Academic Performance in a Thesis: How Philippine Grades Are Measured and the National Benchmarks You Can Cite (2026)

The key point for your Chapter 3: in the Philippines, “academic performance” is not one number. In basic education it is a whole-number Final Grade per learning area, with 75 as the minimum for promotion, combined into a General Average. In college it is whatever grading system your university uses. Name the exact grade, the term and the source before you collect any data.

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What are the DepEd grading descriptors you can cite?

For basic education, the source to cite is DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, “Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program,” dated 1 April 2015. Its Table 10 sets out the descriptors, grading scale and remarks:

The same order says a Final Grade of 75 or higher in all learning areas allows promotion to the next grade level, and that a learner who gets a grade below 75 in any subject in a quarter must be given intervention through remediation and extra lessons. For Grades 1 to 10, a learner with “Did Not Meet Expectations” in not more than two learning areas must pass remedial classes to be promoted, and a learner with three or more such areas is retained.

A caution: DepEd has issued further orders since 2015, so confirm in your school year which order is in force and cite that one for your sample’s year. If you cite DO 8, s. 2015, say so explicitly and check its status with your adviser.

How is the General Average computed?

The same order defines the Final Grade per learning area as the sum of the four quarter grades divided by four, and the General Average as the sum of all final grades divided by the number of learning areas, with each area weighted equally. Grades are reported as whole numbers. The order’s own worked example shows eight learning areas with final grades of 85, 90, 83, 86, 91, 90, 81 and 85. Their sum is 691, and 691 divided by 8 is 86.375, which is reported as a General Average of 86.

Why this matters in a thesis: if you use the General Average as your dependent variable, your reader needs to know it is an equal-weight mean of whole-number final grades, so a student with strong Science and weak Filipino can have the same General Average as a uniformly average student. If your objectives concern one subject, use the subject’s final grade instead.

How do you measure academic performance in college?

Higher education institutions set their own grading systems. Many Philippine universities use a numerical scale that runs from 1.00 as the highest to 5.00 as failing, but cut-offs, the treatment of incompletes and the computation of the general weighted average differ by school. Do not copy a scale from another thesis. Take it from your university’s student handbook or registrar’s office and cite it, then state in Chapter 3 whether higher or lower values mean better performance. This one sentence prevents the common error of reporting a negative correlation when you meant a positive one.

Which measure of academic performance should you choose?

For national figures on board exam results, see board exam passing rates in the Philippines. Enrolment and graduation figures sit in our Philippine higher education statistics guide, and international test results and the statutes behind them are in education thesis topics supported by national data.

What does “benchmark” mean for a grade-based study?

There is no single national General Average that you can quote as a benchmark for your sample, and you should not invent one. The honest benchmarks available to a thesis are three. First, the DepEd threshold of 75 for passing and the five descriptors above, which let you report how many respondents fall in each band. Second, your own school’s previous-year distribution, if the registrar allows you to see it in aggregate form. Third, published national results on learning outcomes, such as board exam passing rates, which you cite as context in Chapter 1 and never as a comparison with your sample’s grades, since they measure different things. A sentence such as “the respondents’ mean General Average of [value] falls within the Very Satisfactory band” is a complete, defensible benchmark statement.

How do you write the operational definition?

An illustrative example for a Grade 10 study: “Academic performance refers to the respondent’s General Average for the first quarter of School Year [year], as recorded in the school’s official class records and described using the DepEd grading descriptors (Outstanding, Very Satisfactory, Satisfactory, Fairly Satisfactory, Did Not Meet Expectations).” For college: “Academic performance refers to the respondent’s general weighted average at the end of the second semester, as certified by the registrar, where [state whether lower or higher values are better].” For the conceptual definition, cite a published source and keep it consistent with your title. A fuller guide to turning variables into indicators is in operationalization of variables table examples.

Which variables and instruments pair with academic performance?

Because grades are the outcome, most theses pair them with predictors that need their own instruments:

• Study habits and time management: usually a researcher-adapted questionnaire. Validate it and report reliability, as in research instrument validation.
• Motivation and self-regulated learning: the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, whose reliability and predictive validity were examined by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and McKeachie (Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1993, volume 53, issue 3, pages 801 to 813). Pintrich and De Groot (Journal of Educational Psychology, 1990, volume 82, issue 1, pages 33 to 40) studied motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Confirm the current version and permissions before you adapt anything.
• Academic self-efficacy: grounded in Bandura’s 1977 paper, “Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change” (Psychological Review, volume 84, issue 2, pages 191 to 215).
• Gadget, social media or sleep habits: usually a short researcher-made scale, which is the part panels scrutinise most.

