Re: Does studying more produce better scores on tests?

	From my own experience (and I've taken a LOT of tests in my 20+ years 
of schooling), that's a definite yes.  Depends on what you mean by 
"studying", though.  Cramming the night before doesn't help all that much, 
for two reasons.  One, you'll probably lose sleep, which makes you less 
alert and think more slowly.  Two, even if you retain the material for this 
test, you'll have to learn it all over again for the final.  No, steady 
work is the best way to go.
	Don't just take my word for it, though.  Many experiments have been 
done on memory in Drosophila (fruit flies).  What you do is put a fly in a 
box that's shaped like a letter T.  If the fly goes down the left arm, he 
gets an electric shock.  If he goes down the right arm, he's safe.  Then 
you see how long the fly retains this information.  It might seem like a 
dumb experiment at first, because the fly's brain is different (and 
smaller) than yours, but it's actually built out of many of the same 
proteins.  These proteins play different roles in the memory circuits.  
Some of them allow the fly to learn in the first place, and others allow 
the fly to retain what he has learned.
	How does this relate to your question?  Well, it turns out that flies 
also learn better when they are trained a little every day, instead of 
cramming for hours before a test.  This "spaced" training can even make up 
for the loss of some of those important memory proteins, which can happen 
in flies that have been mutated by radiation or chemicals.
REFERENCES (National Library of Medicine website, free OVID search) : JH 
Kogan,Current Biology, vol7:1 pp1-11; MP Belvin,Bioessays, vol 19:12 
pp1083-89; T Tully, Journal of Physiology-Paris, vol 90 page 383.