Survey Discussion Question #4: Growth

When I was in high school, I was a pretty lazy student, doing the bare minimum necessary and getting some grades that reflected this attitude. However, in the latter half of my senior year, I realized that I needed to change my behavior in order to be successful in college. I used to think that my academic abilities were predetermined and I only had so much potential, but after putting in more effort to school I began to adopt the growth mindset and see that if I was willing to do what was necessary to do well, not only would my grades improve, but so would my retention and appreciation of knowledge.

 

Coming into college with this attitude has been very helpful. In the past, I used to do all my assignments at the very last minute, but now I try to be a little bit ahead of schedule. That way I can work on things without stressing about time as much. I’ve also been going to office hours when I don’t completely understand lectures. I almost never did that in high school, but in the past few months, I’ve been talking to professors outside of class at least every other week. Additionally, I’ve come to realize that education is a group effort and have started working with peers more. I used to only organize study groups before final exams, but since August I’ve been meeting with classmates just to do regular homework. As a result of my increased focus on academics, I currently have some of the best grades I’ve ever gotten, which is something I hope to keep up as best I can for the rest of my time as an undergraduate. I hope to expand on these good habits to ensure many more successful semesters.