Econ Hum Biol. 2021 Nov 8;44:101079. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101079. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
I examine the impacts of the Free Semester (FS) program, which is an exam-free semester for middle school students in South Korea, on students’ level of exam nervousness. I use a difference-in-differences approach that exploits the variation in FS-implementation across middle schools to estimate these impacts. I find that the FS program has statistically significant impacts on relieving exam nervousness during the semester in which it is run. In contrast, I find no statistically significant average medium-run impacts of the program. My subgroup analyses suggest that the reduction in exam nervousness during the FS is driven largely by high-achieving students.
PMID:34800899 | DOI:10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101079
