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Questia Media, Inc. Reveals Results of Second Annual College Procrastination Study
HOUSTON (April. 16, 2002) - The second annual College Procrastination Study released by Questia Media, Inc. reveals that although
college students believe that procrastinating contributes to lower grades, the majority of students still do it. This finding along
with some surprising, and some not so surprising, results come to light as students begin the finals crunch and approach the end of
the spring semester. The Procrastination Study also comes the day after tax day, where many American adults also engaged in the
practice of procrastination, delaying their reckoning with Uncle Sam until the last minute.
The College Procrastination Study survey, conducted online by a leading marketing research company, Market Tree, Inc., polled 190
college students, all confessed procrastinators, enrolled in undergraduate degree-seeking programs. Highlights from the study are:
CHARACTERISTICS OF PROCRASTINATORS
- Surprisingly, seventy-one percent (71%) of the 190 procrastinators carry a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. This is holding steady from last year's survey where seventy-five percent (75%) of procrastinators held a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- Of all declared majors, students with Business/Marketing majors tended to procrastinate the most (15%). Business/Marketing majors were also the largest group in last year's study.
- Ninety-five percent (95%) of respondents cited they procrastinated very frequently or somewhat frequently.
- Sixty-six percent (66%) of all procrastinators pulled at least one "all-nighter" in the past six months. Sixteen percent (16%) pulled an all-nighter almost once a month in the past six months!
- Apparently, procrastinating does not just apply to paper writing but is a way of life. Sixty-six percent (66%) confessed to procrastinating in other areas of their lives beyond schoolwork, for example, bill paying, and doing errands.
- Seventy-two percent (72%) of procrastinators think that procrastinating contributes to lower grades while twenty percent (20%) think it has no effect and a mere six percent (6%) actually think it helps them do better in school.
- Sleep is king as evidenced by the forty-one percent (41%) of students who reward themselves with sleep when they turn a paper in. In the 2001 study, the bed was the most frequently favored paper writing spot (36%).
WHAT DO THEY DO WHEN THEY ARE PROCRASTINATING?
- Surfing the Internet is the most popular activity to do instead of paper writing (17%), with sleeping coming in second (13%). Ironically, eleven percent (11%) of procrastinators wasted time thinking of ways to get out of doing their paper.
- Sports dominate (23%) while soap operas (4%) seem to have fallen out-of-favor with students. Cartoons and reality TV are neck-to-neck in viewership (14% each), a seemingly incongruous pair.
- While television viewing is one of the most popular activities to do instead of writing a paper, most students did not watch much of the Winter Olympics. Fifty-one percent (51%) did not watch any of the Winter games.
THE EFFECTS OF SEPTEMBER 11TH
- The September 11th terrorism events were of greater viewing interest than the Winter Olympics. Fifty-seven percent (57%) spent three or more hours per day watching television following the September 11th attacks.
- The terrorist attacks of September 11th seemed to influence the leniency of professors in accepting late assignments. Thirty-four percent (34%) of the students said their professors allowed them to turn in assignments late due to the events of September 11th.
- National networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox and cable channels were the main sources of news following September 11th (61%). Seventeen percent (17%) relied on the Internet for their news.
MOST POPULAR EXCUSES
- It seems honesty is the best policy when it comes to the most popular excuse for turning in a paper late. Forty-five percent (45%) told their professor they had no excuse.
- Again, honesty prevailed as sixty-three percent (63%) stated the reason why their paper was late was due to the fact that they simply did not start their paper until the night before it was due.
WHAT THEY WOULD RATHER BE DOING THAN WRITING A PAPER
- Thirty-five percent (35%) said they would rather try bungee-jumping than writing a paper or studying.
- At the other extreme of the risk spectrum, twenty-five percent (25%) would rather shelve books at the library.
- Seventeen percent (17%) would rather watch paint dry.
Procrastination Study participants were sixty percent (60%) female and forty percent (40%) male.
Eighty-five percent (85%) attended school full-time and fifteen percent (15%) attended school part-time.
All classes were represented, with forty-two percent (42%) freshmen, nineteen percent (19%) sophomores,
eighteen percent (18%) juniors, and twenty-one percent (21%) seniors.
Students' research and paper writing habits are of great interest to Questia, which provides the world's
largest online library of books and journal articles along with time-saving tools that speed the paper
writing process. The Questia service offers students 24/7 access to 70,000 complete, scholarly books and
journal articles in the humanities and social sciences, paper topic suggestions, and general paper writing
help. The Questia tools enable subscribers to highlight in the text and make notes in the margins,
automatically create footnotes and bibliographies, and instantly access an integrated dictionary, encyclopedia
and thesaurus. The convenient nature of the online content, accessible 24/7 from any computer with Internet
access, and the significant time savings delivered by the research and writing tools, is the perfect solution
for all college students, whether procrastinators or not.
Questia recently released Version 2.5 of the service, which delivers even faster speed, and improved ease
of use along with the elimination of the Java software download necessary with previous Questia versions.
Version 2.5, delivered in the HTML technology, enables subscribers to use the Questia service from virtually
any computer, regardless of browser or operating system. Students can now access the Questia service even
from campus computers, which typically have a firewall with software downloading restrictions mandated by
campus administration.
About Questia
Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc., launched its revolutionary online library with powerful search and writing
tools created specifically to help students write better papers in January 2001. Questia provides unlimited access
to the full content of an extensive collection of books and journal articles, as well as a wide range of tools
including highlighter, markup, automatic footnotes and bibliography builder. For millions of students and researchers,
the Questia SM service will enable them to efficiently research and compose papers at any time, from virtually
every connected corner of the world. Based in Houston, Questia is delivering on the true promise of the Internet
by providing access to a wealth of human knowledge. Visit www.questia.com for
more information.
CONTACTS:
Helen Wilson
Questia Media, Inc 713-358-2551
hwilson@questia.com
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