STUDY HABITS AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCES OF ACCOUNTANCY STUDENTS OF THE COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Chapter 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING INTRODUCTION Accountancy is one of the courses to look forward for incoming college students. Mathematical in nature and involves comprehensive calculations as well, one needs to analyze the financial data of an organization for the entire year and then perform the calculations accordingly. According to the records of the enrollment in College of the Immaculate Conception for the first semester in year 2012, many of the incoming freshmen were enrolling for Bachelor of Science in Accountancy course because of the job opportunities that await them when they become a Certified Public Accountant. The Accountancy course, however, obviously is not a fairly easy path for one to tread onto, as it requires a higher level of determination and effort on the part of a student who aspires to become a Certified Public Accountant subsequently after graduating this course. Having this fact in mind, it only follows that students who pursue this course must dedicate ample time and patience into studying and absorbing information. And to make matters more intriguing, let us also consider the individual differences of the students, particularly their habits. Associating these ideas altogether, one can form a connection between studying, the action executed by students, and habits possessed by the said individuals. Knowing each person has their own differences, there arises the variation of output, depending on variables to be identified later on as the study progresses.

According to Oppapers (2010), Studying is important in our lives, especially to the lives of the students. Each student as unique individual has different abilities, approaches, and ways of thinking, interests and ways of studying the lessons. These individual differences have significant influences on ones learning style and acquisition. Each student has different methods and ways of studying and these methods are sometimes helpful but some are not as effective as the others. According to Grohol (2006), Students are facing with many issues in their lives, and because of the competing things for your attention, it is hard to concentrate on studying. Studying can seem very boring when compared to any other exciting activity. Students may even prefer doing non-sense things rather than to study your lessons. Too many people treat studying as the thing to do when you get around to it or have some spare time, too many people look at studying as necessary task, not an enjoyment or an opportunity to learn. Studying, in general, involves the process of exerting human effort into learning and discovering, after which the information gathered is stored and retained in ones memory. Broad as it is, there are a wide range of factors that can affect studying, one of these factors being the particular habits of a person executing the act of studying. Delving further into the topic, these habits are comprised of different factors as well, which without a doubt, have different effects in studying, and as a result, contributes to the differences among the academic performances of each student. It is a common scene if some college students fail to finish a passing requirement for a subject course. What is lacking is their ignorance of developing good study habits that are necessary for good academic performance. And to worsen their ignorance are their psychological conception of giving up so easily and the tempting distractions of the surroundings that lead

them to a zero percent possibility of creating their own ideal habits. So, it has become a major trouble to college students who are known to be suffocated with loads of works from school. Study habits are the daily routine of students with regards to their academic duties and responsibilities. Each student has his own study habits varying on his preferences with the place and time of studying, techniques in studying, and more. It will depend upon the person if he will not get bored to browse notes and can procrastinate the distractions such as social networking, media exposure, computer gaming addiction just like in DOTA, cutting classes, watching pornography, excessive playing on their gadgets like their cell phones, iPods, computers, PSP, and other devices they have. So these are reasons writers and researchers set some learning styles on related activities to effective studying. According to Manohar (2011), every student prefers his or her distinct pattern that suits their speed, grasping capacity and other academic abilities. However there are certain studying techniques that can aid the learning process to a great extent. Taking notes in the class, reviewing the notes, rewriting the study material can seem too much intimidating at times, student need to acquire some useful study habits to follow a good study plan. A student who developed their study habits could not sleep or go to school without studying their lessons. A student can be more intelligent and have a self confidence in class compared to those who do not developed their study habits. A student who does not have a good study habits cannot do well in class recitation, daily quizzes, and school demonstration since they did not study and review the lessons learned. Good study habits are the tool to success. Without well developed study habits, a student cannot perform well in class, and surely, they cannot reach their ambitions in life.

Students should know how to manage their time wisely and keep their selves away from bad traits and vices. They should serve as models to their brothers, sisters, classmates, and also to their fellow students by showing that they have a good and well developed study habits. This kind of attitude must be possessed by every accountancy student for them to become an effective and efficient molders of young mind in the future. Fielden (2004) stated that good study habits help the students acquire in critical reflection skills outcomes such as selecting, analyzing, critiquing and synthesizing. In addition, he also emphasized that the key to effective studying is not cramming or studying longer, but studying smarter, and that is what a good study habit can give to a student. According to Acido (2008), that the major difference between student with below average, average and above average reasoning skills center on their study habits--- whether they have a good or bad study habits, and their attitude towards learning a particular skill--- whether they are interested or not, are responsible for their learning or not, and take responsibility over what they do or not. For others, when they hear that youre an Accountancy student, it means that you are intelligent and good in solving problems, but it is not easy to be an accountancy student. Many BSA students failed and shifted to other courses because of the retention policy. You need to maintain your grade at least 2.00 or higher in accounting subject and also you need to pass the qualifying exam given by the Institute. Some students find it difficult to maintain their grades and pass the qualifying exam. For some reasons they fail to maintain it. The purpose of this research is to know the factors connected to their study habits and reasons why students fail and shift to other courses, and find out some possible ways to pass the Accountancy course.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The concept of this study is derived from the researchers theory about study habits and its various effects on the students academic performance. With the support of related studies of previous researchers, the researchers will connect how the independent variables (study habits) affect the dependent variables (academic performance) of the BSA students specifically from CIC. The main thought is that study habits are independent for they can easily be learned or adapted by students, while the academic performance of the students are considered dependent because depending on the independent variables, they can be affected on different levels, positively or negatively. Hence, having this theory in mind, the study is focused on establishing the significance of each variables relationship and to give meaningful interpretations as to why and how these variables behave accordingly. Grohol (2006) said that students are facing with many issues in their lives, and because of the competing things for your attention, its hard to concentrate on studying. Studying can seem very boring when compared to any other exciting activity. You may even prefer doing non-sense things rather than to study your lessons. Too many people treat studying as the thing to do when you get around to it or have some spare time, too many people look at studying as necessary task, not an enjoyment or an opportunity to learn. Oppapers (2010) said that studying is important in our lives, especially to the lives of the students. Each student as unique individual has different abilities, approaches, and ways of thinking, interests and ways of studying the lessons. These individual differences have significant influences on ones learning style and acquisition. Each student has different methods

