By Mike Baker BBC education correspondent

Despair. We're out of the World Cup.

Sven goes calmly back to the drawing-board. Pundits stop studying David Beckham's foot and Michael Owen's groin.

But the much bigger question is: What impact will it have on this summer's exam results?

Most schools had examinations which overlapped with Friday's big match. At least, though, they were spared the problems of extra-time and penalties which would have meant the game running on well into the exam period.

As it was, some exams were due to start at 9am and the match didn't finish until some 20 minutes after that.

The exam boards allowed schools a bit of leeway but could not allow exams to be delayed by more than half an hour because of the risks of information being passed to candidates from other centres where exams had already started.

'Cheer quietly'

Getting candidates into exams was only one of many potential problems. They also had to keep the other pupils in the school quiet as the game continued.

At my daughter's school where, like many others, they allowed children in early to watch the game on television, the girls were told they could cheer loudly up until 9 o'clock but after that they had to cheer - or groan - quietly.

Luckily the nation's collective cheer for Michael Owen's goal came before candidates were invited to turn over the page and start writing.

Maybe some students went into the exam hall while England were ahead. Hopefully they stayed on an emotional high and no-one told them the final result until the end.

But would their nervousness over the result have affected their concentration?

There is also the effect the whole World Cup may have had on students' revision habits

What about the remaining exams? GCSEs and AS-levels may be almost over but there are still plenty of A2s to go.

Will students be able to shrug off defeat and raise their game until they are over?

And it is not just Friday's result which is causing some concern over this summer's results. There is also the effect the whole World Cup may have had on students' revision habits.

There are two schools of thought on this.

Some say the football has offered a relaxing distraction for students who might otherwise have become over-wrought and fatigued by too much last minute cramming.

Others fear that the World Cup kicked off just as the exam season hit its peak, when students needed all their concentration on work.

Football fanatics, who might have been watching three live matches a day during the early stages, would have lost a lot of revision time.

I certainly had my moments of worry whenever I caught my daughter watching a match with her history or chemistry books open, but unread, on the sofa beside her.

I was so concerned I almost took my eyes off the box.

Gender gap

When August comes the trends in the examination results will be analysed carefully.

If they are down, will the World Cup take the blame? Maybe it will be a useful excuse, diverting attention from other possible causes - such as examination overload.

If the results are up again we may, at least, be spared the usual debate over whether this is because the pupils are brighter or the standards have been lowered. Instead there will be pressure for sporting tournaments during every examination season.

Perhaps the best clues to the Word Cup effect will be whether there is a gender difference in the trends.

Now, I know many girls are as keen on football as boys, but if the female success rate is up and the male is down, I fear questions will be asked.

Clearer still could be any differential between results in England and the trends in Wales or Scotland.

Even though they are different examinations, if Scotland's pass rate soars and England's drops, then Sven, Beckham, Seaman and co could get the blame.

By contrast, the Scotland team could be congratulated for having failed to qualify.

Feel-good factor

Education psychologists and statisticians may find more in-depth analysis worthwhile.

For example, a comparative study of results before and after the defeat by Brazil could provide experts with incontrovertible proof of whether there is a "feel-good" factor involved in exam performance.

Will this exam season turn out to have been "a game of two halves"?

Of course, the effect may not be limited to exam candidates.

We are now heading into the intensive marking period. Think of the tens of thousands of teachers, and others, who are even now facing piles of unmarked scripts.

Will their post-match dyspepsia incline them to more severe judgements on borderline answers?

I am sure their professionalism will overcome any such tendency, but it is a concern.

I wonder if there will be a larger than usual request from schools for the return of scripts ahead of potential appeals?

Of course, as with most sets of statistics, it will be possible to argue almost anything on the basis of this year's results.

Perhaps, though, instead of the usual slanging match between teacher union leaders and critics of the education system, we could have a different sort of post-event discussion.

I, for one, would like to hear Lineker, Hanson and Gazza on where it all went right or wrong - not on the pitch but in the examination hall.