This year’s freshmen class studied less in high school
than any class in at least 37 years, a new UCLA study says.
According to a survey conducted by the Higher Education Research
Institute at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies, a record-high number of students spent fewer
than six hours doing homework their senior year of high school,
with 15.9 percent of students reporting they studied less than one
hour per week.
Despite not studying as much, over 45 percent of entering
freshmen at four-year colleges and universities in 2002 reported
earning an “A” average in high school.
“What we’re finding is students are able to get
better grades than ever before and put less time into
studying,” said Linda Sax, a UCLA education professor, who
directed the survey.
Students are more informed about what it takes to get an
“A,” said Sax, which sometimes means contesting grades
with teachers or having parents speak with teachers about
students’ grades in high school. There is an increase in
focus on actual grades, paired with a decrease in focus on good
study habits to earn those grades, Sax said.
“It’s just not as hard to get an “˜A’ as
it used to be in high school,” Sax said.
These dwindling rigors of high school may leave many lacking
readiness for college.
“In high school, it was more mechanical work, but (in
college) you have to read and learn material,” said Kay Lee,
a first-year aerospace engineering student.
First-year electrical engineering student Brian Cheung earned a
high GPA and spent 10 hours a week studying during high school.
“I came from a pretty competitive high school,”
Cheung said. “Most students were pretty concerned about their
GPAs.”
With the amount of studying he did, Cheung said he found it easy
to be successful academically during his high school years.
Sax offered another possible explanation for a decrease in the
amount of time students studied, citing survey results indicating
an increase in computer use among students.
An all-time high of 89.3 percent of respondents said they used
the computer frequently, with 78.4 saying they used the Internet
for homework and research. Cheung said the computer was a useful
tool for him in high school, especially for research purposes.
Following a four-year trend, entering freshmen are also
partying, drinking, and smoking less. Only 46.5 percent reported
drinking beer frequently or occasionally in the past year ““
an all-time low since the survey began 37 years ago.
“I think I was a little more softcore in high
school,” Cheung said. “I’d go to some parties. I
don’t drink as much as I expected to (at UCLA) … it just
became kind of played out.”
A possible explanation for the continued decline in partying and
drinking is that students who responded to the survey grew up in a
time marked with vigorous anti-drug campaigns.
“These students grew up in an age where the anti-drug
campaigns were incredibly vocal in their high schools and
communities,” Sax said. “It goes against the popular
notion of this being a drug culture among the youth.”
Lee said she worked hard in high school and continues to work
hard now that she is in college. Lee said the reason she does not
party is because she is short on time.
“It’s hard to get good grades now,” she said.
“I don’t have a chance to party. I work and go to
school.”
Additional survey results indicate a rising interest in
political affairs in the first class to enter college after the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 32.9 percent of freshmen reported
keeping up with politics as a “very important” or
“essential” part of life.
The attention to politics, Sax said, was important because it
was part of a two-year trend indicating increased interest,
following a long and steady decline in political interest among
students. She said the increase in interest could be attributed to
two events, the presidential election in 2000 and Sept. 11,
2001.
Third-year student Daniel Serquiña said his freshman year
was focused on living in the dorms and adjusting to college life.
He said students may have become more involved in politics and in
keeping up with the news due to recent events, among them the
hotly-contested presidential election of 2000.
“There was so much controversy because it was such a close
race,” Serquiña said. “When it’s in the news
all the time, it catches your attention.”