PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS ON THE

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF MANILA TYTANA COLLEGES

Alagos, Sheena

Amante, Marianne

Cañeja, Recca Maica

Cavan, Eila

Gumabay, Tricia Joi

Pailona, Faith Nichole

 CHAPTER I

Introduction

This chapter contains the background of the study, which shows

what led the researchers to conduct the study, the statement of
the problem, the importance of the study and the benefits that
will be derived from it. This chapter also includes the scope of
the study and its limitations which provides the duration of the
study and the locale, where the participants will be selected.
Definitions of the unfamiliar words used in the study are also
found in this chapter.

Background of the Study

In 1899, the College Entrance Examination Board or “College

Board” was administered in December with the accordance of a non-
profit membership of twelve (12) universities and colleges with a
main purpose of reckoning annual examinations in a wider range of
subjects that were thought to be essential for college level work.
By the end of the 19th century, examinations for admission to
colleges in the United States are specific to each school and the
examination contents are highly-conditional on the faculty’s
interest which administers the examination. (A (mostly) Brief
History of the SAT and ACT tests, 2017)

Meanwhile, a research from Melissa Kelly of 2017 shows that

there are about six (6) reasons to undergo such examinations. These
are, one (1), to assess what students have learned, two (2), to
identify student’s strengths and weaknesses, three (3) , to measure
effectiveness, four (4), to determine awards and recognition, five
(5), for college credit, six (6), to judge student merit for an
internship program or college.
 However, one of the reasons from Melissa Kelly was
contradicted by an article from MyFuture. According to this
website, college entrance examinations were often misinterpreted
as a design to measure student’s learning in his/her school.
College entrance examinations can actually help a student measure
his/her potential to accomplish his/her tasks in an excellent way
in the future. These examinations were considered as a standardized
aptitude test that can quantize your common intelligence in various
aspects such as verbal, math, analytical and writing skills.

In addition, the research article from the website “Stone” of

2015 shows that “self-harm, anorexia and other mental health issues
arises in schools from Great Britain due to the constant focus on
tests according to studies”. This article can be somehow supported
by an article from Telegraph of 2010, by Greme Paton, in which he
stated that there is a subsistence of strong pressure in modern
life that can lead to severe “psychological difficulties” that
students can undergo from the exam culture which can trigger
further mental health problems. Another related articles that can
support Stone’s statement were from the study of Essel & Owtusel
of 2017 and Archana & Jagrati of 2014 in which they conveyed that
there, really, is a subsistence of stress and anxiety from taking
entrance examinations and these issues are remarkably alarming.
However, the concrete behavioral differences were not yet
discussed in further details and lacks of further evidences.

Statement of the Problem

The study aims to comprehensively understand how the STEM

students of the Grade 12 of Manila Tytana Colleges feel and
counteract about the induced pressure of the college admission
examinations and how they find ways in coping with it.
 In this study, the researchers intend to answer the following
questions:

1. How does a STEM student react to the pressure of a college

admission exam considering the weight of the expectations they
are given?

2. Why there are stressors linked with pressure that STEM

students encounter before college entrance examinations?

3. What are the coping strategies that a student could make

to minimize the difficulties before and during college entrance
examinations?

Significance of the Study

The importance of this study is to acquaint the succeeding ba

tches of applicants in preparing for entrance examinations. The l
ower batches of students will have an edge in taking their colleg
e admission tests since they will have an idea about how the exam
takes place and to what extent it would impact them in order to r
educe the difficulty of overcoming the approaching pressures and
stress that a pre-examination induces.

STEM students, particularly, would highly benefit from this in

vestigation in accordance to the study conducted by Hollenstein a
nd Lougheed on year 2013 which showed that students in this stran
d perceived a significantly high level of stress compare to their
other peers that forces them to not just pass an entrance exam bu
t to survive the adversities of the field that they have chosen.

