Introduction


 * 1.1 Introduction **


 * 1.1.1 Justification of the Research **

 The purposes of this study is as mentioned earlier, to study the relationship between learning style and academic performances (CGPA) among second year undergraduates of Department Nutrition and Dietetics, Department of Biomedical Science and Faculty of Pharmacy in International University of Malaysia (UKM) session 2010/2011. We will create a series of question so that the questionnaire can be used to explore the students` learning style, study habit and academic performances

 The right learning style is very important in achieving good academic performances. By conducting this research, we can identified what types of learning style have been used among second year students of Department of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and Faculty of Pharmacy, National University of Malaysia (UKM) students. Many researchers have been done to investigate the relationship between learning style and academic performances among university students. Learning style have been found to have a positive relationship with academic performances, as measured by grade point average (Torres, 1993; Torres & Cano, 1994) and overall success in higher education (Cano & Porter, 1997; Cano, 1999). The previous study have reported association between learning style and academic performances. However, on the negative side, studies by Hwkins (1987), Grun (1986), Sanley (1987) and Zack(1991) have failed to establish the significant relationships between learning style and academic performances among students.


 * 1.1.2 Research Question **

Is there a relationship between learning style and academic performance (CGPA) among the second year undergraduates of Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Department of Biomedical Science and Faculty of Pharmacy, UKM session 2010/2011?


 * 1.2 Literature Review **


 * 1.2.1 Learning Style **

 “Learning style” refers to the way in which a learner approaches the learning process and learns and retains new and difficult information (Dunn, 1991). It is a personal trait that develops from inherited characteristics, previous experience, and the demands of the present environment (Kolb, 1981, 1984). In short, learning style is claimed to explain the preferred attitudes and behaviors towards learning (Honey & Mumford, 1992).

 According to Kolb (1984,p.41), "learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it. Learning style is a characteristic cognitive, affective and physiological behaviors that serve as a relatively stable indicator of how individuals perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment (Keefe, 1979).

 Besides that, the term “Learning style” also related to the general approach preferred by the student when learning a subject, acquiring a language, or dealing with a difficult problem (Oxford 2001; Reid 1998). The learning-styles view has acquired great influence within the education field, and is frequently encountered at levels ranging from kindergarten to graduate school.


 * 1.2.1.1 Relationship between Learning Style and Academic Performance **

 Research suggests that learning style is an important factor that affects students’ achievement (Cano & Garto 1994). White (1970) confirmed there was a pattern of intellectual changes which in college students. Like the early childhood stages of development as described by Piaget, Perry (1970) indicated that a basic progression in ways of thinking for a student during the college experience existed. Perry (1970) further stated that this basic progression influenced the instructor and/or advisor of the student to seek alternative ways to teach and advice.

 It is well acknowledged that education environment is an important element in determining students’ ability to reach to their fullest quality (Rutter et al 1979; Bealing Jr et al 2006). Within the education environment, the establishment and identifying students’ learning style has often been recognized in the education system. The importance of learning style could help academics to understand students’ preference of learning that could assist in selecting appropriate instructional methods and educational options (Fox 1984). If students’ learning style is known, academics could anticipate their students’ preferences, take advantage of their strengths and avoid their weaknesses (Birkey and Rodman 1995; Hartman 1995).

 In other studies also have shown that students could match their learning style to an appropriate activity or environment (Claxton and Murell 1985; Reid 1987; Ellison 1995; Felder 1995). These studies argued that the greater the attention paid to the congruence of learning activities within students’ learning style, the better the students will learned. This is due to the fact that students’ learning capacity is partially determined by the students’ ability and capability of their learning style (Honey and Mumford 1992). Therefore, the failure in recognizing the importance of difference learning styles among the academics would often lead to students’ poor performance (Mulalic et al 2009).

