| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the June examinations on the out-of-school activities of junior high school students. To do this it was necessary to survey the students' activities in a period well before the examinations as well as in the period immediately prior to the June examinations. It became a secondary purpose of this investigation to determine norms, useful in guidance, for the nature and extent of the out-of-school activities of junior high school boys and girls. The out-of-school activities of all of the students of the General Wolfe Junior High School in Winnipeg were recorded for the week of May 1st to May 7th, and for the week of June 8th to June 14th, 1961. A chart using a consecutive time line and a table of activities was devised whereby the students could record easily and reliably their out-of-school activities in terms of units of time spent. Students suggested the items of activity. A high-in-ability class and a low-in-ability class filled out trial charts; weaknesses in the structure of the chart were noted and revisions made accordingly. This process was repeated for two additional trial periods. Two guidance teachers briefed al of the classes in the school on the time-chart and the standard method of answering it, and a blow-up of a time-chart completed by a hypothetical student remained on display in every classroom. The finalized time-chart was administered by a selected group of teachers at the beginning of a subject period on each school day, using a brochure outlining standard procedures of administration. In collating the information from these time-charts, the objective was to obtain a figure for each specific activity of a class of boys or of girls that would be comparable between the sexes, with another class, with the entire grade, or with the whole school, and to compare this activity between one week in May and another in June. The figure used was the mean aggregate time spent on that activity during the week by the group concerned. The nature and extent of activities--The greatest differences in activity patterns of junior high school students were found when boys and girls were compared. Girls devoted more time than boys to homework and study, reading, music, personal care, and church attendance. Boys spent more time than girls at jobs, hobbies, television viewing, club attendance, and sports participation. As students advanced to the higher grades they devoted more time to things such as study and doing homework, frequenting restaurants, and being with persons of the opposite sex. They spent less time participating in sports, attending church, watching television, going to shows, and being with friends. Ability, as determined by the homogeneous grouping within a grade, was found to be the least influential factor in the activity patterns of junior high school students...
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