In addition, having a prior knowledge about the schema of adm

ission exams will help them to manage their time as well as depri
ving themselves from external pressure points and loads that give
academic conflicts. Considering that the upcoming exam-takers are
briefed with the prevailing psychological impacts of entrance exa
ms, hence, it is expected that they will contrive further adjustm
ents and self-conformation to combat stressors and to gain academ
ic stability as reviews and study habits even an approaching exam
ination is quite intimidating.

Teachers could also perform adjustments to their graduating s

tudents since they are informed about the impacts and implication
s of admission tests that the students might encounter; considera
tion should be highly observed and constituting the graduating ye
ars of senior high should not be as difficult as commonly perceiv
ed.

Lastly, the researchers of this study significantly develop

their abilities in different aspects to which they are expected t
o immerse themselves such as sharpened communication skills as th
ey carry out set of interviews, critical observation and analysis
for gathering data, comprehensive reading skill for comparative a
nalysis of an observed condition, precise interpretation of under
lying schemas of behaviour and psychology, adeptness in academic-
writing and enhanced understanding on subjective cases.

Scope and Limitations

The kind of research that the study employs is Qualitative

research. Qualitative research suggests an emphasis to the
qualities of a certain phenomenon or processes that are not
measured in experimental basis (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). In the
case of our study, the researchers opt to use a phenomenological
qualitative research since the researcher are relying to the
subjective experiences of the respondents in order to list down
the underlining psychological impacts that the study aims.

Descriptive survey is used for the research design. In

sampling design the researchers have chosen the stratified random
sampling as the method that will be used for our sampling design.
Stratified random sampling is a kind of sampling that includes the
minimization of population into minor groups that is otherwise
known as strata ("Investopedia", 2017). The limit of the
participants will be 174 STEM students, only within the area of
Manila Tytana Colleges.

The research instrument that is used in this study is survey

since using a survey will give the researchers an advantage of
spending less time in gathering data at the same time obtaining a
large amount of information. The limit number of participants will
be 174 STEM students and surveys will only be conducted within the
area of Manila Tytana Colleges.

This research has only one (1) locality which is the vicinity
of Manila Tytana Campus. As the study’s intention is to have the
participation of Grade 12 students who are in the academic strand
of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The
participants will not be forced to participate in this research.
Only waivers or consent letters are the only medium that will be
used for gathering the students which also includes the abstract
and objectives of the research as compliance to ethics and
transparency purposes. In order to avoid conflicts to their own
class schedules, the researchers will gather the participants only
during their dismissal time. The participants will also have the
rule over their own survey accounts on whether they will choose to
expose their profile or prefer anonymity as abidance to research
ethics.

The summarization of this research will only include the

areas such as researcher's remarks, conclusion, interpretation
from the findings and relevant literature for the consistency of
the prerequisite data in order to acquire fulfilment of explicating
the psychological impacts.
Definition of Terms

Accretion – means growth or enlargement by a gradual build-up. In

this research the term accretion is used to mean “the increase in
enrolment”.

Acquaint – according to Webster (2004) the term acquaint means to

make oneself familiar with; to inform or to introduce. In this
research the term Acquaint mean “to inform or to make aware”.

Depriving – the term depriving is used to mean preventing or not

allowing someone to have or attain a certain something.

Psychological impact – the term Psychological impact used in this

study serves as the effect which is caused by different factors
such as environmental and biological in an individual’s social or
psychological aspects.

Schema – the term schema is used in this study to mean “a pattern

that is followed”.

CHAPTER II
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related literatures and studies as

a foundation of our study in order to support the claims and
concepts we are to discuss in upcoming undertakings in relevance
to the nature, significance, existence, and psychological
implications of college entrance examinations.

Related Literature

Nature of College Entrance Examinations

As stated by Bishop (2005), college entrance exams are

conventional aptitude test that usually measure collaborative
knowledge in different areas of skill like writing, logic, rhetoric
and linguistic. The aim of these exams is not just to measure the
student’s prior knowledge inside the academe, rather, they measure
the student’s potential and capabilities on their future
performance. High schools indeed have great role and influence in
preparing a student for college entrance exams.

