STUDY HABITS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF NINTH STANDARD STUDENTS

K.THIYAGU IJPE JOURNAL 2013
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STUDY HABITS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF NINTH
STANDARD STUDENTS
K.Thiyagu,
Assistant Professor,
thiyagusuri@gmail.com, thiyagusuriya81@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The main aim of the study is to find out the relationship between the study
habits and academic achievement of ninth standard students. Survey method is
employed for this study. The investigator has randomly chosen 210 ninth standard
students for the study. The investigator has used the standardized tool for the
study habits variable. The investigator has used the some of the statistical
calculation for analyzing the data. The findings of the study are (1) there is no
significant difference in the mean scores of study habits of ninth standard students
with respect to their gender, locality and residency. And there is significant
difference in the mean scores of study habits of ninth standard students with
respect to their type of school. There is significant difference in the mean scores
of academic achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their locality,
type of management and residency. There is no significant relationship between
study habits and academic achievement of ninth standard students with respect to
their gender, locality and residency.
Key words: Study Habits, Academic Achievement, Ninth Standard.,

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INTRODUCTION
The development of good study habits is the highway to the goals of an
individual, whatever they are. A simple, small change in study habits makes a big
difference in goal setting and organization of one’s life. The success of an
individual depends upon his study habits. Education is the manifestation of
perfection already existing in man. The tool enabling his manifestation is study
habits. Efficient learning depends not on good teaching alone, but on satisfactory
learning procedures also. Efficient learning depends upon the learner’s ability to
schedule his time, the plan of his study; the habit of concentration, note-taking,
mental-review, over-learning, the judicious application of whole and part method
massed and distributed learning and so on. In other words, learning involves the
development of proper study habits and skills”. Therefore the investigator selected
the topic “STUDY HABITS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF NINTH
STANDARD STUDENTS IN NAMAKKAL DISTRICT”.
OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS
The following are the operational definitions of the key terms
Study Habits:
Study habits are those habitual actions through which the students learn his
subject matter. Even though there are various study habits for the learner to
follow, here in this study the investigator means by this term, the habits of
Reading, Note-makingNote-taking, memorizing and discussion.
Academic Achievement:
Achievement implies the desire to realize the highest positive goal and the
desire to excel others in this regard. The investigator defines that academic
achievement is nothing but the half yearly mathematics scores of the ninth
standard students.
Ninth Standard Students:
Those who are studying ninth standards in higher secondary schools in
Tiruchengodu Taluk of Namakkal District

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the some of the objectives of the study
1. To find out whether there is any significant difference in the mean scores
of study habits of ninth standard students with respect to their gender,
locality, type of management and residency.
2. To find out whether there is any significant difference in the mean scores
of academic achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their
gender, locality, type of management and residency.
3. To find out whether there is any significant relationship between study
habits and academic achievement of ninth standard students with respect to
their gender, locality, type of management and residency.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
The hypotheses of the present study a formulated as follows:
1. There is no significant difference in the mean scores of study habits of
ninth standard students with respect to their gender, locality, type of
management and residency.
2. There is no significant difference in the mean scores of academic
achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their gender,
3. There is no significant relationship between study habits and academic
achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their gender,
METHOD ADOPTED IN THE PRESENT STUDY
The investigator has selected survey method in the present study. Survey is
a method in which data are systematically collected from a population through
some form of direct solicitation such as presenting of questionnaires, interviews,
etc. The investigator will use stratified random sampling technique for studying
the relationship between study habits and achievement of Ninth standard Students
in Namakkal District.

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TOOLS USED IN THE PRESENT STUDY
Study habits inventory scale developed the standardized by Dr. Gopal Rao
(1990). The tool has 40 statements. There are five categories of responses against
each statement namely, Always, More often, Frequently, Sometimes and Never.
Students are instructed to read each of the statements carefully and put a tick mark
in the column, which correctly describes the study habits and answer all
questions. There is no time limit to respond the statements. For the academic
achievement the investigator used the Half-yearly exam marks of Ninth standard
Students.
ESTABLISHING RELIABILITY
Even though the tools were standardized to find out whether the tools were
reliable to the sample selected, the investigator has employed the test-retest
method to establish reliability. The tool was translated into Tamil and
administered to 30 students selected randomly in the Mahindra Private School,
Kumaramangalam. After a week, the same scale was given to the same set of the
students. Both the responses were scored and analyzed. The computed co-efficient
for the test and retest is 0.71. Thus the reliability was established.
POPULATION AND SAMPLE OF THE STUDY
The population of the present study comprises all the higher schools
students in Tiruchengode Taluk in Namakkal District.
The investigator has selected 210 students from sninth different higher
secondary schools in Tiruchengodu Taluk of Namakkal District through Stratified
random sampling technique.
STATISTICAL METHODS
For the present study, the investigator has decided to use the following
statistical techniques.
1. Mean
2. Standard Deviation
3. ‘t’ test
4. Pearson moment correlation