 Frank Pogue (2000) did a research project to determine why students fail. What he founds to be true in that study habits survey was that more than 30 years ago still rings true today and the final result of this research project was, students fail because they do not know how to study.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.2.2 Cognitivism **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2003), cognitivism is related to cognition which is the process of knowing including both awareness and judgement. It involves how we acquire knowledge and concepts through the perceptions of our senses.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Cognitivism states that most types of learning might be unique to humans and that people learn best by becoming actively involved. People learn best when knowledge is organized into comprehensible or more understood units. Learning by cognitive process is also being considered as relating new information to previously learned information (Richard Bloodworth 2004).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Cognitivism can be divided into three variables which are textbook reading, note taking and memory. According to Richard Bloodworth (2004), the main areas of cognitive learning are memorizing, understanding, and applying. Both understanding and applying are essential in the process of textbook reading (J. Robinson 2004). Peggy A. Ertmer (1993) stated that cognitive theories focus on the conceptualization of students’ learning processes and address the issue of how information is received, organized and stored. Besides Rio Sumarni Shariffudin (2007) also stated that cognitive involves organization of knowledge in the brain, how knowledge and information is stored and retrieved. This statement has defined that textbook reading and memorizing are both involving cognitivism.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is explained in studies of Hamed Khanpour (2009) that it involves cognitive processing and it consists of two stages which are understanding each idea and connecting that understanding with one’s existing knowledge. Besides that, in the studies of Chunyan Yang (2005), the study habit of note taking is also categorized under cognitive strategies.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Cognitive is essential in the process of learning. It is clearly to prove that memorizing, textbook reading and note taking are variables under the construct ‘cognitivism’.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.2.2.2 Relationship between Note Taking and Academic Performance **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">There are many efficient learning styles that could be used by students based on the learning environment. One of the study styles include summarizing and note taking. Some techniques of strategic studying were indicated being used by some students. These students used learning style such as planning and studying in advance. They will do their own notes which they summarized for examinations after reviewing the course materials. Students develop their own habits and practice them as they progress through the learning (Sujit S. Sansgiry et al 2006).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is an important dimension of study habits. Knowledge is believed can be preserved for longer time for those students who are using proper learning styles containing note taking and studying that notes (Eliot et al 2002).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is also viewed as an important task when learning. Note taking as well as summarizing are both important skills used by most students to help them acquire and integrate knowledge. Note taking is also an important tool that can improve students in learning activity. Besides, note taking skills can be employed by lecturers to evaluate their student’s understanding (Hamed Khanpour 2009).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is seen as a critical behaviour which can enhance learning in learning contexts. Notes are important for recalling what we have heard or seen, and can promote reflection afterwards (Nguyen 2006).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Findings from research of Richard Badger et al (2001) showed that reasons of taking notes in lectures include recall of the lecture, to remember what the lecturer has said, it helps with exams and others. Some techniques used in note taking include numbering, underlining, arrows, symbols, bullet points, highlighting and black capitals.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is one of the skills which can guide one’s cognitive processes during learning. The overall study skills techniques were significantly related with academic achievement. Besides, significant relationship was found also between reading & note taking habit with academic achievement (Nuthanap. G. 2007).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Hamid Reza Haghverdi et al (2010) had conducted a survey about the Iranian professors’ and students’ attitudes towards the effect of teaching note-taking strategies on the students’ academic achievement. The results showed that the respondents including professors and students whether male or female have had high positive attitudes towards the effect of note-taking strategy instruction on the students’ learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Besides that, in the studies of Oguz (1999), a significant difference is found between the students who received note-taking training, taking notes at lessons and reviewing the notes and students who attending lessons without receiving note-taking training. The studies point out that effective note-taking increases students’ success at lessons.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Furthermore, studies by Titswortha & Kiewrab (2004) also showed that note taking work to raise achievement. The highly positive relationship between note taking, for both organizational points and details, and achievement was confirmed correlationally. The study showed that note taking resulted in about 13% higher test achievement than not taking notes. This study, then, corroborates existing evidence that note taking raises achievement.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Note taking is believed to influence academic performance. There were some studies which have shown to state that note taking and academic performance have a significant relationship. However, students should be serious in recording complete notes. This is because Kiewra & Benton (1988) and Kiewra & Fletcher (1984) stated that note completeness is positively correlated with achievements, incomplete lecture note taking naturally results in relatively lower achievement. Pauline A. Nye et al (1984) had conducted a study which showed that high correlations were found between the quantity of notes and examination performance. In short, previous studies have shown that both the quality and quantity of note taking are essential in determining the success of academic.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.2.3 Constructivism **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to Gregory Clinton (2008), the constructivism is a theory of learning founded on the preexisting that we create our understanding of the environment we live in by reflecting on our personal experiences. To make sense and give meaning to our own experience, each of us creates our own "rules" and "mental models" on such experience. At the same time, Gregory Clinton (2008) also supported (Brooks & Brooks 1999) who stated that, the process of learning is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Principles of constructivism according Brooks & Brooks (1999): <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Learning is a process of searching the meaning when someone is actively trying to construct meaning. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. Learning process emphasizes on main concepts but not isolates facts. The meaning should be understanding whole as well as parts. At the same time, parts are understood in the context of wholes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. We have to understand the assumptions student make to support the mental models, and those models that students use to perceive the world. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. The purpose of learning is not just accepting and memorizing the "standard" answers in order to copy someone else's meaning. Actually the purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to Brooks & Brooks (1999), the following are some ways that constructivism affects or influences learning process: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Curriculum-Constructivism encourage using curricula customized to the students' prior knowledge instead of the standardized curriculum. In addition, it emphasizes hands-on problem solving. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. Instruction-Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making students’ connections between facts and generating new understanding in their minds. Instructors encourage students to organize, analyze, interpret, and predict information in their minds. Teachers also emphasize on open-ended questions and promote the using of extensive dialogue among students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. Assessment-assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a vital role in judging their own learning progress instead of grades and standardized testing.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to Bayer (2001), the role of the constructivist teacher is “to provide complicated questions and to create a collaborative, problem-solving situation where students are encouraged to make discoveries and try to connect, relate, and construct meaning from these discoveries”. Besides, Bayer (2001) stated that the role of the student is to construct knowledge by critically thinking about, organizing and interpreting his or her experiences, testing hypotheses, and looking for generalizations.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In Gregory Clinton’s (2008) opinion, constructivism also stresses the relationship of newly acquired information to previous knowledge or experience of learning that has already taken place. Apart from that, he stated that “when we are mixing concepts, a focus on humanist and andragogic (i. e., teaching based on recognizing, organizing and building on experience) practices help us function well when there is no exist of an optimal conditions, when situation are unpredictable, and when we need to think critically on our feet based on inventiveness, improvisation, dialogue, and social negotiation.”

