Резюме. It is necessary for students to spend a long and exhausting period for the university entrance exam. This period has some certain negative effects on the students and the parents. Both parents and students are directly affected by those negative problems. This situation causes physical and moral damages for the families, who sometimes get exhausted. In this study, a questionnaire consisting of 38 questions on “ A research on the University Entrance Exam in Turkey” was given to 400 parents whose cildren were still attending different high schools or private teaching institutions or graduated from those schools or institutions in Edirne and then the data collected were analysed.

Ключови думи: students, University Entrance Exam, parents

Introduction

There are exams to be taken and passed in one’s lifetime in Turkey. The most important exam is the one that has to be taken when a person graduates from a high school.

Both students and parents have some certain responsibilities during the preparation period of university entrance exam. The most important role of the parents is to support and motivate their children.

Famillies have an effect on the level of children’s motivation consciously or unconsciously. This effect has a positive, but sometimes has a negative effect on them. The statements expressed and the behaviours criticized may affect the children in a negative way, and increase the level of anxiety by lowering their motivation. This situation causes the students to be unhappy, unproductive and nervous during the period of university entrance exam. The first requirement that is neccessary to have a positive effect on children is to understand what they want.

There are a lot of scientific researches that show the relationship between the parent-child and the children’s school performance. In those studies, it is pointed out that the attitudes of the parents have a positive or negative effect on children’s social competence due to the support given or discipline?. It is stated that the attitudes of the parents , especially the attitudes of a mother who spends much of her time together with the child when compared with those of a father, play an important role in the development of one’s personality (Baumrind, 1968; Maccoby and Martin,1983). The interaction between the family members is very important according to the descriptive studies conducted so far (Amato, 1989).

Most of the parents have the idea that children should be forced in order to get a good education.However, the parents could be a model for children if they take the following points into consideration:

– Appreciation

– Openness

– Sharing the feelings mutually

– Live and let live

– Giving opportunities to children to develop their abilities and skills.

The parents could be a good model and also help develop their children by taking the above mentioned points into account (Tausch,1991; Gramer, 1994).

Problem

The purpose of this research is to provide necessary data for diccussion about the determination of the problem concerning measuring the expectancy level of the university enterance exam and finding out the possible ways of solving anxiety problems.

Hypostesis

The hypostesis of this research are:

1. The whole system starting from the primary education up to high school is focused on the university enterance exam.

2. The components of the university enterance exam has emerged a new system. That is private courses given by the private schoools. The function of those private schools has become the most important factor in education.

The Universe

The population of this research includes the parents of the senior year students attending the high schools and the high school graduates taking private courses, and of those first year students at university.

The questionnaire consisting of 38 items was answered by 400 parents whose children were high school students and the first year students at universities, and were also the high school graduates taking private courses.

The data was evaluated using Excel program. All the data were converted into graphics. Short explanations and interpretations are given under each graphic.

Findings

1) What is the education level of your child?

(1) Senior highschool student 243

(2) Highschool graduoten prepariny for university 109

(3) Registrated in a University 48

61% of the children of the parents participated in the study were senior highschool students, the 27% of the children were reported to be gettiry prepared for the university exem, 12% were registrated in the university this year.

2) What is your gender?

(1) Female 196

(2) Male 204

51% the parents participated in the study were male, and 49% of them were female.

3) Occupation

(1) Civil servant 116

(2) Worker 50

(3) Retired 58

(4) Craftsman 32

(5) Self-emplayed 40

(6) Merchant 17

(7) Manufacturer 7

(8) Farmer 36

(9) Unaccupied 12

(10) Other 32

29% Of the parents participated in the study were civil servant, 12% of them were worker, 15% were retired, 8% were craftsman, 10% Self-emplayed, 4% were merchant, 2% were manufacturer, 9% were farmer, 3% were Unaccupied and 8% were stated to be appertaining to ather jobs.

4) Incame per month?(Turkish Liras-TL)

(1) Less than 300 TL 5

(2) Between 300-600 TL 14

(3) Between 600-1000 TL 70

(4) Between 1000-2000 TL 171

(5) Between 2000-4000 TL

(6) Mare than 4000 TL 38

The resultsrelated to the accupation and incame irdicate that the parents are mostly in the middle-class in terms of social.

5) From which of high-school did your child gradvate?

(1) State high scholl 131

(2) College 171

(3) Technical scholl 42

(4) College scholl 42

(5) Other 14

The children of 43% of parents participated in the study were gradvates of college and 33% of them were students of state high school.

6) Who was effective to choose the your child’s high school?

(1) Completely our (parents’) decision 58

(2) My child’s decision 154

(3) We decided all together 135

(4) The recommendation of the teachers 27

(5) By chance 26

38% of the parents who participated this study implied that they had choosen the high school of their children by themselves. 34% of them implied that they had decided together.This chart shows both the children and their parents’ decision is effective to determine the children’s high school.

7) Are you happy with your child’s high school?

(1) Yes 224 (2) Partly 145 (3) I’m contrite 33

More than half of the parents indicate that they are happy about their children’s high school .

