Abstract
This study was conducted in November of 2015 on the campus of the University of Iowa. It researches the question: Do study habits from high school transfer over to college, and, if so, do they impact grades? It references an article by U.S. News that interviewed a former University of Iowa senior as well as the survey conducted in 2015. The article did not discuss specific habits that transfer from high school to college. The 2015 survey asked current first-year students directly admitted to the Tippie College of Business how many hours a week they studied in high school and how many they currently do in college, as well as how far in advance of an exam they studied in high school and how far in advance they do in college, and their high school GPA and anticipated college GPA. Over all the results were to be expected, with students usually studying less than 3 hours per week in high school and only studying for an exam the night before, where as in college, students usually studied 3-5 hours per week and 4-7 days in advance of an exam. This study aims to help future students successfully transition from high school to college.
Introduction
When studying for something, regardless of the topic, difficulty, or level of academic study, certain habits arise. These habits are very specific to the individual studying and encompass all aspects of the way that they study. Aspects such as how far in advance of exams they study, what materials they use to study, how long they study, where they study and many more are very central to how they study. With changes in the difficulty and the scope of the classes being studied for, these aspects may change over time. One big transition for study habits is the transition from high school to college. Do study habits transfer from high school to college and, if so, do they impact overall grade? This study aims to answer this question and in the process help future students transition from high school to college. In a 2013 news article by U.S. News, Catheryn Sloane interviewed a then senior at the University of Iowa, who stated that it was important to develop good study habits in high school in order to succeed in college. This research from 2013 is very similar to the study conducted this year at the University of Iowa, but the numbers may yield different results and the article does not analyze specific study habits of the students.
Methods
When researching the topic of study habits, the material had to be narrowed down a lot. Not all aspects of studying could be analyzed in one survey. Still, the scope is broad enough to encompass the necessary aspects of studying in both high school and college. The questions asked were about studying in both high school and college, and the individuals’ grade point averages. The questions asked the individuals, in the sense of both high school and college, how far in advance they studied for an exam, how many hours a week they studied, and their GPAs or anticipated GPAs. The survey was conducted online in a multiple choice fashion on first year students at the University of Iowa that were already directly admitted to the Tippie College of Business.
Results
The study found that the majority of high school students, 60% studied 0-3 hours a week, with 60% of those students, or 40% overall, studying less than 1 hour a week. It also found that 70% of students only studied the night before an exam, with the other 30% only studying 2-3 days before an exam. Yet, with these lackluster study habits, 95% of high school students received above a 3.5 GPA, with 40% overall receiving above a 4.0 GPA
When asked about their current college performance, no students studied less than an hour a week, and only 5% studied less than 3 hours per week, a large departure from the 60% that less than 3 hours per week in high school. The most common answer received was 3-5 hours per week, which 50% of students chose. The remaining 45% were pretty evenly distributed between the last three answers, 5-7, 7-10, and more than 10 hours per week.
When asked about their study habits in advance of an exam, half of college students studied 4-7 days before an exam, while 40% studied 2-3 days before, and only 10% still studied the night before the exam, a clear change from the 70% that only studied the night before an exam in high school.
When asked about their anticipated GPAs in college, the majority of the first-year students, 55%, expected to receive a 3.5-4.0 GPA, while 40% expected to receive between a 3.0 and 3.5 GPA, leaving one person that expected to get a 2.5-3.0 GPA their first year of college.
Discussion
The results from this research were largely to be expected. Most high school students did not study more than 3 hours per week, and only 5% studied more than 5 hours per week. Only 30% of students did not study only the night before, while the remaining 70% studied only the night before an exam. The participants’ grades were surprisingly good, but not too surprising considering all the students were directly admitted to the Tippie College of Business, 95% of students received above a 3.5 GPA and 40% overall received above a 4.0 GPA.
In college however, students seemed to work a lot more, and expect a lot less. The median number of hours studied in high school was only 1-3 hours, while in college it was 3-5 hours per week. The most common night to study before an exam in high school was the night before, where as in college, the most common day was approximately 4 days before an exam. The most anticipated GPA for first-year students is between a 3.5 and a 4.0, but 45% of students expected to get below a 3.5, a far cry from the 5% of students that received below a 3.5 in high school.
These results are to be expected. With the increased course load, pressure, and the fact that students have to pay thousands of dollars per year to continue their education, effort in classes has naturally increased. But students appear to expect that their grades will fall, regardless of the increased effort in classes. This could be caused by the idea that all students will get bad grades in college, or that the average GPA falls, which is true, but it should not impact an individual’s expected grade.
Citations
Sloane, Cathryn. "Practice College Study Skills During High School." <i>US News</i>. U.S.News & World Report, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
I think that the main area of improvement would be to include a chart or graph that includes the data from the study. By doing this, the reader would be able to quickly see the differences between high school vs college study habits. Also, you could then reference your chart or graph in the paper to allow the reader to easily identify what piece of information you are discussing.
ReplyDeleteAnother are of improvement would be in the discussion section. I think this could be made better by having more paragraphs. I think that you could talk about the results in one paragraph, and then move towards analyzing where the research may have been lacking. Another aspect that was not included was further research that could be done on this topic. Also, stating the significance of the results would be helpful to the reader. I think if these improvements are added into the discussion section, the paper will be a lot better.
Finally, the last area of improvement that I had was having the different sections into the methods portion. The examples of these would be participants, procedure, and data analysis. This will allow the reader to quickly identify how this research was conducted. Most of this information was included in the methods, however it was not broken up into sections. The only area that was not there was the data analysis. This are allows the reader to understand how you derived your data from the results of the survey. All of these changes were certainly improve a good paper.
I would recommend that you don't include specific information in your abstract. Things like "November of 2015" do not need to be included. An IMRaD paper will generally contain all of this specific info on the cover page were the authors and publisher are documented. Also, many of your paragraphs lack a topic sentence. When you write your final draft make sure to work on this aspect of your paper as it will contribute to the overall flow of your paper.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction of your paper does a good job of describing everything required in the assignment prompt. In the methods section make sure to include subheadings to clarify the different aspects of your study. I believe some of the information in your results section could actually go in a data analysis subheading of the methods section.
For results, make sure you include visual aids. This will be one of the msot important aspects of your paper as it helps readers overall comprehension and understanding of the data. Lastly, for the discussion section of your paper, work on stated your ideas clearly and concisely. You will want to include information about potential flaws in your research method such as the fact that the survey was not a random sample and therefore is not a great representation of all college freshman. Also, suggest the potential for future research on this topic and what could be done to improve the quality of the results.