Esraa N.

Learning your strengths and weaknesses in regards to studying in university is a key factor for academic success. Prior to attending the university, I always felt like my biggest challenge was procrastination. I could never find myself starting my homework before 10pm. This impacted my grades because I would perform poorly on homework assignments due to my lack of sleep, ultimately causing me to not actually learn the material and then perform badly on the exams. It also impacted my performance at school since I would be too sleepy to actually focus on what the teacher was saying and then when I had to do assignments, I was forced to relearn the material all alone.

Since I began at the university, I put in my mind that my undergraduate degree is very important for my future career and there is no time to procrastinate or falter on my academic work. I began by searching for ways to improve my organizational skills and the best ways I have found were to buy an agenda and organize all my school work, weeks ahead of time. Then, for short term organization, I create a day by day to-do list in order to stay on task all day. So far, this has helped me in a positive way since I actually time myself and do all the tasks I am supposed to do days ahead of time. I also get a much better amount of sleep since I am not cramming everything for the next day. My new way of thinking is to complete each task right when it is assigned instead of waiting until the day before to finish it.

I am slowly understanding myself as a learner throughout my university journey. I have noticed that I prefer to learn in a visual and audible way, rather than simply learning from a textbook. I understand concepts more when I see diagrams and/or when someone explains it to me. This can be a disadvantage because it generally takes more time to learn new topics since I need to go online and search different diagrams and/or watch videos on these concepts. I am also very dependent on professors because they can thoroughly explain concepts that I do not understand and I am able to ask questions right away instead of having to search for my answers alone. Next semester, I am going to try and introduce myself to different studying methods, specifically targeting textbook reading. This way, I will be able to practice all types of studying techniques instead of just relying on one. Overall, I believe I have been improving in understanding my strengths and weaknesses in regards to academic success.

Related posts:

I conceptualized myself as a person, a reader and a writer, who would want to learn something new in a class. At the beginning of the semester I didn’t know what to expect and what I was going to…