In a scientific first (yeah right, more like "on the books" scientific first), researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health and Brown University say that a little binge drinking the night before a test really doesn't affect students' performance on exams requiring long-term or short-term memory. Wow, you wish someone had told that to your uptight college roommates.

Still, this fairytale isn't entirely all shots of rum and Jager. The recent study found that drinking did slow participants' reaction times, attention span and worsened their mood states. This could, of course, negatively impact performance on safety-related tasks, such as driving. Drinking could also negatively affect higher-order cognitive skills, like writing papers or problem solving-so students may not fare as well on tests requiring these functions. And of course, academic performance is also impacted by motivation, study habits and class attendance-all of which could be negatively impacted by drinking. The researchers go on to say that yeah, drinking is pretty bad in high quantities for everyone.

Womp womp.

Source:
Boston University Medical Center (2010, March 23). Binge drinking doesn't affect next-day student test-taking. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323161817.htm