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ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY
NULL HYPOTHESES: 1
There is no significant difference in the mean scores of study habits of
ninth standard students with respect to their gender, locality, type of management
and residency.
Table – 1
Difference in the Study Habits of ninth standard students in terms of Gender
Sex N M SD df t Significant
Male 125 71.70 11.13
208 0.98 N.S
Female 85 73.15 10.12
Table – 2
Difference in the Study Habits of ninth standard students in terms of Locality
Locality N M SD df t Significant
Rural 114 72.61 11.88
208 0.48 N.S
Urban 96 71.90 9.23
Table – 3
Difference in the Study Habits of ninth standard students
in terms of School Type
School Type N M SD df t Significant
Governement 108 73.83 10.92
208 2.16 S
Private 102 70.66 10.33
Table – 4
Difference in the Study Habits of ninth standard students
in terms of Residence
Residence N M SD df t Significant
Hosteller 94 72.57 13.02
208 0.33 NS
Day-Scholar 116 72.06 8.50

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NULL HYPOTHESES: 2
There is no significant difference in the mean scores of academic
achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their gender, locality, type
of management and residency.
Table – 5
Difference in the Academic achievement of ninth standard students
in terms of Gender
Sex N M SD df t Significant
Male 125 58.39 17.54
208 0.50 N.S
Female 85 59.53 14.77
Table – 6
in terms of Locality
Locality N M SD df t Significant
Rural 114 55.01 15.14
208 3.77 S
Urban 96 63.42 16.84
Table – 7
in terms of School Type
School Type N M SD df t Significant
Government 108 50.26 15.06
208 9.27 S
Private 102 67.95 12.52
Table – 8
in terms of Residence
Residence N M SD df t Significant
Hosteller 94 55.26 15.35
208 2.92 S
Day-Scholar 116 61.76 6.79

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NULL HYPOTHESES: 3
There is no significant relationship between study habits and academic
achievement of ninth standard students with respect to their gender, locality, type
of management and residency.
Table – 9
Relationship between Study Habits and Achievement of Ninth
standard Students
Variable Category Df N
Calculated ‘r’
value
Table
value
Remark
0.05 level
Gender
Male 123 125 0.10 .174 NS
Female 83 85 0.65 .205 NS
Locality
Rural 112 114 0.12 .174 NS
Urban 94 96 0.07 .195 NS
School Type
Government 106 108 0.17 .195 NS
Private 100 102 0.25 .195 S
Residence
Hosteller 114 116 0.10 .195 NS
Day-Scholar 92 94 0.10 .174 NS
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS
There is no significant difference between the mean scores of study habits
of male and female Ninth standard students. There is no significant difference
between the mean scores of study habits of Rural and Urban Ninth standard
students. There is significant difference between the mean scores of study habits
of Government and Private Ninth standard students. There is no significant
difference between the mean scores of study habits of Hosteller and Day-scholar
Ninth standard students.
There is no significant difference between the mean scores of
achievement of male and female Ninth standard students. There is significant
difference between the mean scores of achievement of Rural and Urban Ninth
standard students. There is significant difference between the mean scores of
achievement of Government and Private Ninth standard students. There is
significant difference between the mean scores of achievement of Hosteller and
Day-scholar Ninth standard students.

