I’ve always been a perfectionist so trying to be reasonably good at everything was quite important to me at school. I developed a love for maths and science at high school and if I didn’t want to be a primary school teacher, I would probably be doing a maths/science degree right now. Throughout high school I never really enjoyed English which was compulsory until 6th year. No matter how hard I worked to try and improve my grade, nothing seemed to work which was I didn’t enjoy it.

Since coming to university, I’ve been able to identify more specifically what was going wrong with my understanding of English through the OLA. Additionally, reading The Study Skills Book by Kathleen McMillan and Jonathan Weyers particularly improving your academic writing has enabled me to reflect more on the specifics of my weaknesses and since then I’ve hopefully been able to improve small parts of my writing through practicing.

Even though Maths has always been my strong point, doing the OMA has made sure that my basics Maths is still up to scratch and hasn’t been forgotten after doing Advanced Higher. It’s also allowed me to improve on sections that weren’t focused on that much throughout High School and I wasn’t as confident in.

Over the years of studying for exams, I’ve built up a handful of basic skills that are less important but make all the difference! For example, time management was essential in making sure I had allocated enough time for each subject, keeping stress to a minimum. Additionally, I’ve developed study habits and learning strategies which I know work for me and has enabled me to spend time studying effectively through various methods.

Knowing and understanding your academic skills is something I believe is very important and essential if you want to be a teacher. In order to teach the basic of academic skills, you must have a good understanding of yours and where you’re at with them. Over my years at university, I intend to gain a better understanding of my academic skill and constantly be developing them.