The Relationship of Time Pressure on the Basic Calculus Test Scores of

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) Science, Technology, Engineering

and Mathematics (STEM) Students

A Research

Presented to the Faculty of the

Senior High School Department

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements in

Practical Research 2

Capangpangan, Zsanelle Rae P.

Fabular, Kevin Brian G.

Leonardo, Gicel M.

Moran, Mark Dicker Y.

Punzalan, Faith Demi A.

Simpao, Sandra B.

Terrano, Julienne D.

STEM 12 - 7

A.Y. 2018 - 2019

 CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, students are having a hard time dealing with their test results

especially when it is a result of a time pressured test because having to perform test

under time pressure reduces the grades that students achieve (De Paola and Gioia,

2014). According to Schreuder and Mioch (2011), “Time Pressure is the perception that

time is scarce” (p. 3). A psychological stress resulting from having the need to get things

done in lesser time than what is needed. Davis (2016) added that time pressure occurs

when a person has less time available than is necessary to complete a given task.

According to Rattat, Matha and Cegarra (2018), a person must distinguish actual

time pressure (objective time constraints) from the feeling of time pressure (the

perception of time available is insufficient). This strengthens the importance of

measuring both objective and subjective time in order to know when a person lacks time

and when is the time they feel time pressured. They concluded that therefore, better

understanding of the relationship between time pressure and time estimation is crucial.

According to Moore and Tenney (2012), there are evidences showing that time

pressure usually impair performances on any given task. They also stated that people
do not only care about their performance but also about productivity - getting the most

done in a limited time.

According to Caviola, Carey, Mammarella and Szucs on Ashcraft and Kirk, 2001;

Maloney and Beilock, 2012; Vukovic et al., 2013, "negative feelings and stressful

situations can interfere to different degrees with success in mathematical tasks" (p. 1).

This means that any stressful situations might result to good or bad outcomes on a

mathematical tasks.

There is a large amount of literature from the decision-making field suggesting

that the manipulation of time limit/pressure associated with a task has a very strong

effect on the stressful nature of that particular task (Caviola et al. on Kerstholt, 1994;

Ordóñez and Benson, 1997; Huber and Kunz, 2007; Young et al., 2012; Cone and

Rand, 2014; Byrne et al., 2015). "However, in the mathematical cognition field few

studies have considered a time deadline as an important interference source and

explicitly manipulated it by inserting in the experimental design at least two separate

conditions; one with and one without a time limit" (Caviola et al., 2017, p. 7).

Mathematics is described as a subject that affects all aspects of human life in

different degrees (Idowu on Maliki, Ngban and Ibu, 2009). The importance of

Mathematics in our day-to-day activities is no longer a news, but the fact that students’

performance in Mathematics has not improved significantly despite its importance is

very alarming (Idowu, n.d.). According to Wong and Leung (1998), students’ degree of

fondness towards the subject dropped as they move up the grade levels. This happens

when they found the lessons difficult and boring.

 Mathematics is highly regarded by students and took it as a favorite subject. But

when met with difficulty, most of them would discuss it to their classmates rather than

consult it with their teacher (Cheng and Wong, 1991). Being said, they are not properly

guided on how to deal with the difficulty they met, since they don't consult with their

teacher. Because just like Tarmizi (2010) stated “... there are students who begin to

struggle and who will need appropriate help to be able to pursue Mathematics further”

(p. 1).

Calculus means a variety of things in different countries in a spectrum from

Informal Calculus or Integral Calculus which discusses the "informal ideas of rate of

change and the rules of differentiation with integration as the inverse process, with

calculating areas, volumes etc. as application of integration" to formal analysis or

Differential Calculus which tackles the "formal ideas of completeness, definitions of

limits, continuity, differentiation, Riemann integration, and formal deductions of theorems

such as mean-value theorem, the fundamental theorem of Calculus etc.," (Tall, 1992, p.

1). And Basic Calculus is where the topics for both (Differential and Integral Calculus)

are being introduced and discussed to make the students ready for a deeper learning in

the future.

As what Sabella and Redish (n.d.) stated, Calculus is the entry - point to

undergraduate Mathematics for students of Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics, but most students enrolled in this class have a very superficial and

incomplete understanding of many of the basic concepts of Calculus. And although they

appear to be motivated for and capable of Calculus success, they often do not do well

(Kaufmann, Archava, Castles, Ries, Sullivan, and De Urquidi, 2011).

