THE EFFECT OF STUDY HABITS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SOPHOMORE STUDENTS IN ABUYOG COMMUNITY COLLEGE 1/ A seminar paper submitted

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course MATH 23: Probability and Statistics to Engr. Jesus G. Sagragao Jr., faculty, Department of Arts and Sciences, Abuyog Community College, Abuyog, Leyte on March 30, 2012.
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LOVELIE E. LERION ABEGAIL D. REYES SHIENA LUZ A. SUMALINOG

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Nature and Significance of the Study The extent of students learning in academics may be determined through the grades a student earns for a specific period of learning. It is commonly observed that grades are primary indicators of such learning. If a student earns high grades, it means that the student learned a lot from school. On the other hand, if a student gets low grades, it indicates less learning. However, there are also several factors that would account for predicting grades. It has interplay of so many factors- gender, IQ, study habits, age, year level, parents educational attainment, social status, number of siblings, birth order, etc.

In fact, almost all of the existing environmental and personal factors are variables of academic performance (The Prediction of Academic Achievement by The British Study). At this point, there is a need to investigate or study the effect of study habits on the academic performance of the students. This serves as basis for awareness among the ACC students in understanding how their current study habits affect their academic performance. This likewise helps them to focus and to have a clear perspective on how the specific behaviors relate their studies being influenced by their study habits. Thus, this gives them a deeper sense of understanding on themselves as students considering that college life typically demand a set of developmental adjustments. Objectives This study is intended to find out the effect of study habits of sophomore education students in Abuyog Community College on their academic performance. Specifically, it aimed to: 1. Determine the profile of the sophomore education students in Abuyog Community College according to their time management, learning skills and study skills. 2. Identify the influence of study habits to the academic performance of the students.

Scope and Limitation The respondents of this study are the sophomore education students enrolled in Abuyog Community College. This study focuses only on those students who were currently enrolled at Abuyog Community College SY 2011-2012 and are having the prescribed study load for the specific semester. Only those sophomore education students were allowed to participate or to be included on the study. This study only concerns about the students profile, study habits and academic performance on the college they are enrolled. Place and Date of Study This study on THE EFFECT OF STUDY HABITS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SOPHOMORE EDUCATION STUDENTS was conducted in Abuyog Community College Abuyog, Leyte dated on January 2012-March 2012. Definition of Terms The following terms were defined clearly and concisely to facilitate better understanding on the texts presented in this manuscript. Academic Performance - refers to the general average of the students. It is the sum of all the grades on each subject divided by the number of subject area in the curriculum. Learning Skills - refers to the way how a student learns the lesson.

Profile of the Students - a student profile provides information about a student, but the information can be presented and used in different ways. Student profiles can include data submitted by a student, as well as information which is added by staff members at an educational institution to provide a complete picture of the student. Sophomore Education Students - refers to those who were officially enrolled in the school/college for the particular semester and academic year. Study Habits - manners which you consistently use to study for school or for the next days lesson. Study Skills - or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school are considered essential for acquiring good grades, and are useful for learning throughout one's life.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Palm Beach Community College (2008) recommended that students should study at least three hours out of the class for every hour spent in class. They also stated that a student must have a special phase to study and should not be cramped. They presuppose that study time will go better of a learner takes a few minutes at the start to fix things up. They discouraged the fact about studying in the bedroom since it is a phase to sleep, not to study. A student must have everything close at hand such as sock, pencil, paper and coffee, dictionary, computer, calculator, etc. Before starting to study PBCC suggested that distracting noise should be minimized between they said that there are some people need sound and some like silence. It is in this case that the learner must decide what works for him or her. Pogue (2000) in his research project to determine why students fail, found out that study habits survey 30 years ago still sings to be true today that is students fail because they do not know how to study. The best advice he can give is to develop sound skills. He said that a student should make sure that he or she has a good study environment. It includes a good desk, a sturdy chair, good light, comfortable room temperature and a quite atmosphere. This simply means that a learner should eliminate all external and internal distractions. He also stated that in studying one must start with most difficult subject first, while the mind is in if freshest and more receptive.

Means and Practices of Students Professors in the developing countries said that undergraduate students should be fully equipped with high level of analytical skills, the capacity for critical reasoning, selfreflection and conceptual grasp and ability to learn autonomously and exercise flexibility of mind (Simmons 2003). Study habits are said to be improving because of the advent and wide use of the Internet, hypertext and multimedia resources which greatly affects the study habits (Liu 2005). Karim and Hassan (2006) noted that exponential growth digital information changes the way students perceive studying and with report that students print materials that are to be used in facilitating study. Liu (2005) and Ramirez (2003) reported that students print material from the Internet in order to study and read later on. Igun (2005) also found out that Nigerians study from materials downloaded from the Internet. Reading is an attempt to absorb the thought of the author and know what the author is conveying (Leedy 1956). Studying is the interpretation of reading materials. Study habits and skills are particularly important for college students, whose needs includes time management, note taking, internet skill, the elimination of distractions and assigning a high priority to study. Fielden (2004) stated that the good study habits help the students in critical reflection in skills outcomes such as selecting, analyzing, critiquing and synthesizing. Nneji (2002) states that study habits are learning tendencies that enable students to work privately.

