On Dec. 7, 2015, an international restaurant chain released an informational study outlining the numbers they gathered from skill testing questions needed to claim prizes from their monopoly game.
The game—where customers collect monopoly cards from french fries, burgers, cranberry sauce, and drinks—requires a skill testing question to claim any prizes that players might win.
The informational study revealed that students, especially in university towns, were the most likely to play enough to win. Compared to other times of year, students tended to buy more food around their final exams.
An unofficial spokesperson for the restaurant chain speculated that students were the most popular customers because “[the] prices are just so darn cheap.”
The most interesting find resulting from the study’s numbers was the spike in correct answers around the time educational institutions hosted final exams.
Even students who claimed to “not be very good at math” and tended to say things like “I’m in [insert non-math program], I don’t need numbers,” did much better around the exam period.
One professor from the University of Waterloo speculated that the reason for the sudden boost in arithmetic was due to higher focus.
“Students study more around the exam time, it probably helps them to think more clearly, and more logically,” said Sri Raman, a professor of topology at the University of Waterloo, in an interview with The Ontarion.
When asked for comment, however, students took a different point of view.
“I think it’s because we’re crunching numbers to see if we can pass,” explained Jonathon Wilson, a University of Guelph biodiversity student, in an interview with The Ontarion.
In the past few years, across the board, there has been an increase in the use of mark calculators around exam time. The calculators allow students to input their grades from the semester to determine just how low of a mark they need to get on their final exam to pass the semester.
Some researchers speculate that the exposure to so many numbers, all at once, actually increases the functionality of the side of students brains that allows them to do things like answering skill testing questions.
“I also go to buy cheap greasy food way more during exams,” said Wilson. “I’ve definitely won a few extra rounds of monopoly recently.”
Some students are still in denial about any increase in mathematical skill.
“I know that I only need 66.43 per cent to pass my course with a 60 per cent, and that if I can score 13.79 per cent higher than that I will be able to stay out of academic probation with a two per cent window,” said Ferdinand Maltais, a film studies student at Carleton University. “But I’m still bad at math.”
The study from the international food chain showed that math skills dropped back to normal levels almost as soon as the final exam period was over. The trend is now being monitored by some grad students interested in a chance to find something—anything—to write a unique master’s thesis about.