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4d ago

Italian Oral Exam Pass Rates Peak at Midday and Dip in Morning and Afternoon

Researchers are urging universities to reschedule oral exams to late morning to counter time-of-day bias

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A stock image of a woman doing a job interview.

Overview

  • Analysis of 104,552 Italian university oral exams reveals pass rates follow a bell-shaped curve with a clear peak at noon.
  • Only 57% of exams were passed overall, with success rates declining notably during early morning (08:00–09:00) and late afternoon (15:00–16:00) sessions.
  • The dataset spans October 2018 to February 2020, covers 1,243 courses and 680 examiners, and controls for exam difficulty using credit measures.
  • Investigators attribute the timing effects to physiological alertness cycles and chronotype mismatches and suggest similar biases may influence job interviews.
  • Authors recommend shifting key assessments to late morning and call for follow-up studies using physiological and behavioral measures to uncover underlying mechanisms.