Study Habits and Performance in the Qualifying and Comprehensive

Examination Among Accountancy Students

With the challenges brought about by the ASEAN integration, different strata of the
government are expected to do more and function more efficiently in order to compete
with Southeast Asian nations and other countries of the world.
Universities, colleges and schools try their very best to mold students and equip
them with knowledge and competencies needed in order for them to pass and be ready
for the challenges in the workplace. It is, of course, the popular mission of a college to see
to it that all graduates perform better in the workplace.
Saint Paul School of Business and Law, a tertiary school offering business, accountancy and
law and one of the best schools in producing accountants in the Philippines has the same goal and
functions doubly to produce graduates ready for the ASEAN integration. The school management is
doing this in various ways. One is through their retention program. Despite the conduct of review
classes, many accounting students still fail to pass the comprehensive examinations and end up
taking the removal exams.
Study habits have a great impact on a student’s performance in the comprehensive
examinations. The development of good study habits is the highway to reach the goals of
an individual, whatever they are. A simple, small change in study habits makes a big difference
in goal-setting and organizing one’s life (Thiyago, 2015).
Each student has his/her own way of studying. One way maybe effective for one
student but maybe ineffective for another. There are really many factors affecting student’s
performance based on the nature of study habits. According to Ali (2013), student’s
academic gain and learning performance are affected by numerous factors like age,
gender, teaching faculty, student’s school, social and economic status of parents or
guardians, place of residence, medium of instruction, daily study hour; and
accommodation.
Many students study with friends. They may have all ideas that can be shared, but
sometimes, quality time is lost because of socializing. Some students love studying while
listening to the music. They may think that they can concentrate more if they listen to
music. But the fact is, noise or music can interfere with the brain’s activity to comprehend
new information. It can also distract a person from focusing on the material at hand like
when a student sings along with the music and loses his/her concentration on the topic
being studied.
Many students are familiar with the cramming method. It can ultimately stifle long-
term knowledge retention and cause undue stress. For many accounting students in Saint
Paul School of Business and Law, cramming is not really helpful. Most or all accounting
subjects need storing of knowledge which can be used especially when taking the CPA
licensure examination.
It is in this light that this research is conducted- to determine the influence of study
habits on the level of performance in the qualifying and comprehensive examinations
among accounting students. It emphasizes the importance and establishes effective study
habits to help accounting students perform better in their qualifying and comprehensive.