Demographic variables

1. Demographic variables • Result of study showed that demographic variables such parents’ education level and income had a positive relationship with the academic performance of the students (Norhidayah Ali et al, 2009). • Students with parents who are highly educated and have more income will have greater CGPA. • Checchi (2000) concluded that richer parents invested most resources in the education of the children.

2. Active learning • students who are actively engage in learning process are observed to have significant positive correlation; have greater CGPA (Norhidayah Ali et al, 2009) • In the context of classroom, active learning involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991).

3. Class Attendance • Researcher found that students who attend classes regularly obtained greater CGPA compared to those who absent from class (Norhidayah Ali et al, 2009). • Marburger (2001) also concluded that students who missed class on a given date were significantly more likely to respond incorrectly to questions relation to material covered that day than were students who were present. • Moore (2006) indicated that class attendance enhances learning; on average, students who came to the most classes made the highest grades • In the study by Habib-ullah Khan et al, 2003, has been shown that the class attendance during teaching sessions has a direct impact on the examination.

4. Participation in extracurricular activities • Students who are actively engaged in extracurricular activities were found to have higher CGPA (Norhidayah Ali et al, 2009); although the result was not statistically significant, however there is strong evidence to show that positive relationship does exist between the two variables. • Result showed that students who participated in school-based extracurricular activities had higher grades, higher academic aspirations, and better academic attitudes Darling et al (2005).

5. Others • In another study by Abdulrahman, Khalid A. ,2007, he concluded that factors that negatively interferes with academic performances include huge amount of lectures , disintegration between basic science courses, absence of student guide for all courses, instructional methodology that rely mainly on traditional lecturing, and student’s assessment tools that direct the learning towards recall and superficial domain of learning process.

6. In the same study, result shows that factors that positively enhance their academic achievement were: horizontal integration between basic sciences courses, presence of study guide for each course, improving lecturing skills of basic science teachers , interactive lectures or tutorials and problem-based learning in small group, reduce number of lectures and to allocate protected time for self-directed learning.