Study habits of undergraduate students in selectedfederal universities in South-west Nigeria

This study examined the study habits of third year undergraduate students in three federal universities in Nigeria with the objectives of ascertaining their study habits in relation to time management, methods of knowledge assimilation and preferred study environment. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population consisted of two thousand and eighty six (2086) respondents from eight (8) different departments. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were analysed using frequency and percentage counts. Findings from the study revealed that 326 (51.5%) of the respondents spend their free period studying and normally organise their studies. Note-taking during lectures was also found to be the most used method for knowledge assimilation followed by memorisation as affirmed by 350 (55.3%) and 324 (51.2%) respondents respectively. Respondents totalling 420 (69.4%) were found to study in quiet places, followed closely by 352 (55.6%) who study in the hostel rooms. Based on the findings, the study concluded that it is the responsibility of undergraduate students to work towards the achievement of academic success. It is recommended that students pay more attention to planning their study activities using time tables for study and setting of specific goals for each study session. Although memorisation can aid retention, the study however, recommends other knowledge assimilation methods like self-test and summarisation as they can lead to better internalisation of what has been studied.