Category Archives: 3. Prof. Skills & Abilities

How my first Winter Assessment at university was critical to my professional development.

Being first year at university, the first semester was split in half between my academic responsibilities of attending classes and completing assignments and my social life, whether that be with the rugby team or forming new friendship groups. The cycle of trying to balance both of these aspects continued until mid November when assessments for both my Values and Working Together Modules began to loom. Like my A-Level Examinations, I applied more effort to my Academic responsibilities whilst saving my social life for the weekends. When these assessments came about however the Values: Self, Society and the Professions took up most of my time. This assessment made me realize how valuable a broad range of literature is in helping develop arguments cohesively whilst also providing depth. This has made me reflect on how I might better conduct myself during the second semester, with me now beginning to  read outside of just the required reading in order to inform my viewpoints and practice in an academic and school setting. This has occurred as a result of me receiving a C1 for this assessment as one of the main critiques of my essay was whilst making my viewpoints and statements clear, I did not provide enough insight into these points which a wider array of reading surely would have benefited. The process of reflection isn’t merely an afterthought of wishing you had done something better, but is something that should be pondered and analysed in order to influence future elements in our academic lives and put into practice these changes. Reflection should be carried out after most tasks as nothing we ever do will be truly perfect, and reflection upon this will lead to a betterment of all aspects that are reflected upon, be it essays, professional practice or even everyday life, which leads to us benefiting not only ourselves but also the societies we live in.

Managing my Learning

Recognition/ Reflection

What helps my learning?

>Discussing the topic with others.

  • I can utilize this by meeting up with classmates in order to gain new perspectives and ideas for my work.

>Creating lists

  • I can utilize this by grouping similar topics together and create lists of key facts in order to skip out useless text.

>Colour-coded notes

  •  I can utilize these by making colour-code notes in order to see key information more clearly by assigning different aspects to colours e.g. green for statistics or figures.

>Revision Timetable

  • Create a revision timetable to include time balance for both a social life and academic studies in order to provide maximum efficiency.

 

 

What hinders my learning?

 

>Easily distracted

  • Study in a quiet place e.g. library away from friends but close to others in course.
  • Put phone in another room or give to someone.

>Time management

  •  I can combat this by creating a comprehensive revision timetable with breaks and social time alongside balanced study periods.

>Work ethic

  • I can work against this by getting myself up at set times in order to get the work out of the way – motivate myself to get up at these times.

>Long, copious notes

  • Review notes throughout the year and re-do them until only one page long.