Article on SAT scores and crowded rooms

[dhudson]

I found this interesting and to me it also had home school implications. If being in crowded rooms effect SAT scores wouldn't it also effect learning in groups in general?

 

blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/12/16/taking-the-sat-in-a-crowded-room-lower-scores.aspx

 

What do you think?

[JillZ]

Interesting article! I'll have to look up the paper it's based on and read more about it. It sounds like the main reason is because students think of themselves directly competing with all of the other students. I don't think there is quite as much competition in classroom settings, so the effect might not be noticeable. But who knows?

 

This is only tangentially related, but I find I can think much more clearly if my working area is not cluttered. In college, when I would try to do math and physics problems on little corners of my paper, my boyfriend (now DH) would tell me to start over on a clean sheet of paper so my thinking wouldn't be "cramped." Amazingly, math problems are much easier if you have room to write everything down!