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There is no significant relationship between the mean scores of study
habits and achievement of male Ninth standard students. There is no significant
relationship between the mean scores of study habits and achievement of female
Ninth standard students. There is no significant relationship between the mean
scores of study habits and achievement of Rural Ninth standard students. There is
no significant relationship between the mean scores of study habits and
achievement of Urban Ninth standard students. There is no significant relationship
between the mean scores of study habits and achievement of Day-scholar Ninth
standard students. There is no significant relationship between the mean scores of
study habits and achievement of Hosteller and Day scholar Ninth standard
students.
There is no significant relationship between the mean scores of study
habits and achievement of Government Ninth standard students. There is
significant relationship between the mean scores of study habits and achievement
of private Ninth standard students.
INTERPRETATION
Significant difference is found between the Government and Private
students in their study Habits and Achievement. In these two variables; Private
students are better than the Government students. It may be due to the fact that
govt. students are involved in limited activities. But Private students are actively
involved in co-curricular and curricular activities etc. they spend more time in
tuition classes.
Significant difference is found between the Day-Scholar and Hosteller in
their achievement. In these two variables, Hosteller is better than the Day-Scholar
students. It may be due to the lack of interest given by the parents for the Day-
scholar students. But every day the study hours is conducted in Hostels.
Mean scores of study Habits of Private schools have more than
government schools. This may be due to the lack of fund given by the department
of the education to the government schools for the basic amenities and lack of
non-teaching staff in the government schools for the purposes of maintaining
laboratory and classroom cleanliness.
Mean score of achievement of Private schools have high compared with
Government schools. This may be due to special classes conducted by private

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schools, special efforts by management and also by efficient teachers. Due to
competition among the local schools the best results are performed.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the analysis of the present study the investigator wants to present the
following recommendations.
 The teacher can encourage and flash only the positive qualities of the
students, which can help the students to feel more confident in them.
Hence, encouragement given by the teachers can improve study habits.
 The students should plan a proper time schedule. The time-schedule may
be followed strictly which in due course, becomes routine in the minds of
the students. While preparing a time-schedule by the students, priority may
be given according to the need of the programme.
 Spaced studying can be encouraged instead of un-spaced studying. This
may improve one’s memory-power and help in avoiding studying. This
may improve one’s memory – power and help in avoiding day dreaming
due to continuous studying.
 Students especially boys can be provided extra-coaching with special
classes to develop their study habits.
 Special talks, seminars and workshops on achievement can be arranged.
Teachers can be role models to the students in setting higher goals in life.
 Teachers of the respective schools may be advised to enhance the
achievement of their students through addresses, discussions, and guest
speakers, Biographies of eminent personalities would be great help in this
regard.
 Achievement can be enhanced in the students through rewards, praises,
setting models by teachers and creating pleasant school environment.
 Students can be motivated to undertake takes and assignments that are
quite challenging for them. Talks by recourse persons, narration of
anecdotes can be of great help in developing the achievement of the low
achieving ninth standard students.

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CONCLUSION
From this study, the investigator has identified that no significant
relationship is found between the Study Habits and Achievement of Ninth
standard Students in Tiruchengode Taluk. Study Habits is an independent
factor, which may vary from students to students. Achievement is an affective
factor. With regard to the background variables selected for this study, no
significant impact is found over the variables Study Habits and Achievement. For
better Achievement the individual should have well study Habits. Moreover,
Study Habits is a psychomotor variable and Achievement is an affective variable.
So the investigator may have been concluded that they may not have unique
relationship with one another. Hence, no such remarkable improvement is shown
in the sample selected for this study.
REFERENCES
Aggarwal, Y.P. (1990) Statistical methods: Concept application and computation,
sterling publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Berliner DC (2002). Educational research: The hardest science of all. Educational
Researcher, 31(8): 18-20.
Bracey GW (1998). Educational research and educational practice: Ne’er the
twain shall meet? Educational Forum, 62(2): 140-145.
Geslat, V.K. (1997) “ A Study of the Effect of Study Habits on Educational
Achievement of the Students of Secondary schools, The progress of Education,
Pune Vidyarthi Griha prakashan, Vol. LXXI, No.6, January 1997.
John W. Best and James V. Khan (2004) Research in Education, Prentice Hall
of India, Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Levine A (2007). Educating researchers. Retrieved September 21, 2010, from
http://www.edschools.org/EducatingResearchers/educating_researchers.pdf
Patel M.R. (1997) “ Study Habits of pupils and its impact upon their Academic
Achievement,” The progress of Education, Pune Vidyarthi Griha Prakashan, Vol.
LXXI, No. 6, January 1997.

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