Factors Affecting Students Academic Performance

By Pat & Tyler

Thesis

Smoking, Alcohol, time spent sleeping and stress all have a great effect students academic performance.

Our Survey

Grade & Gender? How many hours a week do you engage in physical activity? How many cigarettes do you smoke in a week? How many alcoholic beverages do you consume in a week? How many hours of sleep do you get per night? How do feel when you wake up on a school day? How often do you feel stressed? What is your overall average? Do you enjoy school?

Grade & Gender

Bar Chart 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 9 10 11 Grade 12 OAC
80 70 Bar Chart

Count

count ( )

Count

60 50 40 30 20 10 Female Gender Male

count ( )

How many hours a week do you engage in physical activity?

When we compared students physical activity to their academic performance, we found that students who had 3 - 5 hours of physical activity per week were almost all between 60 and 90%. We also found that students generally had the best academic averages when they got between 5 and 7 hours of physical activity per week. These results however were not forming obvious patterns, which brings us to the conclusion that physical activity does not have a great impact on one's academic performance.
Collection 1 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Bar Chart

Count

Less than 50

AcademicAverage PhysActw eek 1 to 3 3 to 5 7 to 10 10+ 5 to 7 less than 1

count ( )

90 to 100

50 to 60

60 to 70

70 to 80

80 to 90

How many cigarettes do you smoke in a week?

There are many obvious patterns when comparing the number of Collection 1 cigarettes a student smokes in a 70 60 week and their academic 50 performance. About half the students who smoke 40 30 over 45 cigarettes a week have an 20 average between 50 and 60. 10 However it should also be noted that the other half seems to have an average between 70 and 80, or between 80 and 90. The academic margin of 90 to 100 Cigarettesw eek had the largest ratio of non0 smokers. 15 to 30 Generally, the more cigarettes 45+ smoked, the lower the overall count ( ) average.
Count Less than 50
Bar Chart

AcademicAverage 0 to 15 30 to 45

90 to 100

50 to 60

60 to 70

70 to 80

80 to 90

How many alcoholic beverages do you consume in a week?

Collection 1 This was one of the most surprising results of our survey. 70 60 It was discovered that students 50 with averages between 50 and 40 30 60, and students with averages 20 between 90 and 100 drink 10 roughly the same amount. And students with averages between 60 and 80 seem to drink the most of anybody. It was also surprising that Drinksw eek students with averages below 50 0 10+ drank less than the average. 5 to 10 Bar Chart

Count

50 to 60

60 to 70

70 to 80

80 to 90

Less than 50

AcademicAverage 0 to 3 3 to 5

count ( )

90 to 100

How many hours of sleep do you get per night?

Collection 1 Almost all high school students seem to get between 70 60 5 and 7, or 7 and 10 hours of 50 40 sleep per night. 30 Very few students who get 20 less than 5 hours of sleep per 10 night have an average of over 60%. It should also be noted that almost all students who got between 7 and 10 hours of Sleeppernight 1 to 2 2 to 5 sleep per night had an 7 to 10 academic average between 70count ( ) and 100. Bar Chart

Count

Less than 50

AcademicAverage 10+ 5 to 7

90 to 100

50 to 60

60 to 70

70 to 80

80 to 90

How often do you feel stressed?

Much to our surprise, we Collection 1 70 found that not one student with an average between 90 60 50 and 100 considered themselves always stressed". 40 For the most part, the stress 30 20 levels are similar in each 10 division. As the population grows so does the amount of Less than 50 50 to 60 stress. Stressed A large portion of those with Alw ays Often an average between 60 and Sometimes count ( ) 100 claimed they were "sometimes stressed".
Count
Bar Chart

60 to 70 70 to 80 AcademicAverage Never Seldom

80 to 90

90 to 100

Do you enjoy school?