The study conducted by Graven (2008) on the relationship between an individuals amount of caffeine consumption during his/her study session and the individuals study habits showed that the main effect of drinking caffeine on exam preparation was not significant. There were participants, 20 male and 58 female college students (n=78), answered self-ratings on their personal consumption of caffeine as well as their study habits when preparing for a test/exam. It was hypothesized that the more caffeine a student consume while studying, the more accurately his or her study habits would be labeled as unhealthy, as determined by the researchers. Unhealthy study habits were operationally defined as low scores on amount of time per study session time (in days) when preparation began, and amount of information the participants believed they had retained. High scores on anxiety level were included in unhealthy study habits. Crede and Kuncel (2008) in their research at the University of Albany said that study habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validity in predicting academic performance. The meta-analysis examined the construct validity and predictive validity of 10 study skill constructs for college students. They found that study skill inventories and constructs are largely independent of both high school grades and scores on standardized admission tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results were inconsistent with previous theories. Study motivation and study skills exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point average and grades in individual classes. Significant variation in the validity

of specific inventories is shown. Scores on traditional study habit and attitude inventories are the most predictive of performance. Overall, study habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other non-cognitive individual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded the third pillar of academic success. According to the how-to-study.com (2009), students who are very successful in their desired career have good study habits.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY This chapter presents the methods used in the conduct of this study and will include the research design, the respondents, the research instrument and data gathering procedures used. Research Design The study used the descriptive survey design in its attempt to determine, describe and analyze relationships between time management, learning skills and study habits of the students. The descriptive method was used because the researchers wanted to present a description of the data gathered through a survey questionnaire, hence, the goal of the researchers was to determine or identify the effect of study habits on the academic performance of the sophomore education students in Abuyog Community College (ACC). Respondents of the Study Sophomore Education Students who were enrolled at ACC were the respondents of the study. The researchers personally obtain the population of the respondents in the 2011-2012 record. A total population of 40 second year Education students was recorded.

Research Instrument A self developed questionnaire composed of 8 questions was used in gathering the necessary data needed in the study. The questionnaire answered by the respondents encompasses the profile of the students name (optional), age, gender, and course. Questions stated in it were concerned about the average grades of the students , how far in advance do they start studying for the exams, what time of day do they study most, how many hours do they allot for studying and questions concerning their affective aspects with regards to upcoming examination time. Gathering Procedures The researchers conducted an interview by distributing questionnaires for the students to answer. Respondents were given sufficient time to choose from the options stated in the questionnaire. All the answered questionnaires will then be gathered; responses shall be analyzed and will then be subject to the appropriate statistical computation for reliability. Statistical Analysis The data gathered were subjected to different statistical tools in order to answer the research problem. The responses of the respondents were categorized by tabulating them according to the specific question asked. The answers of the students per question were subjected to frequency distribution and for a clear view.

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To determine the significant influence of study habits on the academic performance of the students, the Pearsonian Moment Correlation Coefficient was used. The correlation coefficient helps us determine specifically the degree of relationship and is shown below.

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CHAPTER IV DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION This chapter presents the data gathered through the questionnaire which had been analyzed, evaluated an interpreted in order to answer the problem in this study. GPA of the Students The GPA distribution of the respondents is shown in the following table. Table I Distribution on the Students Average Grade Average Grade 1.5-1.0 2.0-1.5 2.5-2.0 3.0-2.5 TOTAL: Frequency 2 22 16 0 40

The GPA of the students is shown in Table I. Table I show that 22 from the total number of respondents have an average grade ranging from 2.0-1.5, followed by 16 students whose average range from 2.5-2.0, and lastly 2 students whose average range from 1.5-1.0.

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Study Habits of students The study habits of the students were determined by answering the following questions and results were tabulated and presented in the appendix. a. How far in advance students start studying for the exams b. Time of the day students study most c. Hours spent in studying for the exams d. Students way of studying e. Place/Location where students prefer to study f. Preferred study break g. Condition of students leading up to exam time Period of preparation for the Exams Results were found out that 18 of the students study a day before the exams, 16 students study a week before the exams,11 students study a night before,4 students study two weeks before and 1 student study a month before the exams. Time of day students study most In Table III, dominant of the number of students study late at night. Particularly 14 out of the 40 students study during 12AM-6AM, 10 students study during evening, 8 students study at night, 6 students study during morning and 2 students study during afternoon.

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TABLE II Frequency Distribution on period of preparation for the exams Period of day One month before Night before Two weeks before Day before One week before TOTAL: 1 11 4 18 16 40 Frequency

TABLE III Frequency Distribution on the period of day students study most Time of the day Morning (6 am-noon) Evening (6pm-9pm) Late at night (12am-6am) Afternoon (noon-6pm) Night (9pm-12am) TOTAL: 6 10 14 2 8 40 Frequency

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Hours spent in studying for the exams A total number of 25 students out of the 40 respondents usually spend 1-4 hours in studying, 11 students study for 5-9 hours, only 2 study for 15- 19 hours and the rest study for 10-14 hours or 24 hours. TABLEIV Distribution on hours spent in studying for the exams Number of hours 20-24 hrs 10-14 hrs 1-4 hrs 15-19 hrs 5-9 hrs TOTAL: frequency 1 1 25 2 11 40

Study Skills It is clearly shown in Table V that 18 of the students write outlines as their form of studying for the exams, 11 prefer to repeat points out loud, 6 prefer to write on index cards, and 5 would highlight the texts as their form of studying.

