FACTORS AFFECTING

THE STUDY HABITS

OF

SHSP FRESHMEN NURSING STUDENTS

OF ST. DOMINIC COLLEGE OF ASIA

TOWARDS MATHEMATICS

Members:

Normie Diaz

Christian Gatbonton

Aaron Mauricio

Vanessa Medrano

Year/ Section:

BSN – 1A
  Introduction

Mathematics expresses itself in every aspect of our lives. They are inherently

everywhere. From elementary to high school, Mathematics has been a challenge to

students. They find it hard to understand even if they try their best. Some students are

just intellectually challenged and need moral support from their parents, friends, and

relatives in which they don't usually get. Some have potential but are afraid to show it

because of low self-esteem or they think that they do not belong in higher class

students. These examples of student-related problems could be the answer to what the

group wants to know. The researchers aim to know the possible factors that affecting

the study habits of the students and hopefully it could be resolved to help out other

students.

Mathematics is defined by merriam-webster.com, as “the science of numbers

and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and

of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and

generalizations. Algebra, arithmetic, calculus, geometry, and trigonometry are branches

of mathematics.” Ernest (2015) mentioned that learning mathematics involves more

than basic knowledge of facts, skills and procedures. He added that it has a crucial

involvement of conceptual structures, the general strategies in solving problems,

attitudes towards the subject and appreciation of mathematics.

The number of students who are Having a difficult time in the field of

Mathematics needs to be scrutinized. Learning of Mathematics is said to be basically

difficult. The research is undertaken to find out the factors that affect the study habits
towards Mathematics among the SHSP Freshmen Nursing Students of St. Dominic

College of Asia. The result of this research would specify the factors that primarily affect

students who are having a hard time coping with the said subject. Specifically, the

research attempted to answer the following questions: (1) What are the factors affecting

the study habits of SHSP Freshmen Nursing Students? (2) How do these factors affect

their Study habits?

It has been a long time to discover the importance of Mathematics in our world.

Despite explaining more about Mathematics and the proof that it’s really important, the

students today don’t like this subject. They think that Mathematics is a boring subject

and for them it is just naturally difficult. Only if they understand the logic behind this

subject and the principles applied in different problems, if they get what Mathematics

really meant to be, they will find that it is not a boring subject, that mathematics is an

interesting one, that math dominates the world, and this paper is trying to gather

information with regards to the study habits of the students and try to specify the factors

that affect the learning of Math in today’s millennials.

 Mathematical Concept

Mathematics can be used in different situations. There are a lot of ways for it to

be useful. By simply using the basic mathematics, we can already solve a mathematical

situation. By simply using a digital calculator, people can already solve mathematical

problems like our dear professors. Mathematical creates a dimension where in there are

a lot of concepts that we could use to solve a problem. Mathematical concept is a group

of idea where it was joined together to solve bigger problems other than just solving a

small situation.
 As for our Mathematical Research entitled, “Factors Affecting the Study Habits of

SHSP Freshmen Nursing Students of St. Dominic College of Asia towards

Mathematics”, we will only use Percentage concept which can help us determine which

factor is highly being responsible for the study habits of the students. We will also use

Pie chart and Bar graph to visualize the results that the researchers gathered from the

respondents.

 Mathematical Computations

How They Study

Reading Scholastic Article

Online

Group Study

Tutor

Self-Study

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Above is the table about how our respondents study. Most of them do self-study

everyday along with using the internet to support their needs of information. We all

know that each and everyone of us rely on internet instead of books now because its

time saving. Just one click and you’ll find what you’re looking for. They mostly do self-

study since they want to use their own knowledge on that specific subject.
 Do You Like Math?

25%
Yes
No

75%

This table shows the percentage answer of the respondents. Most of them

answered No and some answered Yes. Those who have answered Yes revealed that

they don’t like math because for them, it’s hard to understand the long method of

answering and they think answering it would be time consuming. Student’s who are

having a hard time dealing with mathematics are mostly the one who answered No on

this question.

Number of Hours they Study

5 10 10

35

45

4-5 Hours 3-4 Hours 2-3 Hours

1-2 Hours Less than an hour Whole Day
This table shows the number of hours they habitually do. Leaving a space for time to

understand the problem you usually don’t understand or something you are having a

hard time. Most of the respondents answer 1-2 hours of studying mathematics.

However, this given time is not enough even if it’s high enough from those other

answers because the things they learned will just end up to nothing after a week.