<span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.0in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.2.2.3.1 ** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Relationship between Test Preparation and Academic Performance **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In Dennis H. Congos’s (1998) research of study skills, he stated that, the test preparation skills are include problem solving skill (for example: problem-based learning), ability of critical thinking or problem generation, group discussion and reading notes.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">David Gijbels, Filip Dochy, Piet Van den Bossche and Mien Segers (2005) stated that the general goal of problem-based learning (PBL), is to develop successful problem solving in two dimensions: the acquisition of knowledge and the application of knowledge. They also support the claims from many authors (Engel 1997; Gagne, Yekovich,& Yekovich 1993; Poikela & Poikela 1997; Segers 1997) that the graduate’s ability to solve complex problems efficiently is required by today's society. The claims made for PBL promise an important improvement in outcomes for higher education. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The study of Albanese and Mitchell (1993) categorizes and lists the qualitative results of studies in medical education from 1972 to 1993. The main results of this review were that (a) students found PBL to be more nurturing and enjoyable than conventional instruction, and (b) PBL graduates performed as well, and sometimes better, on clinical examinations and faculty evaluations than did students who had received conventional instruction. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Dochy et al (2003) had done a most recent review in which is the first to search for studies beyond the domain of medical education. The main questions are very similar but more focused on the main effects of PBL on students' knowledge and knowledge application, and also the potential moderators of the effect of PBL. The results of their meta-analysis suggest that problem-based learning has statistically and practically significant positive effects on the students' knowledge application. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to Mary Water and Alan Water’s (1992) assumptions, what students commonly lack is not only the knowledge of study skills, but more basically, the self confidence, self-awareness, the ability to think critically and creatively, independence of mind, and so on. This underlying competence provides the student with the capacity to solve study problems autonomously and improves their academic performance. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">After that, Mary Water and Alan Water (1992) concluded that the characteristics of a successful student: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. have a high degree of self-awareness; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. are good at critical questioning; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. tend to have an 'adult' approach to relations with their teachers; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. think clearly and logically; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">5. are self-confident; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">6. have a positive attitude to their studies, etc

