Read the following quote by Dr. Pamela Brown, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs:
Learning is a source of hope for a better future. It requires hard work and sacrifice which can be even more difficult in challenging times. Your time in college is also your opportunity to connect with others, lift your spirit, enrich your life, and develop the skills and knowledge to make a difference in your community.
— Dr. Pamela Brown, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Choose a question below and write a reflection in the comment box at the bottom of this page.
- What life experiences have prepared me for college?
- When I have been faced with a difficult situation, what strategies did I use to find a solution?
- How will I create positive academic habits for myself?
Read and comment on another student’s post. These are your classmates, encourage them to work towards their goals.
I will create a positive academic habits for myself through investing four hours a day to study material or review new material. As I take breaks between these four hours, I will put a limitation on how much time I could use my phone.
Studying habits is a great ways to succeed throughout the semester and its good to hear you will also take breaks because that’s important too.
I will create positive academic habits for myself by being responsible and taking initiative, this means to not procrastinate.
Not procrastinating is a great ways to stay on task and to not fall behind so I’m glad to hear you plan to stay on top of things.
I will be organized in the sense that I know when my exams are and when homework is due. Keep track of time -> make a plan when to focus on college and make time for myself.
Sounds great!
making time for yourself is apart of self care and its nice to see you plan to get organized.
One life experiences that prepared me for college is always having a somewhat busy life and schedule. Always being on the go and having stuff to do at a set time can help we in college turn in work on time and having to work my personal life around school and soon a job.
Great, having schedule that works for you is always good.
Some life experiences that helped prepare me for college were some of the college tours that I took in high school. I think something else that really helped me was taking early college courses because that slowly showed me what a class will sometimes be like. I feel like I really enjoyed those classes because of the classes that I chose and I really enjoyed some of the papers that I wrote. When I was faced with a difficult situation I would normally ask for help. I have been to the college a few times so I sometimes don’t know where a classroom or something might be so I would usually ask a staff member or professor. When I was in high school, I had a question or confusion about the assignment I would ask during class, advisory, lunch or go to their tutoring if they had any. Some of the things I will be doing to create positive academic habits for myself is by doing my homework as soon as class is over. I know that this is really helpful as well as rewriting my notes so that I remember everything and I won’t have to worry about it until we have class next. I think something else that I would really benefit from is doing the office hours whenever the professor has it if I am free. The last things would be the student center and writing center because I know that I would most likely want someone to review my assignment before submitting it.
Amazing, making sure your assignments are done on time and taking advantage of office hours are great ways to have a successful semester as you mentioned.
Life experiences that have prepared me for college for sure is my architecture projects because I am a really shy person and not social at all and with all these presentations in person and online has built that somewhat my confidence and even built up my presentation skills throughout my years. In addition getting to work in team or even alone has helped me and feel like this will be very helpful in college as well. Lastly also knowing to not let criticism of my project get to me because I know this can help improve my project and even my self to be way better and I feel like this will happen very often due to my major being in architecture.
Sounds good, being open to feedback is a great mindset to have.
I would say mot of the life experiences that prepared me is stress. Stress and anxiety has always been a factor in holding me bask from assignments but also pushing me to do them knowing I need to persevere from the two to graduate college. I had to slow down on what I was doing and either step away and play some games or listen to my favorite artists like Pinkpantress to get through my assignments and finish what needed to be done. Most of the stress created was from procastation so this year im making sure I do my assignments fast as possible so i don’t need to stress at the due date.
Stress is definitely something that gets to all of us at some point so I’m glad you mentioned that.
I will create positive academic habits by planning out my weeks and months, a schedule to follow with their own hopes and goals for example, time for me to study and participate in any benefiting events like tutoring, making sure I give myself breaks in between to have a life outside of school and studying as my mental state will also effect me and my academics.
I will surround my self among peers who are around my level or higher, I find challenges and reinforce myself to be better than others. I strive to do better when I have friendly competition and a clear goal and see what I need to improve by being near peers who are doing better than me.
I feel rewarding my self for every noticeable improvement is important as it makes me want to continue doing good without straying.
Rewarding yourself is a great way to encourage improvement. I know many students that also still use this method.
A main life experience that I would say has prepared me for college would be my English and Economics teacher in high school since they mainly structured their class to mimic a college class. Both teachers wanted us to become more independent which forced us to become more organized and in the end prepared us more for college as they would say since their work load was also made to prepare us for the worst in college. Another life experience that has prepared me would have to be working while going to school since time management is something I learned how to do well and I’m able to multitask more easily, I’m able to go out of my comfort zone and talk when needed which seems like something I would need to do in college. Along with growing up having to relay on myself to do things made me more independent which is something that is needed since Im now going to do thing more on my own in college.
