We love data around here. We’re constantly going through our data sets to see whether we can identify trends or relationships that can increase your chances of passing your exam. One unexpected finding: The day of the week you schedule your exam for might make a real difference.
To my surprise, a review of our internal data shows that the day of the week on which you test meaningfully correlates with pass rates. The highest pass rate came from those testing on Mondays, and the lowest pass rate came on Thursdays. There was a double-digit difference between the two. (Fellow stat nerds, the difference is significant at ɑ < 0.05.)
This makes some logical sense. If you test on a Monday, you’re (hopefully) fresh from a weekend of rest and studying. On the other hand, if you test on Thursday, you’re more likely to be fatigued from the week, and less likely to have been able to squeeze in any significant studying in the couple of days right before your test. Both your knowledge and your body may be more worn down, reducing your chances of passing.
Cautionary notes
Of course, there are a lot of reasons to take this data with a grain of salt. For example: While our overall sample size was large, we don't have a ton of customers who fail their exams (we're very proud of that fact). Further subsets of the sample (like people who failed their test on a Wednesday) get small quickly. Our sample was big enough to reach statistical significance, but we'll be interested to see how the data looks as our data set grows.
Most important of all, a population trend doesn’t say anything about your individual circumstances. It's not a guarantee, and it may not even be relevant to you.
If anything, this just reinforces what you likely already knew: Your chances of passing are probably highest if you’ve been able to study well in the last days before taking your test, and if you go in well-rested.
If those are easiest for you to accomplish by testing on a Monday, then by all means, schedule your test for a Monday. If they’re easier to accomplish on a different day, well, do that instead.
Controlling your readiness for an exam mostly means shoring up your knowledge and your test-taking skills. But why not make use of every potential advantage you can find? Use the calendar to your benefit, too.
