5A: Four weeks down!

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Four weeks already?! It feels like just yesterday I was walking on campus the first day of school anxious to know who was in my classes and what they were like. Now that I've completed four weeks of being in college, I have a lot that I can reflect on. 

The successes that I've had so far are making some new friends. I have someone I can talk to in every one of my classes, which for me, makes it a much better experience knowing that there's someone there to chat with.It makes me look forward to having my classes everyday. I have also gotten used to coming home and doing my homework right away and trying to finish it, even for the classes that don't meet the following day. Although, sometimes I wait until the night before and am trying to finish my homework in a hurry because I want to get it done and do other things, I'm trying my best not to. The thing that has been the most difficult for me so far is my time management. Since I commute to school, I have to make time to drive to school, walk up to campus and get to my classes on time. This I am not used to at all because I never drove myself to school before or am used to it. Also, when I get home from school I have to manage my time between homework/studying and relaxing and having some time just to chill out. I have not had any failures yet (luckily!) and am hoping to not have any in the future because I want my college experience to be a great one, and help me become a more knowledgeable person in the future.

In one of the articles we read this week "The Indispensable Importance of Setting Goals in College", taught me a good way that I can set my goals and I want to follow way that they set it up. First, you will need a goal that specifically states what you want to be done. You need a plan of action, otherwise you may not follow through with your goal, and then you need to put that goal into place and follow through with it! Once you know how to set and achieve your goals, you can become better and better at it!

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Another article I liked from the readings was on Cal Newport's blog (http://calnewport.com/blog/ ). The topic was studying, and he stated that memorization isn't the key thing to studying. This made me think, because when I'm studying a lot of the times I'm more focused on memorizing everything so that I know it. But he explained that memorization is the LAST step you should take while studying.

Principle #1: Learn It Once

This principle asserts that the correct time to learn something is when you first approach it, either in your readings or lectures. Waiting until the end to study results in a lot of wasted effort and poor grades.

Principle #2: Knowing is Being Able to Teach

If you can’t explain something simply, it means you don’t fully understand it. In keeping with the learn-it-once philosophy, the way you can tell you haven’t learned something is if you can’t teach it.

Principle #3: Memorization is a Last Resort

The final principle is that memorizing is a vice to be used only when absolutely necessary. Too many students use memorization as their first weapon of choice and therefore miss out on all the hard, but ultimately time-saving, insights they could have created through connections.

(http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/05/18/anatomy-of-an-a-a-look-inside-the-process-of-one-of-the-worlds-most-efficient-studiers/) 

My main goal with college is just to get good grades and become a better learner, but one of my smaller goals is going to become better at studying. I am going to use the information above in which will help improve my studying skills so I can reach my larger goal of good grades at college!! 

My cat likes to "help" me with my homework and studying by sleeping on top of my books!