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">For example, they identified some of the main constituent skills involved in critical questioning as, a. asking informational questions, b. sequencing ideas logically, c. asking interpretative questions, and d. thinking of the consequences of ideas.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Wittrock’s research (1990) has shown that summarization and question generation are the most effective when they are generative in nature. For a summary to be generative, the learner’s own words and experiences are used to construct novel sentences that make connections among concepts and relate new information to prior knowledge. He stated that when learners use their own words to formulate questions or summarize, connections between new material and existing knowledge are automatically constructed because those words are associated with information already stored in the learner’s memory.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Similarly, in the study of Lucangeli et al (1998), students were trained to ask themselves questions during problem solving (e.g. “What strategies are necessary for solving this problem?” or “Have I solved the problem correctly?”). Training in critical thinking skills has been shown to result in improving academic performance and achievement

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Many studies have examined the effectiveness of interventions in order to improve critical thinking skills (Pithers & Soden 2000). These interventions have included the principal of guided practice (Anderson et al 2001) and scaffolding instruction (Wood & Wood 1996) to guide students through the thinking process by assessing their current level of thinking through dialogue and then asking questions to move them into the next level. Other interventions have involved the introduction of peer interaction into critical thinking tasks in an attempt to improve students’ problem solving skills in this area and academic performance. (Anderson et al 2001; Schwartz, Neuman, Gil, & Ilya 2003).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Kuhn’s (1991) defined the social elements are referring to the discussion of ideas with peers who are involved in a collaborative process of knowledge building. Collaborative learning can be defined as students working together to achieve a common goal (Johnson & Johnson 1999) and at the same time promotes greater conceptual development results in greater enjoyment of the learning task.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Anderson, Howe, Soden, Halliday, and Low (2001) stated that collaboration is thought to be contributed to higher order learning through restructuring or conflict resolution. They also stated that peer interaction can have a positive effect on conceptual development as a function of conceptual conflict.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The rereading strategy is a useful educational tool and has potential benefit for enhancing readers’ comprehension as well as enjoyment of literature (Faust & Glenzer 2000). For example, rereading strategies ask readers to read a text more than one time to enhance reading comprehension before readers proceed to the next text.( Hsieh, P.-H., & Dwyer, F. 2009). Faust and Glenzer concluded that the rereading strategy helps students obtain meaning of their favorite reading sections and makes meaning with texts.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Other author such as Brown (2002) found that female Japanese college students’ reading comprehension improved through the use of rereading strategies. Previous studies also found that rereading is a useful pedagogical strategy (Olmscheid 1999; Nathan & Stanovich 1991) and yields the most significant effect on student achievement since it helps increase students’ reading fluency and creates a critical connection with reading comprehension.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.2.4 Support Strategies **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From the study of Judith W. Segal et al (1985), support strategies of learning style include planning and scheduling, as well as concentration management. Planning and scheduling enables students to monitor their goal accomplishment by writing down their study goals and scheduling their time with the aids of notebook. Whereas, concentration management enables students to deal with disturbance so that they can focus on task with full concentration. Dansereau (1985) also believed that effective learning required a mutually supportive set of interactive strategies.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.2.4.1 Relationship between Concentration and Academic Performance **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> By definition, concentration is the ability of controlling your mind to focus towards a particular task without external disturbance especially when you are doing assignments, reading and attending lectures. One may find that they will be distracted easily after working on task just few minutes, thus using strategies to enhance your concentration is important for effective learning (Linda Wong 2003).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> From the study of Nuthanap.G. (2007) that was carried out among the high school students of Dharwad urban and rural areas of Karnataka state in India, he found that concentration is significantly related to academic performance. With the increasing maturity of the group of high school students, their academic performances ultimately improve due to contribution of better concentration.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> On another note, high levels of concentration and focus on the study activities are required for optimal learning (Ericsson 2002). In addition to that, suitable times and locations that allow full concentration and free from distraction are important for effective learning among college students. (Zimmerman 2002; E.A. Plant et al 2005). Also, E.A. Plant et al (2005) had found that study environment with minimum distraction is necessary to foster full concentration of college students during studying in order to get better academic performance. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.3 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The definition of success varies from scholar to scholar but is central to any analysis of academic achievement. Clark (1983) does not offer any precise definition of academic success, but it appears that he considered students who were in facts average as “high achievers”. He relies upon the reports of students for the grades. Tapia (2000) appears to classify those students earning As and Bs as high achievers but the source of the grades is unclear.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Most studies on academic achievement use such an overall indicator of achievement as criterion measure, grade point average (GPA) being the favorite (O’Conner & Paunonen, 2007). An overall indicator such as GPA typically reflects arithmetically averaged components of performance. The idea is that when using GPA as a criterion measure one could well have averaged out meaningful variance. Duff et al. (2004) and also O’Conner and Paunonen (2007) therefore recommend decomposing the broad criterion variable ‘academic achievement’ into specific components. GPA is also used to rank students and is an important factor for employment and graduate school admission. (Mary, 2007)