Wow, your experience has given you many skills such a multitasking which can definitely come in handy.
Creating academic habits is one of the most vital tools we can develop to ensure success in college. For me personally, I am going to work on my procrastination because I think procrastinating in college is not going to help me achieve my goals. One other thing is to be organized. Having a to-do list is really a lifesaver because it helps me to keep track of what I’m doing every day.
I’m going to try to be on time for my classes every day because starting a day where we don’t have to rush is less stressful. One last thing is to minimize distraction. As someone who gets distracted easily, I will try to set up screen times on my phone so I don’t actually get distracted all the time while I have some other stuff to do.
Trying to limit distractions is a great way to better enhance focus and I’m glad you mentioned it.
I think that taking college now courses throughout high school has helped me to prepare for college because it allowed me to know what it feels like to have a professor and what the consequences of not meeting deadlines and stuffs like that. It also gave me the feel of was it is like sitting through long lectures for example my sociology class went from 9:00-1:00 and that was something I wasn’t use to because in high school our classes go for 30 mintues long so that kind of help me prepare for college.
I can feel the same things that you feel, and I have been taking college now courses since I was in junior year. The professor won’t babysit you or tell you what to do step by step, and follows up with you once a week or tells you that you need to make up some work to pass the class.
I agree college now courses can help with real college . It puts us to the test and show how real life college would be and make you feel the pressure of longer classes
I’m glad to hear those courses you took in high school helped better prepare you. You wanting to taking to courses shows that you invested time for preparation which is great.
This sounds great that you experienced and felt how a long lecture feels like it and for sure will be very helpful and gives you a sense what to expect in these type of lectures in college if you take them.
Stepping out of my comfort zone and planning things out ahead of time can make a great impact to my academic life. Establishing a positive mindset and pushing yourself to do things we usually avoid can also make a difference in your routine. What usually works best for me is working in a well organized and neat space where I can be focused and feel clean. Setting goals and even creating a vision board might encourage you to do things and create a positive environment for yourself.
I want to get into the habit of planning things ahead of time because I tend to wait last minute and sometimes it becomes overwhelming also think doing this will help with good time management as well.
Everything you mentioned sounds great!
A positive mindset can also take you a long way.
When confronted with a difficult situation, I typically address the issues that need to be resolved right away. Most of the time I don’t want to leave the problem for an extended period, I will get overwhelmed when the same problem keeps coming up. If there’s a big problem on the way that I can’t handle right away, I will try to break it down and solve every detail issue.
I agree with you Xian. I feel that when you have many struggles/problems they pile up and you have no idea where to even start. Solving an issue as soon as possible is an act for being responsible and solving in detail can make you break down the issue, find a solution and learn from it.
I get where you’re coming from when you say you’re overwhelmed by work if you leave it be for too long. Finding ways to breakdown tasks into more manageable portions will always be a challenge.
Excellent!
Addressing the issue and breaking things down sounds great when it comes to problem solving.
When faced with difficulties, I try my best to see what exactly is making me have a hard time and either work around to make it better for myself or I take a break and come back to it when I’m calm and ready to look at it from a different angle.
That is a great strategy by looking at things from a different angle.
Ways that I am going to create positive academic habits. One way is by actually studying because out of all my years of being in school, I have never studied for a test or anything related to school but now I’m going to try new ways to study to see if any work. Also, another thing that I am going to work on is turning in my work on time because last School year that was a big issue that I had, So I need to build a schedule to set up my day-to-day so I can have a balance with everything in my life and that would also help me academically.
Excellent!
A schedule that works for you is always great to have.
I would say the mistakes I made in high school helped me prepare for college the most. Not finishing assignments on time, getting to school late, getting distracted and not paying attention. High school gave me the necessary time to realize what behaviors I needed to stop so I could improve.
Im glad to hear that you did a self reflection on how to not make the same mistakes again and its an amazing way to help make improvements.
To create positive academic habits for myself, I would first develop a study schedule that I can realistically follow. Additionally, setting academic goals is important so I can keep the bigger picture in mind. The main idea behind creating positive academic habits for myself is to be organized, have a schedule, set goals, and be prepared.
Nice!
Setting goals, being organized/prepared, and having a schedule are all great ways to develop positive academic habits.
For me, in order to have positive study habits in college I will be more on task and reduce my procrastination and will make time to study more effectively. In high school I was a huge procrastinator but I can’t do that in college because there are higher stakes.
Glad to hear you will try to limit procrastination. Study habits are also key skills to have.
For me, in order to have good study habits in college I will be more on task and reduce my procrastination and will make time to study more effectively. In high school I was a huge procrastinator but I can’t do that in college because there are higher stakes. I will schedule time to study and change the way I study.