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Video Games Causing Decrease in GCSEs?

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12 October 2015

By Alex Khalil

A study in Northern Ireland has taken place involving more than 600 14 to 16-year-olds from 2012-14. It found that 41%of children who used handheld gaming devices at least twice a day achieved at least five GCSE A* to C grades, compared with 77% of those who used them less than once a week.

The research does not establish why this might be the case.

The report  ICT and Me is the first long-term study in NI on how a child’s use of ICT impacts GCSE attainment.

While 81% of young people studied reported using social media daily, and some for many hours, there was no link made between social media use and exam performance. They stated, “there is no statistically significant association between pupils’ intensity of participating in social networking activities and educational attainment at GCSE level.”

Other main findings included:

– Young people spend up to four hours a day or more online the year they take their GCSEs, and a considerable bulk of this time was spent on recreational activities (43%).

– Pupils who spent about three hours every day using a computer to do homework achieved the best exam results, with 79% achieving A* to C     grades.

-Those who spent no time on homework or spent more than three hours on homework did considerably worse, with only 57% of them getting A* to C grades.

-There is statistically no link between mobile and tablet use and GCSE grade attainment.

The report recommends the introduction of a targeted scheme by governments to ensure all young people have access to a computer or laptop at home, but also recommends that parents and carers limit the use of games consoles in place of revision, which needs to be in place to start with, particularly at GCSE level.

Celine McStravick, the director of the National Children’s Bureau NI, said: “Our research shows that using a computer for homework can help pupils consolidate learning and do better in exams. So, schools should be regularly setting homework that requires the use of a computer and the internet. Similarly, we need parents and carers to step in and limit excessive amounts of time spent gaming.”

There is a lot of truth to this. Children who game excessively are surely more likely to do worse in exams due to the lack of time spent revising and learning. However, it would be up to the parent to inflict certain rules when it comes to gaming, or restrict time spent playing to only a few hours a night.

So if you’re going through your GCSEs and you’re reading this, stop reading this, and revise.

THEN get back to DOTA.

 

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