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My Takeaways

Throughout ES EPSY 1259: Learning and Motivation Strategies for Success in College, I not only learned a lot about how to become a successful college student, but I also learned a lot about myself and my shortcomings as a students. I want to preface this post by saying that this course was really helpful in my growing as a student and hopefully as a better learner in general. The book I chose for this class was How We Learn by Benedict Carey and my goal for this semester was to get a 3.75 gpa.

The first thing I had to do was I had to identify why I wasn’t successful. After some long thinking I realized I wasn’t getting the results I wanted because I was procrastinating and I had poor time management. Figuring out what your problem is, is the first step in how to solve your problem. And with that out of the way I decided to use the book I read in order to figure out what I needed to do in order to become a better learner.

In order to see if what I was doing was working, I decided to set a goal using the SMART goal method.

Image result for Smart GoalMy goal for this semester was to get a 3.75 GPA. This waas spefic, 3.75. It was measurable, GPA scale. It is attainable and realistic, I should be able to get As and -As throughout the summer with no distractions, and I had a deadline, the end of the summer.

The thing that I was missing was motivation. I thought doing well in school was hard and no matter how hard I would try I would get the same results, so I wouldn’t try that hard, but after reading the book and taking this course I knew that wasn’t true.

In the book How We learn it gives very important strategies for improving your learning and becoming a better student. For one, I realized I wasn’t getting enough rest, which isn’t ideal when learning. Especially when so much of what you remember and what you internalize is dependent on how well rested you are. Furthermore, I realized that I wasn’t studying correctly. I learned two important learning strategies from my book. I learned that I had to take breaks while studying in order to better internalize the information and I learned that I had to set mini-goals in the form of a to-do list in order to get the motivation I needed to get stuff done. I tried those strategies(taking breaks while studying and making to-do lists) and they worked really well for me.

Three Tracking Examples

I realized unless I did the tracking with paper and pen I would either forget to do it, or just not do it because it would be a hassle, so I decided to track everything I did with paper in pencil.

1.The first thing I decided to track was my sleep. According to my book and other health experts it is essential to get around eight hours of sleep each night in order to achieve peak mental performance. I would track when I went to sleep, when I would wake up, and how much sleep I got that night.This helped a ton with how I was able to learn. With keeping track of my sleep I was able to maintain a healthy amount of sleep. This really helped with how I performed while studying and it allowed memorizing things to become easier just as the book predicted.

2.The second tracking technique I used was a to do list. Although this is not necessarily a quantitative measure it helped me keep track of what assignments I had to do each week and where I was progress wise with the amount of assignments I had done each week. It really helped keep me on track of things. I think it also helped me with my motivation a ton. I could see things getting checked off and that helped m push forward and helped with my low motivation.

3.The third thing I tracked was my study time. I would study for an hour a day every other day. Previously I would study for hours on the day before an exam, but the book I read suggested studying in shorter sessions more frequently leading up to an exam/test to better learn the material, so I tried that out. I decided keeping a log would be the easiest way to keep track of how long I studied. I kept this by my desk and every time I studied I would fill this out. The book also said to take breaks during the study time to better learn the material. This book suggested method proved really usrful and I noticed my grades started improving after I started studying like this in a very short amount of time.                                                                                            .

This video I found was really useful for learning how to take effective study breaks.

Takeaways

The lessons I learned were that I wasn’t an effective learner. I would procrastinate on assignments and I wouldn’t keep track of my assignments. I learned how to keep track of all my assignments through the use of a to-do list, which allowed me to have a single space where all my assignments that I needed to do were kept. I learned that a better way of studying is to study more frequently, in shorter intervals. I also learned that in order to do well in school, it isn’t as hard as people make it out to be. As long as you are dedicated to following  certain methods that work for you, you shouldn’t have a problem doing well in school. My biggest advice is that you shouldn’t have to feel like you have to figure out the best way to do well by yourself. You can look online or take a class like this, that way you don’t have to struggle. You can just learn how to become a successful student using other people’s tried and proven techniques.