Brick (2006) as well stated that college entrance examination

also known as college or university admission examination is a
requirement of certain schools worldwide that filters the students
applying for admission. The exam is standardized but varies in
requirement and rigor on every aspect in regards to the
institution’s preference especially those colleges offering
academic courses.

Generally, entrance examination is a requirement of most

educational institutions in order for them to keenly select
applicants for admission. These entrance exams are usually
conducted by higher years like colleges and certain high schools
which comprise the standards and stature of the institution (Brick,
2006).
 Furthermore, there are also types of college entrance exams
around the globe. First, the PSAT or Preliminary Scholastic
Aptitude Test which is a great exercise for the qualification on
National Merit Scholarship;

(a) The SAT or Scholastic Aptitude Test which measures the

preparedness and efficiency of students on entering tertiary
education;

(b) The SAT Subject Test which focuses on certain subjects to which
an existing knowledge of a student could be highly applied;

(c) the ACT or American College Test which is quite similar to the
previous types of exams since it is designed to measure a student’s
potential and readiness for college and tertiary courses but mainly
centered on conventional subjects of high school;

(d) The TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language which aims

to measure a student’s ability to converse and comprehend English
as a whole, in college level;

(e) the AP or Advanced Placement which is conducted as a series of

achievement exams taken by high school students in order to test
their proficiency on courses and modules of tertiary education;

lastly,(f) the GED or General Education Development which is

schemed in order to attain a certification or diploma on secondary
education for those who did not graduate from high school (”Taking
College Entrance Exam,” 2010).

Likewise, the study of Wang (2010) suggests that university

entrance examination has policies which are most instantaneous and
salient factor that has an impact on capability to get excellent
higher education which means that the quality of education that a
student could acquire is depending on his or her capacity and
knowledge to meet the standards of the institution particularly,
the examination itself.

According to the research of Lauren Deborah Feld, “Student

Stress in High-Pressure College Preparatory Schools”, the study
was conducted in order to improve the understanding of the academic
stress of a student enrolled in college-preparatory schools. The
main goal of is to know the effects of stress, the behavior of the
student, and the source of stress in the high-achieving
environment. Lauren also stated that the academic workload and
external motivators similarly as pressure for high grades and
prestigious college acceptance are the main source of stress. The
results of the study showed that with the stress experienced by
the students, unhealthy behaviors became the students’ coping
mechanism. It also showed that due to stress, students became
dependent on their peers for academic and emotional support.

According to a research conducted by Kumari, Archana & Jain,

Jagrati (2014) entitled “EXAMINATION STRESS AND ANXIETY: A STUDY
OF COLLEGE STUDENTS”, stress brought by examination have been a
topic of interest for many years now. Things like lack of
preparation, how a student study and lack of needed information
can give a student a high level of stress and once this becomes
excessive, it may cause anxiety to the student and may affect their
academic achievement. A study was conducted to know the examination
stress felt by students in different strand and further comparison
was also done to determine the level of stress felt by the college
students who are enrolled in undergraduate and post graduate
programs. A total of 90 college students was drawn using stratified
random sampling from two girls’ colleges. The researchers of this
study developed questionnaire to know the examination stress and
anxiety among the students. The result shows that students of arts
experience the highest stress and anxiety during examination, it
also showed that there was no significant difference found in the
stress and anxiety level of students enrolled in undergraduate and
post graduate programs.

According to the study of George Essel and Patrick Owtusel

in 2017, there are distinctive aspects that can cause stress among
students. These factors were categorized into four (4) major parts
namely, one (1), relationship factors, in which the central cause
of stress to students were working with new people; two (2),
academic factors, wherein the class workload was the main
constituent of stress; three (3) environmental factors, whereas
the main factor that causes stress to students are the agitation
or anxiousness they feel about the future; four (4), personal
factors. In this category, financial problems were one of the major
cause of stress to students. The main goals of the study were to
identify the point beyond to which stress affects the students’
academic excellence as well as the health and general lifestyle.

There is a variety of universities in the Philippines and for

some universities, their admission tests are quite well-known
around the country.

