According to an American study, academic success depends on our last name. Students whose names start with these letters would have better grades than others. In total, 30 million copies were analyzed!
Having good grades at school and an exemplary record opens doors for the future, particularly for easier access to higher education. And to succeed in life, you need to work well in class, be attentive and obtain your diplomas during the end-of-year exams. But another criterion would seem to work in our favor (or against us) depending on the last name we have. This is the conclusion of a team of researchers from the University of Michigan, in the United States, who focused on more than 30 million student evaluation files graded using specific software.
The authors of the study were thus interested in students’ grades in relation to their last name. They compared the markings of papers corrected by teachers, in alphabetical order, to those made in random order. And the result is rather surprising since the initial of the name plays a big role in the students’ grade. Indeed, the first letters of the alphabet and the last ones have very different notes.
In fact, it is better to have a last name starting with the letter A than with the letter Z! The reason is quite simple: the more the evaluators advance in their corrections, the worse the grades are. The cause of the fatigue and weariness that sets in as you copy more and more. Students with a last name that begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet therefore seem to pay the price. And that’s not all: teachers are also more severe in their comments, mainly in subjects like social sciences and humanities, which require more concentration and interpretation.
In detail, names starting with the letters A, B, C, D or E obtained grades 0.3 points higher than copies graded in random order. But don’t stress about your next baccalaureate exams which are fast approaching: if your paper is good, there is little risk of obtaining a bad grade, and above all, in France, the papers are distributed randomly and they remain anonymous. Something to reassure all students whose last name begins with the last letters of the alphabet.