Study skills play an important role in academic achievement of students. This research was conducted to determine the study skills used by students and the relationship between study skills and academic achievement. This study is a descriptive correlational research design consisting of 579 students studying in different departments at Nong Lam University who were selected through convenient sampling. Data was collected by using the Inventory of College Level Study Skills which was developed by Dennis H Congos. The results showed that concentration skills had the highest mean (m=3.69), followed by test preparation skills (m=3.50), notetaking skills (m=3.33), memorizing skills (m=3.25), textbook reading skills (m=3.21), and the lowest one was time management skills (m=3.00). The findings also indicated that onethird of the participants had poor study skills; a half of them had medium study skills and only 14.7% of the participants had good study skills. This meant that the students did not acquire effective study skills. In measuring the relationship, the results revealed that there was a significant relationship between study skills and academic achievement (CGPA). There were significant positive weak correlations between concentration skills and CGPA (r=0.113), and between test preparation and CGPA (r=0.082). The findings proposed that students should be provided with suitable guidelines for effective study skills resulting in better academic achievements.
HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE Educational Sciences, 2022, Volume 67, Issue 3, pp 55-62 This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn DOI: 10.18173/2354-1075.2022-0044 UNDERGRADUATE’S SPECIFIC STUDY SKILLS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Vo Van Viet*, Huynh Trung Chanh and Nguyen Thanh Binh Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages, Nong Lam University Ho Chi Minh City Abstract Study skills play an important role in academic achievement of students This research was conducted to determine the study skills used by students and the relationship between study skills and academic achievement This study is a descriptive correlational research design consisting of 579 students studying in different departments at Nong Lam University who were selected through convenient sampling Data was collected by using the Inventory of College Level Study Skills which was developed by Dennis H Congos The results showed that concentration skills had the highest mean (m=3.69), followed by test preparation skills (m=3.50), note-taking skills (m=3.33), memorizing skills (m=3.25), textbook reading skills (m=3.21), and the lowest one was time management skills (m=3.00) The findings also indicated that one-third of the participants had poor study skills; a half of them had medium study skills and only 14.7% of the participants had good study skills This meant that the students did not acquire effective study skills In measuring the relationship, the results revealed that there was a significant relationship between study skills and academic achievement (CGPA) There were significant positive weak correlations between concentration skills and CGPA (r=0.113), and between test preparation and CGPA (r=0.082) The findings proposed that students should be provided with suitable guidelines for effective study skills resulting in better academic achievements Keywords: academic achievement, study skills, The Inventory of College Level Study Skills, relationship Introduction Improving students’ learning outcomes or academic achievements is one of the main objectives of every higher educational institution Understanding factors affecting learning outcome could help develop methods to improve the situation Over the years, quite a few studies have indicated that multiple interacting factors predict students’ academic achievement These include but are not limited to, socio-economic background, motivation, attitude, and study skills [1]–[5] A number of research findings have also revealed that there is a positive correlation between study skills and academic achievement [6]–[10] Study skills, particularly at the university level play a very significant role in the learning process of students whose major difficulties at school may originate from inadequate study skills rather than abilities Many students with academic difficulties could be asserted to have poor study skills while they are critical tools for the students to acquire expertise during their course of study Consequently, Received May 21, 2022 Revised June 14, 2022 Accepted July 5, 2022 Contact Vo Van Viet, e-mail address: vvviet@hcmuaf.edu.vn 55 Vo Van Viet*, Huynh Trung Chanh and Nguyen Thanh Binh learning these skills is substantially vital when the academic success or failure of each student significantly depends on how he or she adopts efficient study skills Effective study skills mitigate failure, help students benefit from learning opportunities and enhance information acquisition and retention For successful students , they must have a broad array of study skills and know where, when and how to use these skills [11] Although various studies have been conducted on study skills, there seem to be inadequate studies which sufficiently explored the effect of study skills on academic achievement Accordingly, this current study attempts to explore the students’ study skills and to find out whether there is a correlation between the students’ study skills and academic achievement This study is driven by two research questions: What are the study skills of students in Nong Lam University? Is there a significant correlation between the students’ study skills and academic achievement? Content 2.1 Literature review Researchers have described study skills in different ways Barron, McCoy, Cuevas, & Rachal [12] defined study skills as tools needed for acquiring knowledge, as those learnerselected objectives, strategies and habits that facilitate independent learning Study skills are the activities necessary to organize and complete school assignments and to prepare for and take tests According to Ball [13], study skills consist of an integrated collection of methods and techniques, which allows new knowledge to be gathered, arranged, and preserved Study skills provide a wide array of techniques and strategies that help students to learn, organize, and remember new knowledge effectively More specifically, study skills are a set of methods and techniques that support effective learning and can be acquired or learned Different studies which focused on the relationship between specific study skills and academic achievement have shown that that study skills are an important predictor of academic success Fazal, Husssain, Majoka, & Masood [14] found that there was a significant correlation of time management skills, reading, and note-taking skills with academic achievement Similarly, Shetty & Srinivasan [16] discovered that dental students who adopted various study skills had higher exam scores This finding was also consistent with Fazal et al [17], which confirmed students who used a wide range of study skills had higher academic achievements In another study by Shahidi et al [18] carried out in Fasa University of Medical Sciences, it was noticed that improving study skills may give rise to academic success Several researchers have documented the effect of study skills on academic achievements [7], [9], [19] Sobia Masood [20] surveyed 300 students from 10 colleges of Pakistan, and concluded that students with higher academic achievement used a wide range of study skills compared with lower academic achievement counterparts [20] More specifically, Hassanbeigi et al [22] revealed that there was a statistical positive correlation between study skills scores and students’ average grade point in seven skills, including: time management and procrastination, concentration and memory, study aids and note taking, test strategies and test anxiety, organizing and processing information, motivation and attitude, and reading and selecting the main idea Rahim & Meon [6] also found a significant correlation between academic achievement and specific study skills such as test taking, note taking, analytical thinking, and problem solving Further evidence about the correlation between study skills and students’ academic achievement by using an experimental design approach has been provided by many other 56 Undergraduate’s specific study skills and their relationship to academic achievement educators and researchers The findings have demonstrated that students enrolled in study skills courses had higher academic performance than their counterparts [23]–[25] These authors then proposed that the teaching of study skills would play a significant role in the enhancing of students' academic success However, there were also studies that showed no relationship between academic achievement and study skills such as a study by Tahamtani, T., Kohpayezadeh, J Hosseini, M., Arabshahi [26], and Naqvi, Chikwa, Menon, & Al Kharusi [27] 2.2 Research methodology The current study was a descriptive-correlational research survey with 579 students being conveniently selected Descriptive statistics were used to determine the different study skills adopted by students Pearson Correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between different study skills and the academic achievement 2.2.1 Research instrument The primary data were collected by a questionnaire consisting of two parts The first part involved the items on study skills which are called the Inventory of College Level Study Skills developed by Dennis H Congos [28] The Inventory of College Level Study Skills is a 52-item self-report questionnaire in which the items are divided into six categories or subscales including textbook reading, note-taking, memorizing, test preparation, concentration, and time management The items 1-8 relate to the textbook reading skill; items 9-14 relate to the notetaking skill; items 15-23 relate to the memorizing skill; items 24-36 relate to the test preparation skill; items 37-46 concern the concentration skill; and items 47-52 deal with the time management skill Respondents were asked to think carefully about each statement and respond as truthfully as they can on the five-point Likert scale ranging from 1: Almost never to 5: Almost Always (1: Almost never; 2: Less than half of the time; 3: About half of the time; 4: More than half of the time; and 5: Almost Always) The second part included items on demographic information of the respondents and Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) The Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire The results of Cronbach’s alpha analysis showed that all six subscales of study skills came out higher than 0.7 (Reliability coefficients of 0.765, 0.81, 0.864, 0.854, 0.748, and 0.831 for textbook reading, note-taking, memorizing, test preparation, concentration, and time management, respectively), which implies that the measurement tool is acceptable and reliable 2.2.2 Population, sample and sampling technique All undergraduate students at Nong Lam University Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, make up the study population The participants were selected by using the convenient sampling technique The final sample size is 579 students from different faculties of the university 2.2.3 Data analysis In order to achieve the stated objectives, the data were analyzed by utilizing descriptive and correlational statistics, particularly, the Pearson’s correlation coefficient to identify the relationship