1.2.3 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is a system widely used by universities in Malaysia to assess student`s academic achievement. The CGPA is obtained by dividing cumulative grade point (determine by multiplying the grade values of subjects taken with the number of hours in the semester) with the cumulative attempted hours. (i.e. credit hours in which the students obtain a grade ). (Alfan & Othman, 2005)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.3.1 Relationship between Sleeping Time and Academic Performance **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Poor school performance by adolescent students is partly influenced by insufficient sleep. Political in United States going to require for later school start time in order to increasing sleep time and consequently improving school performance. However in findings of Eliansson, there are no correlation between sleep time and self reported academic performance in Grade Point Average (GPA) (Eliansson et al 2002). Regardless of the brain's attempt to overcome sleep deprivation, a sleep-deprived person cannot perform mental tasks as well as someone who is well-rested. For brain recovery, the early part of sleep each night is the most important (Daniel J. DeNoon 2000). In the study of Hofman and Steenhof (1997), a survey was conducted about 600 Dutch high school students. By using multiple regression analysis, they found that performance in school is positively related to sleep quality, including time in bed and small sleep lag. Student who are short sleeper have lower GPA than those who are long sleeper (Kelly et. al 2001). Adolescent who do not get enough sleep, irregular sleep pattern and /or poor sleep quality are tend to do poorly in school compare to other adolescent (Wolfson & Carkasdon 2003). The conclusion less of sleeping duration contribute to low academic performance also supported by findings of Salcedo Aguilar (2005).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Sleep length research has identified three distinct classifications of sleepers. These include (1) short sleepers, individuals who when left to set their own schedule, sleep 6 or fewer hours, (2) average sleepers, individuals who sleep 7 to 8 hours, and (3) long sleepers, individuals who sleep 9 or more hours out of every 24 (Webb & Agnew 1970; Webb 1982). Consequently, studies have attempted to ascertain differences in individuals among these three sleep classifications aside from sleep time.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1.2.3.2 Relationship between Duration of Studying Time and academic Performance **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Result of number of studies conducted from 1973-1984 at the University of Michigan, found that study time was not predictive for grade point average (GPA) (Schuman et al. 1985). So with study of Van De Hurk et al (1998), suggests that there is poor correlation between study time and academic performance. However, Greenwald and Gillmore (1997), in a study of 594 courses across the 1993 - 1994 academic year at the University of Washington, found an inverse association between study time and grades, r = - .15 (p < .005). In the study of Rau and Durand (2000), with a sample of 252 students at Illinois State University in the spring of 1992, found a positive association between academic ethic and GPA, r = .24. Some research results show that study time is positively associated with grades, in other word the association is genuine (Allen et al 1972; Hinrichsen 1972; Wagstaff & Mahmoudi 1976). Since academic is a large scope that may attribute to study time, study habits, and academic orientation. Hence, it is not clear whether study time are predictive for GPA, but there is some study report that GPA increased only 0.025 points (4.0 scale) per additional study hour per week, suggesting that study time must increase substantially for GPA to improve noticeably. (Lahmers et al 2000).