The Ateneo College Entrance Test (ACET) is famous to people

due to the extreme pressure it gives the examinees in answering
it. Compared to the University of the Philippines College Admission
Test (UPCAT), the ACET is technically longer with the added
sections such as Numerical and Logical Reasoning, as well as
General Knowledge. What makes it famous the fact that the examinee
is answering a larger amount of questions with the standard time
most exams last. However, the only positive side you can see in
the ACET is that compared to other exams such as the UPCAT who
uses the rule, “right minus wrong”, the examinee can choose
guessing as an option to answer all the questions in order to raise
the chances in passing the exam. (ACET: The Ateneo College Entrance
Test, n.d.)

The University of the Philippines College Admission Test

(UPCAT) is considered as “a qualifying exam” for the senior high
school students who aspires to be an “Iskolar ng Bayan” of the
university. There are thousand applicants who hopes to study at
the prestigious UP.

The test generally consists of 4 sections such as the Language

Proficiency, Science, Mathematics and Reading Comprehension. And
also has an essay part and the duration of the exam can last up to
5 hours. The qualification of the students to the university
depends on two things, their test scores and the weighted average
in their first three years of high school. The test score is added
to the weighted average to see if they will be qualified or not.
(What is the UPCAT?, 2008. January 19).

The University of the East (UE) encourages the students to use

the online registration when they are applying. The applicants
will go to the official website to sign up. Entrance exams can be
taken during the weekdays as well as Saturdays. The applicant has
two options for the time the exam would be taken, one in the
morning at nine and the other at two in the afternoon. The exam
lasts for three hours. It includes the major subjects such as
Mathematics, English and Science. Results of the exam is release
within the day the exam was taken along with the requirements
needed to be admitted to the university. (UE Application and
Entrance Exam Basics. 2010, October 22)

According to Academic Clinic (2009, July 16), the University

of Sto. Tomas Entrance Test (USTET) tests the students’ stock
knowledge based on the lessons the student had in high school. The
USTET is divided into five sections such as Mathematics, Science,
Language, Personal Information and Mental Aptitude. The Personal
Information would be an easy section if the student knows the basic
information needed. For the Mental Aptitude, it is the much like
an IQ exam that includes general knowledge.

The Science section deals mostly with Physics, Chemistry and

Biology and is one of the most focused aspect in the test. As for
the Language Section, it involves the usual- identifying errors
reading comprehension. Finally, the Mathematics section would be
the longest among the five that contain questions related to
algebra, geometry and basic trigonometry.

The De La Salle University College Entrance Test (DLSUCET)

is the test given by the De La Salle University to aspiring senior
high school students. Students must pass in order to be admitted.
The exam will include questions about spatial reasoning and
trigonometry questions. Students should expect essay questions to
be included in the exam whether it would be in English or in
Filipino.

For the Science and Mathematics section in the exam,

familiarizing the formulas and understanding the concepts will
help students to answer the test rather than relying on stock
knowledge. According to the author, the difficulty of the exam
will be based on the “person’s background, academic training,
talents and skills” but unlike the ACET, the DLSUCET is not much
of a time pressure test. (What to Expect from the DLSUCET. 2009,
March 29).

Related Studies

According to the website of Big Future (2017), significantly,

entrance examination applies a common standard to everyone which
helps incoming college students from different high schools to
evaluate and compare their standard to it. Not all schools offer
the expectations they got from the previous school they have been
attending. Once they apply an entrance exam to college. Schools or
universities look at their test scores, along with their high
school grades and courses. It also tests their ability how to
handle enough the stress in a college-level work.

With reference to Smith (n.d.), entrance exam is importance

since it will refresh your mind from forgetting some of your
lessons you took up. It will also help you to choose the best
school for college. You can see what university or school is
offering or prepared the best quality of education in terms of
your course. With this, you will be able to learn where you belong
and what school can hone your skills further.

