INFLUENCE OF STUDY HABITS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PHYSICS STUDENTS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE MAKURDI, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the influence of study habits on the academic performance of Physics students in Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi. It focused on the extent to which some study habit constructs such as homework, time allocation, reading and note taking and teacher consultation influence the academic performance of Physics students in the Federal University of Agriculture Makurd. A survey research design was employed for the study and Study Habit Inventory Questionnaire – SHIQ (Cronbach Alpha Coefficient = 0.72) was administered to a sample of 200 Physics students, drawn using purposive sampling from 200 to 400 levels students of Physic B.Sc. (Ed), Physics B.Sc. and Industrial Physics B. Sc. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Spearman correlation was used to test the research hypothesis. Analysis of the data obtained from the SHIQ revealed that reading and note taking (cluster mean score = 2.77), homework and assignment (cluster mean score = 2.62) and time allocation (cluster mean score = 2.53) have great influence on the academic performance of students, however teacher consultation (cluster mean score = 2.14) has negligible influence on student’s academic performance. As a result of this, the study recommends that Physics students should put in efforts to participate in completing their homework and assignments; it can be a way of enhancing peer tutoring among them, they should also adopt the use of planned time tables for their study routine and develop the discipline to stick to it each day’s plan.