 According to Tarmizi (2010), Basic Calculus is seen as a difficult subject even

among Mathematics students. This just means that Basic Calculus is really a subject

which is quite hard to understand, and if we particularly think of those who are not quite

good in Mathematics, it is difficult. Chuderski (2016) stated that time pressure prevents

relational learning. He also stated that when under strong time pressure, participants

may have no time to attempt the most difficult item. Although, because of the difficulty of

some items, mostly of the participants failed to solve them anyway. Students will

eventually give up on answering their tests accurately and will just focus on finishing it

fast. As they became time pressured, students tend to answer their activity faster but

with less accuracy (Moore and Tenney, 2012).

With the aforementioned scenarios, this study would like to find out the

relationship of time pressure on the test scores of STEM students on Basic Calculus

and to support and further authenticate related theories and studies on the subject.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

People experience time pressure when the time required for the tasks is more

than 70% of the total time available in doing it (Beevis, 1999). The results of the

analysis can be related to system performance by showing that the time required to

perform a sequence of tasks is compatible with the time available for the task. In his

study titled Timeline Analysis of Workload (1992), he stated that workload is the level of

activity or effort required from an operator to accomplish his or her performance

requirements or criteria, and time occupied (time pressure) is the factor that has a great
effect on the quality of the finished task. From that, a standard measure is derived for

the time pressure which is:

time required for tasks

Time Pressure=
time available for tasks

*time required - elapsed demanded time to finish the task

*time available - time wherein the operator is usually capable of accomplishing it

thoroughly or appropriately

If the time pressure is more than 70-80%, then there is an overload according to

him. He suggested that people are in high time pressure when 85% of the available time

is required to perform the tasks. In this case performance is often inappropriate in that

some tasks are not completely done. For an example, in high time pressure, a student

was given an exam. The time required to finish it is 45 minutes but the student has the

capacity of doing it within 60 minutes. In this case, the student finished the exam in 51

minutes which is the 85% of time available. The student has -6 minutes left. The time

pressure is 75% indicating that the student is both in high time pressure and

overloaded. On the other hand, it is said that low time pressure occurs when only less

than 70% of time available is going to be used. For example, with the same time

required and time available, that was mentioned earlier, the student finished the exam in

41.4 minutes which only 69% of time available. It indicates that the student has 3.6

minutes left and hasn't exceeded the teacher's time required.

 The researchers will use this study, specifically, the concept of time pressure, as

a support in knowing the relationship of the presence of time pressure on PLV STEM

students' exam results in Basic Calculus.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

TIME
PRESSURE EXECUTION
TIME REQUIRED
The students being
EXAM asked of doing an exam EXAM NO TIME
( 70+% of time
available) in Basic Calculus PRESSURE
TIME AVAILABLE

TEST SCORE RESULTS

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 This study aims to know on how does time pressure affects the student's test

scores in Basic Calculus.

Specifically, the purpose of the study is to answer the following questions:

1. How does time pressure affects the student's test score?

2. How does time pressure affects the cognitive aspects of the students?
3. What is the relationship of time pressure on students exam test result in Basic

Calculus?

HYPOTHESIS

Null Hypothesis:

There is no significant relationship between time pressure and the test scores of

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics students from Pamantasan ng

Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) in Basic Calculus.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This study will focus on how does time pressure affects the student's test result in

Basic Calculus problem. The study will be limited to the Grade 11 Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng

Valenzuela (PLV) as the setting. The study will be conducted during second semester of

the academic year. The research design that researchers will be using is Correlational

Research Design wherein it explores the relationship between variable using statistical

analyses. The research sampling technique is Purposive Sampling wherein the sample
respondents will be the chosen four sections of Grade 11 STEM strand of PLV with the

same Basic Calculus instructor.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study aims to benefit the students giving the significance on helping them to

manage well their time when time pressure exists. This can also help the perception of

the students in the difficulty of the test if the time pressure lessens. For the teachers to

fully recognize the effects of time pressure on the students score with or without time

pressure. For the school to make them aware how time pressure affects the students on

their Basic Calculus tests through the results of this study. For the society, to teach the

members of it to manage task when they are facing time limited works. For the

professionals, it will help them to properly deal with the given tasks or works to them if it

has time limit or time pressure. And this paper will also help the future researchers to

have an idea or basis on their future plans or studies.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

TIME PRESSURE – a psychological stress resulting from having the need to get things

done in lesser time than what is needed

BASIC CALCULUS – the introduction to deeper learning of Differential and Integral

Calculus

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) STRAND –

strand under the academic track of the K-12 curriculum which readies the

students for medical and engineering courses in college