College success plan
It is surprising how time moves fast, as has been realized, based on the fact that my freshman year is almost over. Contrary to my expectations, college level education is much difficult. It comes to my thoughts that the first semester entails the hardest part of the entire course, owing to the fact that one has to adjust to life away from home. In my previous levels, I worked hard and this would transform into excellent grades. However, it has come to my realization that there is hardly any homework given in college and an individual has to work extra hard and train to be a test taker. This course requires me to attend every class in order for me to be successful. Through my problem solving class, I have learned my weaknesses and strengths and have developed means to assure success in the future. To succeed it is important to come up with the best learning techniques as well as use methods that best match up my personality.
I have an outgoing personality and I am describable as a very caring person. In a personality spectrum, I emerged as the best in Giver and Organizer. It was not surprising to me considering that my profile could make me qualify. I will proceed to be a Giver and Organizer throughout my course and will require to have shaped up communication styles by focusing on structure and completeness. To enhance my speech, I will ensure my statements are well structured and this will facilitate delivery of the messages I communicate. Focus and care for others as well as incorporating harmony and a sense of closeness in relationships with other people will help me relate with people more efficiently. My personality enables me to work with groups of people, a strength that I apply and benefit from in academics. Before embarking on studies, I always make sure that I have all the material required ready, thus ensuring proper organization in my way of doing things.
In my college, I have learned new things, most importantly, to work on my weaknesses while focusing on my strengths. Being a practical thinker has enabled me to pick up well in my new environment. Through the lectures I have undertaken this semester, I have realized the learning styles that work best for me, which would help me to benefit from what I learn. Through several intelligence tests undertaken, I have also realized that I am appreciative to flow and rhythm. This relates perfectly with my ability in music, a talent I have worked on since I was a child. Having been introduced to music at an early age, I am able to make lyric to assist me remember facts, including academic information. This gives reason to my ability in interpersonal and verbal linguistics. Although I have a weakness in math and logic, I am strong in spelling and vocabulary. On top of memorizing points musically, other methods of studying that I found helpful to me are flashcards, visual clues, acronyms and repetition. Using my skills in interpersonal relationships, I can be able to fit perfectly in groups and maintain relationships among peers.
I have various weaknesses that I need to work on and eliminate. Active listening has always been troublesome to me, making it difficult for me to give undivided attention to my studies. It happens in lectures when my mind wanders away as the professor does his presentation. Based on the fact that I am not a creative thinker and visual spatial intelligence has never been easy for me, it becomes necessary for me to work on my strengths to cover up for the benefits I would gain from the former. I am also quite poor in paraphrasing as I find myself copying all the information from which I am supposed to obtain only the important points to make notes. In the past, I have found copying being easier and saving much of my time. However, I need a more efficient way of making notes in class. So far, I find making notes on slides as well as printing lectures working out for me. This technique has been helpful as it not only helps me make the needed notes but also aids me in adding own notes when I attend lectures. Combining personal and the professor’s notes is helpful as I have plenty of information to learn from during the exams. My work plan entails being a good listener as well as improving my skill in note taking.
Reading comprehension is another of my great challenges. I have struggled with this owing to the fact that I have failed to enjoy the content I read since I was younger. This can be attributed to the fact that I require a book to interest me as I start reading, in order for me to continue reading. I get challenged as I read as my mind always seems to wander in the course of my reading. Being a slow reader is also challenging for me and this makes my reading a time consuming practice. Considering the fact that there is so much to be done in college, it proves impossible for me to read for fun. From this class, I have learnt the SQ3R method which I will use in my future. This method which entails surveying, questioning, reading, reciting and reviewing was helpful in improving my ability in comprehension of personal work or for college classes. I sought to identify how much helpful SQ3R was to other students and obtained a very positive general reaction towards the topic. Barbara explained that she considered it them most efficient and effective method of study. She supported this by saying its flexibility helps the individual to bring personal stules and study preferences to the system. She also informed that contrary to the fact that the method is time consuming, it has results that make it worth being used.
With the help of Allie Bondanza, I have learned that reading all text assigned by a professor before a class session is helpful in making the learner understand what the lecture entails. She made it clear that this facilitates a student’s general ability to gain knowledge in many other aspects. It came to my realization that with a greater variety of resources, I can be able to understand what is being taught better.