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TABLE V Distribution on students way of studying Way of studying Repeating points out loud Writing outlines frequency 11 18

Writing in index/flashcards then 6 using them Highlighting texts TOTAL: 5 40

Place/Location where students prefer to study A bigger number of students particularly 32 of them would prefer to study inside their bedrooms while the rest of the students would study inside the campus, library or in the canteen.

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TABLE VI Distribution on the Students answer on where do they prefer to study

Place where they study Bedroom Campus Library Canteen TOTAL

frequency 32 2 4 2 40

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Preferred study break As what is being shown in Table VII, 15 out of the 40 students liked to watch movies as their study break; it was then followed by 13 students who liked to take a nap as their study break. The rest would surf the internet or socialize. TABLE VII Frequency Distribution on preferred study break

Study break Watching movies Napping Surfing the net Socializing TOTAL:

frequency 15 13 4 8 40

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Condition of students leading up to exam time Dominant of the total number of students interviewed feel increase stress or anxiety leading up to examination time others do not. TABLE VIII Distribution on the Students condition leading up to exam time Increase in stress/anxiety YES NO TOTAL: Frequency 32 8 40

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CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION This chapter presents the summary, conclusion, and recommendation drawn from this study. SUMMARY This study entitled The Effect of Study Habits on the Academic Performance of the Sophomore Education Students in Abuyog Community College determines the influence of the students study habits on their academic performance. Particularly, this study aims to determine the profile of the sophomore education students in Abuyog Community College according to their time management, learning skills and study skills and to identify the influence of study habits to the academic performance of the students. The respondents of the study were the 40 second year education students in Abuyog Community College. The descriptive survey method was used in this study using the survey questionnaire which served as the means in gathering the needed data. Interview was also used and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient.

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Based on the data interpreted, the following were the outcomes: 18 of the students study a day before the exams, 16 students study a week before the exams,11 students study a night before,4 students study two weeks before and 1 student study a month before the exams. 14 out of the 40 students study during 12AM-6AM, 10 students study during evening, 8 students study at night, 6 students study during morning and 2 students study during afternoon. 25 students out of the 40 respondents usually spend 1-4 hours in studying, 11 students study for 5-9 hours, only 2 study for 15- 19 hours and the rest study for 10-14 hours or 24 hours. 18 of the students write outlines as their form of studying for the exams, 11 prefer to repeat points out loud, 6 prefer to write on index cards, and 5 would highlight the texts as their form of studying. 32 of them would prefer to study inside their bedrooms while the rest of the students would study inside the campus, library or in the canteen. 15 out of the 40 students liked to watch movies as their study break; it was then followed by 13 students who liked to take a nap as their study break. The rest would surf the internet or socialize.

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Dominant of the total number of students interviewed feel increase stress or anxiety leading up to examination time others do not. Conclusion Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were obtained: 1. Most of the students have an average ranging from 2.0-1.5. 2. There is no significant influence or relationship between the study habits of the students on their academic performance. Explanation is stated. The p-value is the least z-value in which the null hypothesis will be rejected. The null hypothesis will only be accepted if z-value exceeds the value which shows no significant relationship. Since the values of p are still greater than the z value alpha 0.05, it implies however that Q1 to Q8 are all significant. However, though the p-value indicates significant relationship, there are still no enough evidences to show the relationship between the study habits of the students and their academic performance due to the values of the coefficient of correlation falls near zero. (See r values on table 4 appendix d).

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Recommendation Based on the conclusions drawn, the following recommendations are given: 1. Further studies should be conducted using other variables which were not utilized in this study. 2. Questions to be used in the interview should be supplied with other questions that would better enable the researchers to obtain the objectives of the study. 3. Furthermore, the researchers would like to recommend this study to those individuals who will pursue the same research as their basis for their study.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Sushma, 2009, Study Habits Based on the Study Habits Background of the Students. www.NYFA.edu The Ten Study Habits of Successful Students,2009 (http://how-to-study.com/studyhabits.htm) The Prediction of Academic Achievement by The British Study Habits Inventory, M ark E. Thompson, 2005 (http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3715h5884172656/) Establishing Good Study Habits,2009 (http://www.academictips.org/acad/literature/establishinggoodstudyhabits.html) Study habits of postgraduate students in selected Nigerian Universities,2009: by Igun, Stella E., Adogbeji, Ogheneywogaga Benson (http://www.articlearchives.com/education-training/students-students-life/15485501.html) Study Habits, Skills, and Attitudes: The Third Pillar Supporting Collegiate Academic Performance,2009: by Marcus Crede and Nathan R. Kuncel (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121531774/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETR Y=0)

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