of study skills and academic achievement Descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, and percentages) were used to describe demographic characteristics of respondents Scores of six domains, namely textbook reading, note-taking, memorizing, test preparation, concentration, and time management, were calculated by the sum of items in the relative skill The benchmark scores of each category were set by Congos [28] as follows: Textbook reading skills: below 30 - poor , 30 and above - good; Note-taking skills: below 20 -poor, 20 and above - good; Memorizing skills: below 30 - poor, 30 and above good; Test preparation skills: below 40 -poor, 40 and above good Concentration skills: below 35 - poor, 35 and above - good; Time management skills: below 20 -poor, 20 and above - good 57 Vo Van Viet*, Huynh Trung Chanh and Nguyen Thanh Binh 2.3 Results and discussions 2.3.1 Demographic profile Out of 579 students who participated in the survey, 214 (37.0%) were males and 365 (63.0%) females In terms of academic achievement, 310 students (53.3%) achieved good, 171 (29.5%) obtained average, 47 (8.15%) were classified as below average, 46 (7.95%) gained very good and only achieved excellent grades Among them, 387 (66.85%) were freshmen while the remaining number of 192 (33.25%) were sophomore Table Respondent Demographic profile Frequency Percent Sex Male 214 37.0 Female 365 63.0 Below average 47 8.1 Average 171 29.5 Academic achievement Good 310 53.5 Very good 46 7.9 Excellent Freshmen 387 66.8 Year of study Sophomore 192 33.2 Total 579 100.0 2.3.2 Students’ study skill scores in six categories Table shows the mean and the standard deviation of skill scores and skill level classification of six subscales of study skills such as textbook reading, note-taking, memorizing, test preparation, concentration, and time management The results show that concentration skills has the highest mean (m=3.69), followed by test preparation skills (m=3.50), note-taking skills (m=3.33), memorizing skills (m=3.25), textbook reading skills (m=3.21), and the lowest value belongs to time management skills (m=3.00) Table The mean and the standard deviation of skill scores and skill level classification Skills Mean Textbook reading 3,21 Note-taking 3,33 Standard Deviation Skill level Poor skill 0,73 Good skill Poor skill 0,73 Good skill Frequency 425 154 271 Percent 73.4 26.6 46.8 308 53.2 Poor skill 296 51.1 Good skill 283 48.9 Poor skill 248 42.8 Test preparation 3,50 1,21 Good skill 331 57.2 Poor skill 197 34.0 Concentration 3,69 0,83 Good skill 382 66.0 Poor skill 337 58.2 Time management 3,00 0,80 Good skill 242 41.8 Table also reveals that 425 students, occupying 73.4% of the sample, have poor textbook reading skills while only 154 students (26.6% of the sample) are classified to have good textbook reading skills In terms of note-taking skills, 271 students, 46.8% of the respondents Memorizing 58 3,25 0,99 Undergraduate’s specific study skills and their relationship to academic achievement have poor skills More than half of the students (n=308, 53.2% of the sample) have good notetaking skills For memorizing skills, the number of students with poor ability is slightly higher than the better group, at 51.1% and 48.9%, respectively On the contrary, the test preparation skills are considerably better among these students when the group who scored good (n=331, 57.2% of the sample) was larger than that whose skills were poor and needed serious improvements, at 42.8% The concentration skills shares the similarly positive results with approximately two- thirds of the students (n=382, 66% of the sample) showing their strong competence in applying the skills in their learning More than half of the students (n=337, 58.2% of the sample) had poor time management skills, and the data suggested a need for improvement in time management skills, while nearly half of the students (n=424, 41.8% of the sample) had good time management skills Overall, the data showed that the highest need for change in the study skills of students was found in the area of textbook reading skills with 73.45% followed by time management skills (58.2%), memorizing skills (51.1%), notetaking skills (46.8%), test preparation skills (42.8%), and concentration skills (34%) 2.3.3 Overall study skills of students in the sample Norms were established through percentile analysis on overall study skills The score of overall study skills ranged from 52 to 260 The score of 104 falls on the 25th percentile; the score of 156 falls on the 50th percentile, whereas the score of 208 falls on the 75th percentile Scores less than 156 are an illustration of poor study skills; 156 to 208 characterize mediocre study skills; while more than 208 is considered high study skills The findings in Table indicate that a large number of the participants (211 students, or 36.4%) have poor study skills; 283 students (48.9%) have mediocre study skills and only 85 participants (14.7%) had good study skills The mean of the students’ overall study skills is 171.7 (Standard deviation: 34.93) This data revealed that the students did not acquire effective study skills Table Study skills classification Category Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Poor study skills 211 36.4 36.4 Medium study skills 283 48.9 85.3 High study skills 85 14.7 100.0 Total 579 100.0 2.3.4 Correlation between study skills efficacy score and academic achievement The study skills were coded in six categories or subscales The correlations between each category or subscale and academic achievement were calculated Table illustrates the coefficient of correlations between study skills efficacy scores and academic achievement or CGPA There is a significant linear relationship between the total study skills score and CGPA (r=0.042) This finding