According to Harriet Broder (2014) schools and countries

vary, along this, the educational standards do vary. College
entrance exams, a standardized gauge, is primarily a necessity to
decipher one’s critical reading, thing, and the problem solving
skills that are really important for college.

He also claimed that the main purpose of college entrance

exams is to measure how the senior high school students reacts or
thinks and reads critically. It builds the problem solving skills
of a student that is necessary when you're in college. An
observation resulted that students that is a "bookworm" passes and
gets the high score in an entrance exam but the teenagers in this
generation don't choose reading as a past time. The impact of the
college entrance exams helps the senior high school students to
develop their skills and in that case it makes the college entrance
exam important.
 The article “The Real Role of Tests In Your College
Application” (n.d.) discussed that entrance examination applies a
common standard to everyone. This helps colleges evaluate and
compare the preparation of students who go to different high
schools. All schools do not offer the same academic programs,
learning environments or even expectations. Colleges look at your
test scores, along with your high school grades and courses, to
see how well prepared you are for college-level work.

Most four-year colleges accept applicants based on their

scores in the college admission tests. Since all schools or
institutions do not propose the same academic performance, college
admission help colleges to assess and compare students from
different schools, moreover, these tests, are designed to measure
student’s capabilities and how ready they are to college live work
(“Taking College Entrance Exams,”).

According to Megan Weyrauch (2014), there are about nine (9)

fatal effects of test-induced stress. These are (1) heavy drinking,
drug or tobacco use, (2) weight outgrowth, (3) dropping out, (4)
depression and anxiety, (5) physical health issues, (6) sleep
issues, (7) compromises immune system, (8) cognitive symptoms,
lastly, (9) emotional or behavioral symptoms.

Putwain’s research of 2013 concludes that studying for exams

can be stressful because of its educational and/or working
consequences. Moreover, the problematic they become, just like
other psychological concepts, are caused by how closely they are
analyzed. Also, studies have shown that the low test-anxious
students are into less effort than highly test-anxious students.

In accordance to Sullivan (2015), an investigation showed

that requests for counselling rose to 200 percent. The ChildLine
service received more than 34,000 who are approaching for help.
The ChildLine National Exam Stress Survey says that there are
students who already completed the survey and felt anxious towards
the exams and revision, and also there are students who feels
pressure from of their parents, and some of the students says that
never in their lives that they have received any support in dealing
examinations. Just to pass the test or exam, students have skipped
their meal, choosing not to sleep just to review and not to fail,
and the worst is some students drank alcohol as their way of
dealing with the anxiety of exam.

Also, Lane and Van Bergen (2014) also tackled about the first
Australian university to debate about the abolition of exams — the
Macquarie University in 2011. According to them, it was debated
that exploring and thinking critically was the failure of exams to
develop. They believe that exams cannot help the students in the
"real world".

However exams do really have benefits but exams also needs to

meet the quality and in order to meet the quality. An exam should
contain different strategies and tasks to give a student more
opportunities so as to demonstrate what they learned and what they
can do and students must be fitted for a purpose.
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Kind of Research

Qualitative research suggests an emphasis to the qualities of

a certain phenomenon or processes that are not measured in
experimental basis and employs stress on the nature of reality
that inclines to social science to which seeks answers from
immersion or inductive exploration of the researcher to the subject
of the study in order to interpret the given information from
subjective point of view (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000).

In the case of our study, the researchers opt to use a

phenomenological qualitative research since we rely to the
subjective experiences of the respondents in order to list down
the underlining psychological impacts that the study aims. It is
indeed a suitable research type on our study due to the fact that
phenomenology explicates its findings as a product of the team’s
perspectives and empathy towards the subjects and their self-
outlooks (Denzin, 2000).

Gathering information from grade 12 STEM students

specifically, on how they contrive with the pressure of entrance
exams, understanding their experiences and behavior as admission
tests approaches, exploring and observing the different response
of each participants to the stress induced, are just some of the
queries from the phenomenon that are needed to be described in a
qualitative manner in order to justify the goal and meet the
requirements of the study.

