ACADEMICS PLUS AT SJJ

Did You Know?

Font Size and Headphones

Brain Based Research tells us the following:

16-point font is always remembered better, processed more quickly, and yields higher test scores.

14-point font is the next best size.

Anything smaller than 12-point font impairs the brain’s ability to process and recall information efficiently.
The brain becomes stressed.

The same research states that the brain remembers print better than cursive, needs space between questions, and processes print without serifs (those wings on the letters in some fonts) more efficiently and with minimum stress. Comic sans and arial are examples of good fonts for instruction and testing. Times New Roman or Georgia would be fonts WITH serifs.

Please remember to choose your font, your font size and your spacing of questions wisely on your exams. We want to test student knowledge of the content material; not brain processing speed, visual perception skills, stress level or reading ability.

Headphones

The newest brain based research on ADHD proves that students with ADHD who use ear plugs during testing are better able to initiate and maintain focus on the exam. Their exam scores were significantly higher when the ear plugs were used.

Students with test anxiety also show improvement in test scores when ear plugs are utilized.