Maybe, the problem is not from the study habits of the students but the student itself.

students can study for hours on end and retain very little. Developing good time

management skills is very important. Students must realize that there is a time to be in

class, a time for study, time for family, time to socialize and time to just be alone. The

critical issue is recognition that there must be an appropriate balance.

Difficulties
Mental block 45

Calculus 55

Analyzing 55

Confused 50

Solving 40

Low memory 35

Slow learner 10

Forgetting 50

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Series 1

This table shows the answers of the respondents about their certain difficulties

when it comes to mathematics. Remember, this difficulties are the factors that we have

predicted to be the answers of the respondents. Most of the students choose calculus
along with analyzing wherein they are having difficulties dealing with it. Indeed, this

factor is usually everyone’s answer since almost all of us doesn’t like mathematics.

Solving a calculus problems can leads to confusion wherein the student understand

some of it.

Other than these questions, we have also asked the respondents about the help

they receive from their family and friends. Most of them doesn’t receive help from their

family because of the job of the parents and they lack time to help their child. The

student then do a self study while having lack of motivation and support from their

family. On the other hand, some students receive help from their friends by doing group

study after class. They have commented that, “It really helps us every time we have

exam and quizzes Kasi minsan absent kami and then we missed a one day lecture, at

that point, we really do need help”. This proves the idea of group study as a study habit

of a student which helps them from their studies.

 Review of Related Literature

Mathematics expresses itself in every aspect of our lives. They are inherently

everywhere. People became reliable to the power of Mathematics in our daily living.

From elementary to high school, Mathematics has been a challenge to students. They

find it hard to understand even if they try their best. Some students are just intellectually

challenged and need moral support from their parents, friends, and relatives in which

they don't usually get. Some have potential but are afraid to show it because of low self-

esteem or they think that they do not belong in higher class students. These examples

of student-related problems could be the answer to what the group wants to know. The
researchers aim to know the possible factors that affecting the study habits of the

students and hopefully it could be resolved to help out other students.

Students’ study habits affect their learning and academic achievement, and the

result and process plays a role in the development cognitive and practical skills, and

ultimately their future career. Determining the students' study habits and the relationship

between their study habits and their academic performance can, therefore, improve

their academic achievement, strengthen and modify their study habits. Study habits are

the methods of study used by students during an academic course within an appropriate

environment; in other words, it is the ability of students to manage time for the

successful accomplishment of academic tasks. According to the definition presented by

Azikiwie, Bajwa et al. (2014) introduces study habits as the method selected by the

student for private study or the technique used to dominate a topic after classroom

learning. Study habits play an important role in academic success, and effective study

cannot be conducted without using these skills. Students who have better academic

achievements adopt a wider utilization of these skills than those who make poor

progress.

Study habits are students’ ways of studying whether systematic, efficient or

inefficient. According to Ayodele & Adebiyi (2014), implying that efficient study habits

produce positive academic performance while inefficient study habits lead to academic

failure. Marquez (2015) also pointed out that the student who is successful in his

desired career has good study habit. In line with this, she stated that students should

apply these habits to all their classes. She also suggested that the students should not

try to study all the subjects in a single period. However, every student has his own study
habits depending on his preferences with regards to the duration of time devoted in

studying, what place or environment would be the best venue study, the study skills and

techniques will the students utilize during his study and more. It will depend upon the

person if he is voluntarily interested in studying or be prompted by the distraction of the

social networking sites. Studying is the key to excel in one’s academic performance,

because it not only prepares a student to excel in class but reinforces the lessons that

already been taught.

Academic performance is a skill that students obtain from school, college, and

university through the time spent in the classroom, the lab, or the library. Enhancement

of academic performance leads to academic achievement; an improvement in academic

achievement results in national development and the delivery of efficient forces.

Academic performance, which is measured by the examination results, is one of

Themajor goals of a school. Hoyle (2013) argued that schools are established with the a

im ofimparting knowledge and skills to those who go through them and behind all this is

the idea ofenhancing good academic performance. Academic performance or achievem

ent is the outcomeof education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has 

achieved their educationalgoals. Academic performance is commonly measured by

examinations or continuous assessment but there is no general agreement on how it is 

best tested or which aspects are most important, procedural knowledge such as skills or 

declarative knowledge such as facts (Annie, Howard &Mildred, 2014).