Research Design

According to De Vaus (2001), a research design acts like an

organizer that connects the different components of the study into
a coherent framework. The gathered evidence in the study must be
used properly for the research problem to be addressed in a
“logical and unambiguous” way thus the research design is important
in a study. According to the University of Southern California
(n.d.), a mistake often made by researchers is that investigations
are started without properly thinking what kind of information or
data is needed in order to execute the study correctly which leads
to the research problem being “inadequately addressed”.

For this study, a descriptive survey is used for the research

design. According to Working Papers in Art Education (1981), a
descriptive survey attempts to show the “range and distribution”
of social characteristics such as education and discover how the
characteristics can affect behavior or be related to it.

The said research design was used since the study is all about
the psychological impact of college entrance exams to students.
The study focuses on the students to see how college entrance exams
affects them thus it falls on the research design—— descriptive
survey.

Sampling Design
 According to the website Sage Research Methods of 2008, the
basic form or structure as the foundation for the selection of a
survey sample is considered to be the sampling design. It also
affects other significant phases of a survey as well. In sampling
design, one must outline a sampling frame that should be
practically similar to the population which portrays the
population of the interest.

In this study, the researchers have chosen the stratified

random sampling as the method that will be used for our sampling
design. Stratified random sampling is a kind of sampling that
includes the minimization of population into minor groups that is
otherwise known as strata ("Investopedia", 2017).

With this method, the researchers would be able to accredit

a sample population that defines the population that is being
investigated. ("Starttrek", 2018) It will present a more specific
or detailed population that will be needed for the survey of the
study that deals with the psychological effect of entrance
examination, thus allowing simple and efficient technique that
requires less working force for the researchers.

Research Instrument

According to the article of Research Rundowns (n.d), a

research instrument is a measuring device used in gather
information during a research study which helps the researchers
find answers for the study.

The research instrument that was used in the study is a survey.

Using a survey will give a researcher an advantage of spending
less time in gathering data at the same time obtaining a large
amount of information. The survey that was used for this study
includes open-ended questions where the participants will supply
an answer as well as a list of sentences describing what they feel
and will then be rated from 1 to 10.

Flowchart of the Study

Determining the
locale or Preparation of
location materials

Choosing possible
participants

Collecting
obtained data

Analyzing the
data

Summarizing the
data
Materials & Methods

Determining the Locale

The study will be conducted inside the campus of Manila Tytana

Colleges since the participants for this research are senior high
school students, particularly, those from the grade 12 STEM
academic strand. The descriptive surveys will only be held within
the vicinity and restrictions of the institution.

Preparation of Materials

The prospect Grade 12 STEM students will receive a consent

wherein they could respond if they were to participate or not in
the research. The consent will also contain the objective and gist
of the study for transparency purposes.

Choosing Possible Participants

The Grade 12 STEM students will be gathered during their

dismissal time in order to avoid conflict with their class
schedule. They will also be notified about the date of survey
schedule through their accounts. Prior to this, the participants
will also have the right to decide whether they like to expose
their profile or keep their information with anonymity as courtesy
to ethical protocols.

Collecting Data
 The data will be collated after all the required participants
have finished filling up their designated descriptive survey
forms. In the other hand, in case that the researchers encounter
scarcity of data and find some invalidity in their papers, they
would reconstruct a data collection through the same survey type.

Analysis of Data

The collected data will be analyzed with pertinent scrutiny

yet maintains that there is no any implication of bias as the
researchers’ analysis takes place. No manipulation of the
subjective responses will be observe as the data interpretation
progresses. In this interval, the researchers will also deliberate
whether the information collated is enough or not, if it happens
that the researchers encounter scarcity of reliable information,
the researchers will carry out reconstruction of data collection.

Summarizing Data

After the analysis has taken place, the researchers will

summarize the data through detailed results of the information
gathered. The summary will include the researchers' remarks,
conclusion and interpretation from the findings to which we could
relate in the study's objective and relevant literatures to show
consistency and adequacy of the necessary data to fulfil the
requirements of the research, specifically, the explication of
psychological impacts.