I didn’t do well in exams because . . . uh, I can’t remember

Mar 3 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

AT LAST I can relax. I know Ive got an excuse for decades of under-performing in exams.

And whats more important, its not my fault for acting dense. This is because Ive found out my underwhelming results are nothing to do with being a day-dreamer, or unprepared, or lazy, or simply thick, or possibly all of these reasons. Its simply due to having a bad memory.

Up to as many as one in 10 pupils could be underachieving at school for no worse reason than they have poor memories. These young pupils are often written off as being inattentive or have lower levels of intelligence through their inability to remember facts and figures.

Hundreds of thousands of children suffer from this problem, but its almost never recognised by teachers. At last this is now being officially noted as a factor in under-performance. Whats more, researchers at Durham University think that the condition is genetic.

The definition of a working memory is that you can hold information in your head and then manipulate it mentally, a process that includes at its most basic, for example, simple arithmetic without recourse to pen and paper, or calculator.

Dr Tracy Alloway, of Durham Universitys School of Education, says: Working memory is rather like a jotting pad and how good it is for someone will either ease their path to learning or seriously prevent them from learning.

At school, a good working memory is required by pupils for a range of exercises to enable to carry out teachers instructions or to remember sentences theyve been asked to write down.

Sadly, on scanning the check-list of what are the obvious signs of a bad memory, I score in every category, paradoxically giving my best exam result ever.

With regard to putting my hand up to answer a question, yes, I forget what I intended to say. In fact, I dont even remember to put my hand up these days, although it is largely optional in the workplace.

Abandons activities before completion? Yes, Ive wandered off to make two cups of tea and three phone calls during the writing of this column. Or it might be the other way around.

Does not respond, or is reluctant to answer, when asked direct questions (eg, shrugs, nods head vaguely or makes non-committal noises). Yes, but this is mainly survival instincts at work after experiencing years of marriage and parenthood.

Mixes up material inappropriately (eg, wrongly combines parts from two sentences rather than reading each one accurately). Yes, all the time, just as I was arguing about the European exchange rate mechanism in the previous paragraph.

Forgets how to continue an activity that was previously started, in spite of teacher explanation; also needs regular reminders of each step in a written task. Sorry? Whats that?

More than 4,000 children aged between four years and 12 years were surveyed for the research. They were given statements such as lions have four legs and asked if these were true or not. Then, changing tack, they were asked to repeat the last word of the sentence, which in this example is legs, in case youve forgotten.

From the answers, they found that 10% of the group suffered from poor working memories. Extrapolated to the entire population, this is the equivalent of at least 500,000 children being affected in primary education alone.

We believe that the only way children with poor working memory can go on to achieve academic success is by teaching them how to learn, despite their smaller capacity to store information mentally, says Dr Alloway.

She has devised a check-list and computer program to help improve memories of children as young as four-years-old.

The word is already filtering through, and primary school headteachers are implementing better ways of testing children for poor memories and providing techniques to counteract this condition.

But, as I said, the most important thing to remember and I emphasise that is it wasnt my fault as the under-carriage of my recollection skimmed over the tree-tops of scattered exam pass marks in my not so illustrious examination career.

peter.elson@dailypost.co.uk