London, Dec 4 (ANI): Teenagers will suffer lower GCSe grades next summer, as they will be watching the Euro 2012 tournament, experts have claimed.
Researchers have found that students who take exams during a major football tournament are more likely to end up with worse results.
The bad news is that the Euro 2012 championship will run from June 8 until July 1 and GCSE exams run from the middle of May until the end of June.
The prediction comes after yesterday's draw that saw England pitched against Ukraine, Sweden and France in the group stages.
The group stages alone will see players and fans clock up almost 5,000 miles travelling between games.
Unfortunately for teenagers, they may have to choose between watching the national side and revising for vital exams.
Researchers, led by Robert Metcalfe at Oxford University, found that students dropped, on average, a quarter of a grade in each exam taken during a major football competition.
Looking at the GCSE results of 3.5million pupils between 2002-2008, both boys and girls were affected, with poor boys being hit the most.
Dr Metcalfe suggested that in even years when there is either a World Cup or a European championship, there are "increased inequalities".
"For the most affected, which are disadvantaged boys, they have a much larger drop, the effect is doubled," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.
It means this group can drop about half a grade in each exam taken during a competition.
"It shows how important short-term, last-minute effort is," he said.
"Students have control over one thing, how much effort they provide, and we don't spend enough time on that.
"Time spent watching and talking about football is clearly time not spent studying - so our findings give an indication of just how much student effort matters," he added.
England fans will have to use all their GCSE geography knowledge when they travel to the tournament with matches schedules at venues hundreds of miles apart.
Dec 3's draw set up meetings with France, Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine in Group D leaving England fans facing journeys totalling 5,000 miles in the group stage alone. (ANI)
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