Journal 3

The article, “Engineering Majors Hit the Books More Than Business Majors Do” is about a survey, The National Survey of Student Engagement, Nessie, that gives statistics on college students and institutions. The article focuses mainly on scholars’ critiques of Nessie, and other factors that play into a students’ academic success. The article then moves on to how Nessie plans on improving their survey. It talks about how the survey can be somewhat incorrect and that the Indiana University research center that conducts the surveys will provide any skeptics with additional material. Lastly the article brings up the statistics of studying time related to major, and preparedness for class related to major. Engineering had the highest percentage of studying time over 20 hours a week compared to physics, biology, social sciences, business, and education majors. However when it came to the percentages of students who frequently were unprepared for class engineering had the highest percentage. Therefore the academic success might be hard to judge because while the students may receive good grades on the tests because they studied a lot they may receive bad grades on classwork because they came unprepared to class.

            I see this article responding well to my first article because it talks about the demographics of the student and their studying habits. This article talks about how first-generation students spend less time preparing for class but are more likely to review their notes after class. The article also touches upon how students who say it will be hard to pay for college expect other challenges along the way. It says that they expect trouble in learning course material and interacting with faculty members. Because they expect trouble you can guess that they also expect a lesser possibility of academic success. This article also connects with the second article because it talks about how many students are preparing for life after college and about how they frequently discuss their plans with faculty members. The second article also talked about how students have their plans for after college in mind while studying and this is why some students study more than others.

            This article has brought me to believe that looking at the study habits compared to major will be the most beneficial. It would give me an idea of why certain students have more effective studying habits than others and why certain students must study longer than others. Another possible viewpoint is that while statistics on study habits and academic success may be given, these statistics may not be correct. Skeptics would argue that you can’t fully evaluate the academic success based on study habits because whether a study habit is successful is a matter of opinion. While one student may receive an A on a test after studying one way and another receives a B on a test after studying the same way it’s a matter of opinion whether or not this studying method can be deemed successful because some students may view a B as successful and some may not.

            From reading this article I came up with the idea to look into study habits of online student vs. typical classroom setting students. I think online students have a very different way of studying since they have no lecture notes to study off of therefore they might use more of the textbook than a typical classroom setting student. Also I’ve realized that gauging the academic success of a study habit might not be possible, and if it is it’s completely a matter of opinion. Articles I look at might say one study habit is more effective than another but if I were to look at the data I might not think it was effective, because academic success is completely a matter of opinion.