UNDERGRADUATE’S SPECIFIC STUDY SKILLS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

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.