FileMaker Press Release
High Schools Get Failing Grades from Students on Providing Organizational Skills to Succeed in College
National survey reveals nearly half of college students do not have the skills they need to cope with college demands
And for a generation of students raised on computer technology,
the survey also surprisingly found that almost half of college
students still manage their tasks and schedules by handwriting on a
personal calendar. The survey also revealed 48 percent of students
feel that partying “affects their grades.”
“Getting into college is only half the battle. Doing
well in college prep courses and achieving high grades in high
school is not enough,” said David T. Conley, Ph.D.,
professor of education in the College of Education at the
University of Oregon, director of the Center for Educational Policy
Research, and author of ‘College Knowledge: What It
Really Takes for Students to Succeed and What We Can Do to Get Them
Ready.’ “Students need both academic skills and
organizational skills to manage the many competing interests that
college life offers. While critical thinking and comprehension
skills are essential for any college course, it’s also
important that students have the ability to effectively manage
their time.”
Additional survey results include:
Students Need Better Time Management and Organization Skills
• 48.4 percent of college
students say they don’t have enough time to do their
course work.
• 87 percent of students
say that better time management and organization skills would help
them get better grades.
• 88 percent of college
students want to improve their ability to manage their time.
• 48 percent of students
manage their contacts, assignments and deadlines by handwriting on
a personal calendar.
Students Not Using Available Technology to Better Manage Their
Work
• 50 percent of students
do not use a single system (software usage or handwriting) to
manage all their contacts, assignments, lecture notes and research.
• 23 percent keep track of
schoolwork and To-Do items in their head, by memory.
• Only 21.7 percent
organize their research and lecture notes using database software.
• More than two-thirds of
students (68 percent) work on projects with one or more other
students.
• Email (66 percent) is
the most common way that students exchange course-related
information. Exchanging information using paper comes in second at
24 percent.
• 47 percent of college
students feel their high school did not “teach them the
organizational skills required to do well in college.”
Partying and Socializing Affects Grades
• Although most (74
percent) students spend less than 20 percent of their free time
partying, nearly half (48 percent) say that partying affects their
grades.
• 10.4 percent say
spending less time going to parties and socializing would get them
better grades.
• 13.6 percent say they
need to attend classes more consistently.
• 14.5 percent say they
spend between 20-30 percent of their time going to parties or
socializing.
With more than 12 million units distributed worldwide, FileMaker
Pro is used in each of the top 50 U.S. undergraduate colleges
including MIT, Stanford University, Cornell University, Syracuse
University, Rutgers University, Wheaton College, Medical College of
Ohio, UCLA and more. FileMaker Pro has received several key
industry awards, including “Product of the
Year” awards from both Macworld Magazine and PC Magazine.
Campus Productivity Kit info
Earlier this Fall, FileMaker introduced The FileMaker Campus
Productivity Kit (downloadable for free at
www.filemaker.com/cpkpr
),
an all-in-one ready to use database solution for Mac and Windows
PCs that allows students to easily manage key areas of their
college life: contacts; organize and search research and
lecture notes; track assignments and projects; manage and
coordinate events and all the extra To-Dos that go along with being
a college student.
Background and Methodology
The nationwide survey of 221 fulltime college students was
conducted in October 2006, by Greenfield Online (
http://www.greenfield.com
), an independent data collection firm, on behalf of FileMaker,
Inc. Respondents to the survey included 211 fulltime college
students. Quotas were set regionally, to ensure nationally
representative results.
About FileMaker, Inc.
FileMaker Pro is used by millions of individuals and workgroups
around the world to be more productive and efficient. Business,
education and government customers rely on FileMaker to manage
people, projects, images, assets and other information. In addition
to being the number one-selling easy-to-use database software, the
award-winning FileMaker product line also includes low-cost
Applications that automate basic business tasks, ready-to-use
Starter Solutions, and tools to create and share solutions from the
desktop to the web. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple
Computer, Inc.
Customer contact:
800-325-2747
http://www.filemaker.com
Media contact:
Kevin Mallon
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
©2007 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker is a
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respective owners.