and ways of studying and these methods are sometimes helpful but some are not as effective as the others. The researchers will study those different methods of each BSA student in studying the lessons and to what extent those different methods can affect BSA student academic performances. The group will try to find out how important study habits are, how they affect or if they affect students academic performance. This also shows how many hours the BSA students are studying per day, how they prepare for an exam if they are a relax or a crammer student, and what is the comfortable place and time for them to study in order to show if these factors are contributors in attaining better academic performance. If these factors are contributors, we will find out how these factors significantly affect the academic performance of students, if it is in a positive way or otherwise.

PARADIGM

The researchers believe that the relationship between the study habits of the students and their academic performance is similar to the process of cooking. The ingredients represent the different profile variables and study habits of the students. The process of cooking represents the act of studying itself. And finally, the outcome of the cooking process, or the dish, is the representation of the resulting academic performance of the students, after taking into consideration their profile variables and the study habits. Since the ingredients are the determining factor as to whether the dish will taste good or bad, similarly, the researchers believe that the profile and the study habits of the students contribute to their academic performance.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This research aimed to indentify the relationship between the different study habits of BSA students of CIC and their academic performance. Specially, it sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the profile of the students in terms of: 1.1 Age 1.2 Gender 1.3 Year 1.4 Average grades in accounting subjects 1.5 Economic Status 1.6 Sibling Rank/Position 2. How may the study habits of the students be described in terms of: 2.1 Self Preparation 2.2 Study Preparation 2.3 Place for studying 2.4 Resources available for learning 2.5 Preparation for exam 2.6 Hours spent for studying 3. Is there a significant relationship between the profile of the students and their study habits?

4. Is there a significant relationship between the study habits and the academic performance of the students? 5. Is there a significant difference in the study habits when grouped according to variables? HYPOTHESES This study states the following null hypotheses: 1. There is no significant relationship between the profile of the students and their study habits. 2. There is no significant relationship between the students academic performance and their study habits. 3. There is no significant difference in the study habits when grouped according to variables. SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY This study attempted to describe the study habits of BSA students and offered sound recommendations to improve the learning abilities of these students. This study included all the BSA students enrolled in CIC, school year 2012-2013 ranging from first year to fourth year. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The researchers objective is to design a research that will give understanding and to help the students to remain in their desired course, as well as to give them tips or pieces of advice to avoid the bad habits in studying accountancy. Other factors are to inform them of the possible

reasons why they did not pass or met the required grades for the retention policy and how this problem can be solved. Students. It is for them to restrain them from developing bad study habits and to help them meet the retention policy requirement by laying down a narrow list of good habits they can apply as well as to enlighten them on how they can effectively manage their time. Parents. The parents will also benefit from this study as they will be able to guide their children who are pursuing the accountancy course for them to help their children into not developing such bad habits which can negatively affect their academic performance. Guidance Counselors. They can also be helped by this study through the provision of a more focused and factual knowledge on the factors affecting the students study habits and their academic performances. This study will encourage the Guidance Counselor towards the development and implementation of more effective programs in consideration of these study habits. Faculty. Through this study, they will know why some students failed in the retention policy and how they can improve their teaching strategy in hopes of achieving an increase in the number of students who will pass the accountancy course. School. For them to know the reasons why some students are forced to shift in other business courses and to have an idea on how challenging the accountancy course is, primarily on the part of the student. At the same time, the school will be credited for the prestige as their students of accountancy perform well and pass the CPA examination and become Certified Public Accountants.

DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms were commonly used throughout the research study. The definition was based on the books and journals that were being used for the study. Accountancy - is the process of communicating financial information about a business entity to users such as shareholders and managers. College of the Immaculate Conception is the only Catholic school in the city of Cabanatuan. CIC Retention Policy the accountancy program of CIC requires the students to maintain an average of 85% which consists of 70% of their major accounting subjects and 30% for the qualifying exam. Habit the lexical meaning of a habit is an acquired pattern of behavior that often occurs automatically. Self Preparation are the things the students do to make their self comfortable in studying their subjects. Things which make them more efficient and help them absorb their lessons easily when they are studying. Study Preparation are the things the respondents do to amplify their understanding for each of their subjects. These are the things they exercise in class or after class. These are also the norms they believe that make them more efficient. For example, their preferred seat in class. Place for studying are the places where the students prefer their studying hours to happen. These are the places where they are most comfortable in terms of studying.

Resources available for learning are the equipment, books, facilities, materials, and personnel or guidance available for education. Preparation for exam are the things the students usually do before an examination. This is when they study and prepare themselves or how early they study before their tests in their accounting subjects. Hours spent for studying are the time allocated by each of the students for further understanding or reviewing of their lessons.