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Many students believe that planning during an exam is a luxury they can’t afford. “I don’t have time to plan.”
“I’ll think while I write.”
“Planning slows me down.” Psychology tells us the opposite. Planning is not a delay in thinking—it is thinking. When an IB Psychology question appears, the brain is immediately faced with multiple competing demands: understanding the command term, selecting relevant concepts, choosing appropriate studies, managing time, and avoiding irrelevant detail. Writing without planning forces the brain to juggle all of this at once, overwhelming working memory. This is where performance quietly collapses. Cognitive psychology shows that working memory has a limited capacity. When it is overloaded, reasoning becomes shallow and disorganised. Planning reduces this load by externalising decisions—freeing cognitive resources for explanation and evaluation. In simple terms, planning clears mental space. Neuroscientifically, planning activates the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for executive control, sequencing, and goal-directed behaviour. When students pause to plan—even briefly—they shift from reactive writing to intentional decision-making. This improves coherence, relevance, and depth. Students who skip planning often experience a familiar problem: halfway through the answer, they realise they’ve gone off-track. They backtrack. They repeat ideas. They run out of time. This is not a content issue—it’s a control issue. Planning also plays a critical role in stress regulation. Under exam pressure, cortisol levels rise. High cortisol impairs memory retrieval and increases impulsive responding. Planning acts as a buffer. It slows the initial stress response, stabilises attention, and restores a sense of control. That feeling of “I know what I’m doing” is not emotional reassurance—it’s a physiological recalibration. There’s another hidden benefit. When students plan regularly during practice, the brain learns patterns. Over time, planning becomes faster and more automatic. This is procedural learning—the same mechanism that makes driving or typing effortless. Eventually, students don’t just plan better; they plan instinctively. This is why high-performing students often appear calm.
Their brains are not working harder—they are working more efficiently. From an IB examiner’s perspective, planning shows up clearly. Planned answers are selective. They stay focused on the question. They integrate studies meaningfully. Evaluation feels deliberate rather than tacked on. These are the answers that move into the top markbands. Importantly, planning is a transferable skill. The same executive control used to plan an ERQ applies to university essays, interviews, presentations, and real-world decision-making. This is psychology shaping life skills, not just exam scores. So the next time you feel tempted to skip planning, remember this: Writing faster is not writing smarter.
Planning is not wasted time.
It is the brain choosing direction over chaos. And that choice changes everything.
References:Baddeley, A. (2003). Working memory: Looking back and looking forward.
Miller, E. K., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function.
1. Working Memory Theory discovered and developed by Alan Baddeley
Baddeley’s research showed that working memory has a severely limited capacity and is easily overloaded when too many decisions must be made at once. Writing without planning forces students to simultaneously interpret the question, select content, organise ideas, and monitor time—all within working memory. Planning externalises these decisions, reducing cognitive load and protecting reasoning quality. This theory directly explains why unplanned answers become disorganised even when knowledge is present.
2. Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function proposed by Earl Miller and Jonathan Cohen
Miller and Cohen showed that the prefrontal cortex provides top-down control, guiding behaviour toward goals while suppressing irrelevant impulses. Planning activates this control system, allowing students to stay aligned with the command term and inhibit unnecessary detail. Skipping planning leaves behaviour reactive and stimulus-driven, which is why students drift off-question or overwrite under pressure.
Watch this to understand how the brain calms anxiety by restoring control—not by avoiding stress. Suzuki explains anxiety not as a flaw to eliminate, but as a neurobiological state that can be regulated. She shows how deliberate actions—especially those that engage attention and structure—help restore prefrontal cortex control over emotional reactivity. This directly supports your argument that planning and structured responses calm anxiety biologically, not motivationally. For IB students, the takeaway is powerful: anxiety reduces when the brain senses control and predictability, and planning is one of the fastest ways to create that state during exams.
3. Cognitive Load Theory (Applied to Planning) advanced by John Sweller
Cognitive Load Theory explains that planning reduces extraneous cognitive load, freeing mental resources for explanation and evaluation. Planning is not extra effort—it is a load-management strategy. This explains why planning feels calming: the brain regains predictability and control, stabilising stress responses and improving coherence.
“Why Our Brains Love Checklists" is a short, widely shared talk in which the neuroscientist explains why putting tasks into external systems—like checklists—helps the mind stay calm, focused, and less error-prone under stress. It draws heavily on ideas from his book The Organized Mind, translating neuroscience into everyday productivity advice.
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