It was no surprise that students who enjoy school tend to perform well academically speaking. Most students with averages below 60 do not enjoy school. And roughly 75% of students with an average over 90 claim the enjoy school .
Collection 1 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Bar Chart

Count

Less than 50

AcademicAverage EnjoySchool Kind of Yes No

count ( )

90 to 100

50 to 60

60 to 70

70 to 80

80 to 90

Statistics Canada

The following data is taken from The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth: transition into adolescence (NLSCY)

Male & Female Achievement

When comparing the academic performance of males and females we found that they were very similar and there were no distinct patterns.
Ontario Youths 450 400 350 300 Bar Chart

Count

250 200 150 100 50 Very poorly Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school M Very w ell

Sex F

count ( )

Importance of Doing Well in School

Ontario Youths 450 400 350 300 Bar Chart

Count

250 200 150 100 50

Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school How _im portant__to_do_w ell_in_school Important Not important at all Not very important Somew hat important Very important

Very poorly

Very w ell

count ( )

Importance of Doing Well in School

After observing this data, it is very clear that those who consider school to be very important do much better than those who do not consider school to be important. This was not surprising because of the common sense involved. We found it interesting that a very small fraction of the students surveyed didn't consider school to be important. It has been proven many times, by Stats Canada on this particular occasion, those who feel it important to do well in school, end up with the best academic performance. They are more likely to consider school a large part of their life and something that should be taken seriously.

Get Along with Other Kids

Ontario Youths Bar Chart

Generally, everyone surveyed got along well with their peers at school. The students in the very poorly category had trouble getting along with other kids. This could be connected to why they do not like school. We demonstrated earlier that those who do not like school generally do not do well.

450 400 350 300

Count

250 200 150 100 50

Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school I_get_along_w ith_kids_easily 1. false 2. Mostly false 3. Sometimes false/Sometimes ... 4. Mostly true 5. true

Very poorly

Very w ell

count ( )

Feeling Left Out? Just as we had

suspected, those who do well and very well in school are never left out. Responses seem to be almost equally dispersed in the poorly and very poorly categories. As well, it should be noted that those who had average marks were rarely left out most of the time.
Ontario Youths 450 400 350 300 Bar Chart

Count

250 200 150 100 50 Very poorly Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school Most of the time Rarely Very w ell

Feel_left_out_at_school All the time Never Some of the time

count ( )

It came as a surprise to us that the majority of those who did well and very well in school claimed they are never bullied. We were under the false impression that bullies always picked on the smart kids. We also thought it was odd that almost all kids those who were bullied most of the time did poorly or very poorly in school.

Bullying
Ontario Youths 450 400 350 300 Bar Chart

Count

250 200 150 100 50 Very poorly Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school Most of the time Rarely Very w ell

Bullied_in_School All the time Never Some of the time

count ( )

How Far Students Will Go?

Ontario Youths 200 180 160 140 Bar Chart

Count

120 100 80 60 40 20

Poorly Average Well Very w ell How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school How _far_do_you_hope_to_go_in_school COMPLETE A UNIVERSITY DEG... COMPLETE MIDDLE SCHOOL/J... I DON-T KNOW I WILL COMPLETE COLLEGE I WILL COMPLETE HIGH SCHOOL OTHER

Very poorly

count ( )

How Far Students Will Go?

The results of this graph were easily predictable. The majority of students who do well and very well in school hope to complete a University degree. And those who were unsure of their post-secondary school future were doing poorly or very poorly in school. We also found it interesting that the majority of those who hoped to complete High School and or College did average in school.

Students Appreciation for A large majority of English students either like english
a bit or like it a lot. And obviously those who Ontario Youths 200 "like it alot" tend to get 180 the best marks. This can 160 be linked to the idea that 140 enjoying school (or a 120 subject in this case) will 100 result in higher marks. 80 We also found it very 60 peculiar that almost all 40 students who hate english 20 have average marks. Very poorly Poorly Average Well The very odd thing about How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school these results was that all Like_English I DON-T LIKE IT VERY MUCH I HATE IT students who were doing I LIKE IT A BIT I LIKE IT A LOT very poorly "like english count ( ) alot".
Count
Bar Chart

Very w ell

Appreciation of Math
This question came up with very similar results to the english question. Just as in the previous question, the very odd thing about these results was that all students who were doing very poorly "like math alot".
Ontario Youths 200 180 160 140 Bar Chart

Count

120 100 80 60 40 20 Very poorly Poorly Average Well How _w ell_are_you_doing_in_school I HATE IT I LIKE IT A LOT Very w ell

Like_Math I DON-T LIKE IT VERY MUCH I LIKE IT A BIT

count ( )

The End