Also important in my college studies is improvement of my grades by a great scope. This needs to be done strategically to ensure that it happens as soon as I start working to advance my grades. Nervousness has always been a hindering factor when taking my tests. There is need to prepare for exams early enough, have time to relax before embarking on an exam and develop a positive attitude towards myself. Taking pre tests is also important by giving me a general outline of the main paper, helping me identify the nature of my exams. In class, I will find thoughts to positively occupy my mind, ensuring that I am as relaxed as possible in readiness for the exam. Understanding the instructions will be helpful to me in determining the requirements of the paper. In questions that require multiple choices, I will learn to circle out quantifiers and eliminate the inappropriate answers. To avoid taking too much time on the difficult questions, the best method will be solving the easiest questions first it will be necessary to leave them out and get back to them later on. Answering the easy questions first aids in boosting my confidence, and I am able to solve the difficult questions alike.
Of the lessons I learnt in this semester, one which interested me most concerned discrimination, bullying and relationship abuse. I learnt about the issue of racism in the culture of the USA. Briefly talking about this issue, I learned that different races are treated differently, depending on the traditional belief about every particular group of people. For instance, Muslims are believed to be generally terrorists whereas African-Americans are treated as thieves. The inferior races will therefore feel unaccepted in the culture of the people oppressing them.
I have learnt about much racism from the work of Washington in his book “The New Colossus”. He explains about the harsh treatment given to illegal immigrants into the country, especially the Mexicans who come searching for jobs to sustain their families back in their homes. Contrary to the fact that they may not be given equal treatment as valid US citizens, their human rights should be respected and human treatment should be given to them. Racism becomes elaborate when a black goes shopping in particular places and is served with a very negative attitude. The author also discusses the rule of the borders, whereby borders exist among the emotional perception among people of different races in the same country. This has also to a great extent influenced the relationship between different people, even influencing the way people dress to avoid being judged as having emerged from a certain background. The issue of racism which is also depicted in modern day movies continues to be elaborate and has failed to be eliminated among the people through efforts from leaders and activists.
The American culture seems to remain as the king example of a culture where racism is attributed as a virtue. Every race will make remarks about other races to justify racist opinions and/or actions. The common belief that all African-Americans are thieves, Hispanics always aim taking all the jobs meant for the Americans and that all people that trace their origins from the Middle-East are terrorists is a belief that will influence people’s relationship unless it is eliminated from minds. This cannot be done easily as it does not take an individual’s effort to achieve this, but has to start from personal decisions to make a positive change towards eliminating the issue. By doing this, America will be on the verge of experiencing what has gripped the people’s minds for centuries. Consequently, the entire world will learn a new lesson from the country, the necessity to respect and appreciate all people, regardless of their race or cultural background.
Oppression of the weak in the society, a practice that makes some people to feel involuntarily inferior to other people also influences people’s lives as learned through the course. From personal experience, witnessing such oppression makes the sufferer feel demoralized to live among a people with such an attitude. The oppressed often feel inferior to the extent of fearing to showcase their capabilities among the bullies. Abuse goes as far as relationships between couples, whereby women are treated in inhuman manner, not being the chance to give opinions. This is also exhibited in certain movies, whereby the man is the subject and the decision maker while the woman takes the role of the object to assist man to execute his plans efficiently, while all the benefit goes to the man.
Based on help obtained from Chris Hampson in reply to questions on INDIV, personal opinions are not always the right aspects to follow in making decisions. This is due to the fact that as humans, we may make errors and do mistakes thinking we are doing right. These opinions could be obtained from influence by sources such as the media but following human ethics would help people to make the right decisions. The human values and ethics would consequently lead to elimination to some of these major issues that negatively influence the society.
In order to achieve my objectives in college, I will need to perfect my skills in research and writing. As far as I have gone through, I have had my skills in writing improved and what I need to work on and improve is research, which I am determined to achieve. I need to not only use online search engines but also the library from which I will get books to assist me research on the difficult topics as I progress. In choosing my career, I realized that I could not pursue a career that I did not have much interest in. I had tried with business but realized that it would not work well for me. I am in the process of making the final decision on the course I will pursue in college and throughout my career and will have to make an educated decision to be successful. I plan to execute ideas learnt in this course and apply them in my life experiences. College is all about growing up and I feel I already am becoming stronger and wiser and hopefully if I stick to this plan I will be the most successful I can be in the future with family, friends, school, and someday my career.