In Philippines, there are so many factors that influence the ability of students to

cultivate effective and efficient study habit towards better academic performance. Such

factors that are capable of influencing the academic performance of university students
are state of health, motivation, anxiety, their environment, adequacy of infrastructures

like textbooks and well equipped libraries. Nuthana & Yenagi (2016) have examined the

causes of poor academic performance among university undergraduates. Some of

these factors identified are intellectual ability, poor study habit, achievement motivation,

lack of vocational goals, low self concept, low socio-economic status of the family, poor

family structure and so on. However, the researcher is examining the factors affecting

study habit and academic performance of undergraduate students. 

Patience towards solving mathematical equations

A study conducted by Faridah (2015) found that students with high level of

perseverance will not stop trying until they manage to get the answer and they will

continue to work on a problem until they succeed in solving. Her study reported

that most students immediately make an attempt to work out the problem without first

planning any strategies to do so which resulted only moderate number of

students are able to solve the mathematical questions. Her study indicates that

the students have lack of patience to carefully read and understand the questions

given. Therefore, her findings indicate that patience towards problem solving is

essential to achieve good results in mathematics.

 Methodology

This research determines the factors that affects the study habits of the SHSP

Freshmen Nursing Students towards their learning of mathematics in St. Dominic

College of Asia. Our Mathematical research is a descriptive study. A quantitative

method is used in gathering the data we need. A survey is conducted to gather the

information needed in this study. We gave a survey questionnaire to the Twenty (20)
students of SHSP Freshmen Nursing Program in St. Dominic College of Asia that has a

mathematics subject to determine the factors that each students facing everyday.

Through this method, specific answers can be gathered for the investigators and can

now formulate solutions from the information provided.

This investigation is conducted at St. Dominic College of Asia located at Emilio

Aguinaldo Highway, Bacoor City. The respondents of this study are the SHSP

Freshmen Nursing Students. This are the students who participate voluntarily to help us

determine the factor that affects their study habits.

Through a survey questionnaire, we have collected data regarding the Factors

Affecting the Study Habits of SHSP Freshmen Nursing Students. By gathering all their

answers, we've analyzed and categorized the data gathered regarding to its significance

and similarities. Then we've gathered the mostly answered data by our respondents and

interpreted it regarding to their usual response.

 Conclusion

In the light of this research, we have identified the Factors that affect the study

habits of Freshmen Nursing Students in Mathematics. This study portrays that despite

their eagerness to learn Mathematics, the theory of Dweck C.S. (1999) proves that a

person’s mind is fixed and constant. It makes a person believe that what traits and

characteristics he got genetically are cannot be improve vastly. If there would be an

instance to enhance it that would be probably low.

After gathering the answers from the respondents, the researchers have the

answers they were looking for. The factors that affects the study habits of the students
include their time management, difficulties towards math like being confused and getting

lost while solving an equation, and the support from their family and friends.

By examining and analyzing the answers of the respondents, the researchers

conclude that lack of motivation that leads to their loss of focus for studying

mathematics is one of their problem. Most of them have difficulties with a lot of numbers

combined with letters and they easily get confused. If they could just provide more time

to understand the subject, they might improve themselves.

 Recommendation

There might have been many factors that affect one’s students’ performance in

Mathematics. As we all know, not all students could do great in their mathematics

subject but, one must make an effort to change it. There are many possible ways to

overcome this factors that hinder the growth and development of students. Therefore,

the researchers conclude that the Freshmen Nursing Students in the field of

Mathematics should exhibit motivation to help them focused on what they are doing.

Challenging themselves by setting specific and attainable goals is a factor to improve

their performance in Mathematics. Seek help from people that could inspire and

encourage them to do more. Avoid things and persons that could hinder or influence

them in their study. They need to see who they really are and try to unleash their

talents.

 Reference:

Cabahug, L., Ladot, C. (2016). The Academic Performance in Basic Mathematics of

UPV Cebu College Freshmen from School Years 2000-2001 to 2003-2004: A
Basis ForAdmission to Degree Programs.
Davidson R. & Levitov E. (2014). Overcoming Math Anxiety. New York, NY: Harper
Collins. College Publishers.

Ernest, P. (2010). Mathematics Teaching: The State of the Art. Thame, Oxon: Imago
Publishing, Ltd.

Stites, J. (2014). "Running the numbers." Omni Apr. 1993: 34+. Gale Power Search.
Web. 18 Jan. 2012.