the training began, the two groups sat the equivalent of a university entrance exam, with any questions relating purely to vocabulary removed. At the end of the two weeks, the subjects sat a similar exam again.

Results showed that the group who had received mindfulness training improved significantly but those who had been trained in nutrition did not improve. In quantifying the improvement, the researchers found that the mindfulness on average improved their scores by 16 per cent.

Given that the improvement was undeniable, the question becomes, “Why this is so?” The researchers believe they have found that the improvement in performance comes from a reduction in mind wandering. You know what it is like to mind wander…you are working at a task and then suddenly find yourself wondering if you fed the cat this morning. You bring yourself back to the job and then, without wanting to, find yourself thinking that Cathy really should not wear that colour as it makes her look pale. Does that sound familiar? It is a wandering mind at work and research has shown that a wandering mind has a reduced working memory capacity, a reduced “fluidity” and adaptability in intelligence, and therefore a diminished capacity to perform in examinations.

We don’t want to kill off the tuition industry, but if you really want to improve your exam performance then the basis has to be…actually, I must get some cos lettuce for the salad tonight…what was I saying? Oh yes…mindfulness, train yourself in mindfulness and the world, and all the examinations that are in it will be yours.