Review of related literature Attending Attending college is a life-changing life-changing experience. experience. It includes meeting new people and doing something novel. It is a time to discover courses and majors one never knew exis existe ted. d. The The firs firstt year year in coll colleg ege, e, acad academ emic ical ally ly spea speaki king ng,, pres presen ents ts wond wonder erfu full opportunities to know different academic disciplines !artman " #tewart, $%%&'. (ut since college is very different from high school, college freshmen may experience a lot of changes that can lead to pro)lems. In relation to these changes, *unningham $%%+' )elieves that the most critical of all changes reuired for successful adjustment from high school to college is academic differences. hile Adler, Raju, (everidge, ang, hu and immermann $%%+' assumes that /adjustment to college is critical for academic success success.. 0oor 0oor college college adjustme adjustment nt correla correlates tes with poor academi academic c performa performance, nce, low graduation rates, and poor success later in life1 p.2$+2'. Among college freshmen, one parameter that can )e looked into that can )e used to predict academic adjustment difficulties in college are their academic achievements as reflected in their fourth year high school report cards. 0aying close attention to academic achievement achievement is important. important. /Academic achievement has )een one of the most important goals of the educational process1 3uthanap, $%%4, p.&' )ecause it plays a significant role in assuring uality Ali, 5usoff, Ali, 6okhtar " #alamat, $%%7'. In high school, like in the case of the 0hilippines, academic achievement is measured with the use of 8eneral eighted Averages Averages 8As'. 8As'. 8A is the average of grades in all su)jects taken, taken, whether passed passed or failed and serves as an indicator of students9 academic achievement in a given school year. 8A is reflected in the report cards of high school students. :sta)lishing the possi)le relationship )etween academic achievement in high school and academic
adjustment difficulties as college freshmen is important. Accordingly, ;eldman and 3ewcom) 277<' suggest that /the amount of difficulty and the nature of the adjustments during the early college months depend on the particular )ackground and personality characteristics1 p. 7%'. Academic achievement in high school, particularly during fourth year, tells so much a)out students9 )ackground and personality characteristics. In the end, findings from this study could serve as )ases for instituting programs with the aim of helping college freshmen have )etter high school to college transition and eventually )e successful as college students. Academic Adjustment= 0ascarella and Teren>ini 2772' argued that for most students, the transition to university classroom reuires an adjustment of academic ha)its and expectations. ;irst year students find that at university, competition is more acute, classes are larger, there is a lot of work, lecturers use different teaching styles, the volume and freuency of written work are higher and standards are higher. It is imperative that the new students respond to the demands )y studying harder, change their study ha)its and rearrange their priorities 3gwenya $%% 0ascarella and Teren>ini 2772'. As expected, (eder9s 2774' study found that first year students had difficulty adjusting to the different styles of teaching compared to school. This is consistent with Adler et al.9s $%%+' assertion that adjustment to university is critical for academic success. The researchers argue that poor college adjustment correlates with poor academic performance, low graduation rates and poor success later in life. It is therefore intriguing that most high school graduates have academic and social difficulties that delay their adaptation to the new university environment. @ther
research scholars confirm that the experience of attending university is complex and pregnant with challenges that impinge on their academic success. atton $%%2' reports that the transition and adjustment time )etween high school and university is influenced )y high school performance, living arrangements, origin and orientation activities. #tudents who stay off campus with their families and those from ur)an areas find the adjustment easier to make. In addition, participation in university orientation
activities is associated with )etter semester averages.
;urthermore, research suggests that male students adapt to the new university environment )etter than their female counterparts :nochs and Roland $%%&'. Another study )y oyle and alker $%%$' suggests that university students encounter a myriad of challenges. The academic staff who took part in the study reported that first year students were influenced )y inadeuate high school preparation, a sense of feeling disconnected and an increase in personal responsi)ility. (urgess et al. $%%7' reported that failure to meet the wider challenges faced )y students during the transition from secondary to tertiary education impacts on learning outcomes. Social and Academic Adjustment of First-Year University Students Pilot Mudhovozi University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa
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