Choose the theory whose mechanism matches your predictor. The education theories most Philippine theses cite are laid out in which theoretical framework an education thesis should use.

How do you get grades ethically?

1. Write a request letter to the school head or registrar, stating the purpose, the variables, the period and how the data will be coded.
2. Get written consent from adult respondents, or parental consent and the minor’s assent for minors, following your ethics board’s template.
3. Replace names with codes before analysis, and store the key separately.
4. Report only aggregated results. Never present a table that identifies a student or a teacher.

Grades about an identifiable student are personal data, so plan this in line with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and your institution’s rules.

Which statistical treatment fits?

• Level of performance: frequency and percentage by DepEd descriptor, plus mean and standard deviation.
• Differences by sex, strand or school type: t-test for two groups, one-way ANOVA for three or more, with non-parametric alternatives for non-normal data.
• Relationship with study habits or motivation: Pearson r, or Spearman rho for ordinal or non-normal data.
• Prediction with several predictors: multiple regression, if your adviser agrees and your sample is large enough.

The general logic is in statistical treatment of data in a thesis.

A worked example of reporting the level of performance

This is illustrative data, not a finding. Suppose 40 Grade 10 respondents have the following first-quarter General Averages by descriptor: Outstanding 6, Very Satisfactory 12, Satisfactory 14, Fairly Satisfactory 6 and Did Not Meet Expectations 2. The counts add to 40. The percentages are 15.0, 30.0, 35.0, 15.0 and 5.0, which add to 100. Your Chapter 4 table has four columns: descriptor, grading scale, frequency and percentage. The sentence beneath it reads: “Most of the respondents (65.0 percent) were rated Satisfactory or Very Satisfactory, while 5.0 percent did not meet expectations.” Then, and only then, you move to tests of difference and relationship. Tables that skip this descriptive step tend to draw the panel question “what was the level of performance, exactly?”

Which 10 title ideas can you adapt?

These are illustrative titles to adapt to your setting.

1. Study Habits and Academic Performance of Grade 10 Students in [School]
2. Academic Self-Efficacy and General Average of Senior High School STEM Students
3. Online Gadget Use and Academic Performance of First-Year College Students
4. Parental Involvement and the Academic Performance of Grade 6 Pupils
5. Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance of Working Students
6. Learning Modality Preferences and Mathematics Performance of Grade 8 Learners
7. Reading Comprehension and Science Grades of Grade 7 Students
8. Attendance and Academic Performance of Students in a Public Secondary School
9. Financial Stress and General Weighted Average of Scholarship Grantees
10. Teacher Feedback Practices and Academic Performance in English

What mistakes do panels catch?

• Not stating which grade, which quarter or which year the performance variable refers to.
• Using a descriptor table from a blog instead of the DepEd order or your university handbook.
• Averaging descriptors, which are words, instead of the numeric grades behind them.
• Mixing grades across schools or teachers without stating that grading may differ.
• Treating a correlation between habits and grades as proof that habits cause grades.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the General Average as academic performance?

Yes, for a broad measure. If your objectives are about one subject, use the final grade in that subject, because a General Average hides differences between subjects.

Is 75 the passing grade at every level?

In DepEd Order 8, s. 2015, 75 is the minimum Final Grade for promotion in basic education. Colleges set their own passing marks, so check your university’s grading system.

Can I ask respondents for their own grades?

You can, but self-reported grades may differ from records. State the limitation, or request the grades from the registrar with consent and permission.

Are grades personal information?

Yes, grades about an identifiable student are personal data, so plan consent, coding and secure storage in line with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

Which statistical test compares academic performance between groups?

A t-test for two groups or one-way ANOVA for three or more, with non-parametric alternatives if the data are not normal. For relationships, Pearson or Spearman correlation.

Is academic performance the same as academic achievement?

Writers use the terms interchangeably, but you should define your term once and keep to it, and say which grades or scores it refers to.

Do I need a questionnaire if I already have grades?

Only for the independent variables. Grades give you the dependent variable, but study habits, motivation or gadget use must be measured with an instrument.

Where can I cite national figures on learning outcomes?

Use the national data guides on this site for PISA and board exam results, and cite the original agency release for any figure you quote.