The Psychology of Resit Exams: how the Opportunity to Resit Influences Study-Time Investments for a First Exam

Rob Nijenkamp's research focuses on the question whether the sometimes rather large differences in the way resit exams are offered in higher education lead to differences in students' study behavior. His research begins with Kooreman's mathematically-grounded proposition that offering an unconditional resit opportunity provides a perverse incentive for students to put less time and effort into preparing for the first exam opportunity, possibly also resulting in a lower knowledge of the course materials. Experiments and (anonymous) questionnaire research into study strategies among first-year Psychology students showed that students are indeed sensitive to this perverse incentive and that they would use the possibility of a resit in their study planning. However, the study also showed that this reduction in time and effort for studying can be reduced, but not completely counteracted. This can be achieved by, for example, requiring a minimum grade on the first exam opportunity for participation in the resit or by increasing the amount of time between the two exam opportunities. The results of Rob Nijenkamp's research show that offering resits conditionally can reduce the perverse incentive to study less well, while at the same time preserving the features of a resit system that are good and helpful to students.