is in agreement with Shackebaei et al [29], Hassanbeigi et al [22], Shahidi et al [18], and Bulent et al [30] who also found a significantly positive correlation between study skills and Grade Point Average (GPA) There are also significant positive correlations between concentration skills and CGPA (r=0.113), as well as between test preparation and CGPA (r=0.082) However, these relationships are very weak Nevertheless, there exists no significant correlation between skills of textbook reading, note-taking, memory, and time management with academic achievement, which could be concluded that these skills may not contribute to academic achievement These results were in contrast with the study of Fazal et al (2012) who concluded that there was a significant correlation of time management skills, textbook reading skills, note-taking skills and academic achievement 59 Vo Van Viet*, Huynh Trung Chanh and Nguyen Thanh Binh Table Correlation coefficient between study skills efficacy scores and CGPA CGPA Value Sig Textbook reading Pearson's R 081 051 Notetaking Pearson's R 036 384 Memory Pearson's R 069 099 Test preparation Pearson's R 082 050 Concentration Pearson's R 113 006 Time management Pearson's R 029 484 Study skills Pearson's R 085 042 2.3.5 Study skills and Gender The analysis shown in Table reveals that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female students in areas of textbook reading skills, memory skills, test preparation and also no significant difference between gender and overall study skills This result was in contrast with the findings mentioned by Bulent et al [30] where they confirmed the significant differences between male and female in terms of study skills Table also shows that there is statistically significant difference between male and female students in the note-taking and time management domains Female students are found to have better note-taking and time management skills than their male counterparts This result partially contradicts the findings of Aboagye et al [31] who posited that female students employ the memory and concentration study skills more effectively than their male counterparts Table Skills difference between male and female students Gender N Mean Std Deviation Sig (2-tailed) 214 25.82 6.132 643 Textbook reading skills Male efficacy score Female 365 25.59 5.660 214 19.31 6.088 031 Note-taking skills efficacy Male score Female 365 20.40 5.684 Male 214 29.18 8.086 907 Memory skills efficacy score Female 365 29.26 7.848 214 41.86 9.935 839 Test Preparation skills Male efficacy score Female 365 42.02 9.514 214 36.72 7.267 626 Concentration skills efficacy Male score Female 365 37.00 6.208 214 17.09 6.628 009 Time management skills Male efficacy score Female 365 18.52 6.159 Overall Study skills score Male 214 169.9813 36.40989 351 Female 365 172.7863 34.04172 Conclusion The findings of this study provides insights of students’ study skills The results of this study indicate that the students in the sample did not acquire effective study skills Among six subscales of study skills, concentration skill is the best, followed by test preparation skills, notetaking skills, memorizing skills, textbook reading skills and the lowest one goes to time management skills The findings also reveal that there is a significant linear relationship between the total study skills score and CGPA in which there are significant positive correlations between concentration skills and CGPA, and between test preparation and CGPA On the other hand, the correlation between skills of textbook reading, note-taking, memory, and 60 Undergraduate’s specific study skills and their relationship to academic achievement time management with academic achievement is not significant Based on the findings, it is suggested that students should be provided with suitable guidelines in order to learn good study skills which will lead them to achieve better academic results Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare Acknowledgment: This study was funded by Science and Technology Development Fund, Nong Lam University Ho Chi Minh City; research topic: Assessing study skills and measuring the influence of study skills on learning outcomes of students at Nong Lam University in Ho Chi Minh City; Grant number: CS-CB21-NNSP-03 We would also like to thank Dennis H Congos, Learning Skills Specialist, for readily accepting to use the scale and students in the Nong Lam University, for voluntarily participating in this study REFERENCES [1] Ritu Chandra and Shaikh Azimuddin, 2013 “Influence of Socio Economic Status On Academic Achievement Of Secondary School Students Of Lucknow City,” Int J Sci Eng Res., vol 4, no 12, pp 1952–1960, [Online] Available: http://www.ijser.org [2] N Nisar, M Khalid Mahmood, and A H Dogar, 2017 “Determinants of Students’ Academic Achievement at Secondary School Level.,” Bull Educ Res., vol 39, no 1, pp 145–158 [3] T Olufemioladebinu, A A Adediran, and W O Oyediran, 2018 “Factors Influencing the Academic Achievement of Students ’ i n Colleges of Education in Southwest , Nigeria,” vol 7, no 3, pp 109–115, doi: 10.15640/jehd.v7n3a12 [4] Maria de Fátima Goulão, 2014 “The 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other 56 Undergraduate’s specific study skills and their relationship to academic achievement educators and researchers The findings have demonstrated that students enrolled in study skills courses... 0,99 Undergraduate’s specific study skills and their relationship to academic achievement have poor skills More than half of the students (n=308, 53.2% of the sample) have good notetaking skills. .. of study skills on academic achievement Accordingly, this current study attempts to explore the students’ study skills and to find out whether there is a correlation between the students’ study