8) Do you believe that your child must study at the university in order to be successful in life?

(1) Yes, I do 308

(2) No, I don’t 92

A great part of the parents in this study beleive that their child must study at the university to be successful in life.

9) How do/did getting ready for the university entrance exam affect the life of of your child?

(1) He was overwhelmed and tired 175

(1) Often it was boring 188

(2) Did not affect 37

Most of the parents signify that they are aware of the psychological pressure of getting ready for the university exam on their children.

10) What was/is the meaning of being unsuccessful in the university entrance exam for your child?

(1) Their life got /will get worse 61

(2) To study again till the next year üniversity entrance exam 185

(3) finding a job immediately 38

(4) Making alternative plans for the future 48

(5) being ashamed against us and social environment 47

(6) don’t know 21

An important part of the parents can not think any alternative to the university entrance exam for their children. The troublous position when the children will be in if they can not be successful in the exam is known by their parents,too. Therefore,parents heed the exam.

11) Which was/is more useful? Vocational guidance given at school or at the private courses to advertise the university-faculty-department to your child .

(1) At school 41

(2) At the private course 147

(3) Both of them 168

(4) None of them 44

Few of the parents in this search think that the vocational guidance given at school for the introduction of the departments is sufficient. According to the parents private courses are more persuasive . It is confirmed by the parents that schools are inadequate with both their educational functions and guidance services.

12) How did your child decide the area that they studied/will study for higher education ?

(1) It was his/her ideal occupation. 223

(2) It was prestigious 48

(3) He/she can earn a lot of Money 67

(4) He/She can work for the government 26

(5) To have an academic career 16

(6) Occupation of father-mother. 12

(7) Other reasons 8

56 % of the parents participated in this study state that their children choose their area because it was their ideal . On the other hand 17 % of the parents signify that their children choose the area because they can earn a lot of money, 12 % of them imply that the area is prestigious.

13) Under whose influence did your child choose the ar higher education?

(1) Completely his/her own decision 313

(2) I and my wife/husband’s decision 39

(3) Guidance of their teacher 29

(4) Have no idea 19

While more than two-thirds of the parents stated that their children had choosen the area they had aimed to study for higher education by themselves, others stated that they themselves and the teachers guided the children. Parents who were effective to choose the high school became less effective for university choice.

14) Which education is more beneficial? The education that your child had studied at school or at the private courses?

(1) Education at school 38

(2) Education at the private courses 114

(3) Both of them 195

(4) None of them 53

Only %9 of the parents think that the education at school is sufficient for getting ready to the university entrance exam. The persentage of the parents who think the education at both school and private courses are sufficient is % 49. %29 of the parents think the education at the private courses is sufficient .

15) What do you think to do if your child can not pass the exam to study at a state university or to have a scholarship for a private university?

(1) I let my child study at the private university 44

(2) I send my child study abroad 21

(3) I let my child to study for the next exam in the following year 262

(4) I want my child to start in business 17

(5) I want my child to study at a vocational course 8

(6) I send my child to the army 15

(7) Other 13

It is seen that most of the parents don’t have any alternative plans to the university education. The persentage of the parents who have alternatives like private university or study abroad, is %16. The persentage of the parents who prefer the alternatives like business life and vocational courses, is %6. %66 of the parents are planing that their children should study for the next year’s exam once again if they are not successful.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that all the parents want to help their children during this critical period. But, the most important factor is when and how they are supported to increase their success. The parents should tell their children that the exams are the tools to reach a goal in their lives.

One of the mistakes made by parents during the exam period is that children have to be successful under all circumstances and should have the best personality in public. This results from the prejudice that is one of the reasons affecting partents’ attitudes toward their children. This expectation may also result in depression.

When children are forced to do something unwillingly, the following problems may come out; they study more than they have to do, because they think that if they fail, then they will not be praised and loved by their families. This causes them to be in depression which can affect thier academic performance in a negative way.

However wrong it is to expect from children to be pefect, it is also wrong not to care about their successes and failures, not to guide them, not to motivate them. The parents who have no expectations from their children and do not care about them are more harmful than those parents who have some certain authority on their children.

REFERENCES

Amato, P, R. (1989). Marital conflict, the parent-child relationship and childselfesteem, Family Relations, 35: 403 – 410.110:26 – 46.

Baumrind, D, (1968). Authoritarian v.s authoritative parental control. Adolescence,3: 255 – 272.

Gramer, B. (1994). Mutter-kleinkind-beziehung, begin der psychischen stcuktur, prax kinderpsychol.Kinderpsychiat, 43:345 – 349.

Maccoby, EE & Martin, J.A. (1983). Socialization in the Context of Family: ParentChild interaction ( Eds.Mussen, P.H.& Hetherington, E.M) Hondbook of child psychology. Socialization, personality and social development, 1 – 101, New York:Willey.

Tausch, R. (1991). Erziehungspsycohologie, Hogrefe, Gottingen.Verlang für psychologie.