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I found this class to be super beneficial to my study habits and learning strategies. It was definitely a course that I wish I would have taken at the beginning of my college career. It would be really awesome if the University made this course a requirement for all of the incoming freshmen. One good online tool that was brought to my attention through this course was google calendar and tasks. This was a tool that I was completely unaware of, and something that I will definitely be using forever. It allowed me to budget my time better and plan out each day so that I could accomplish all of my tasks and make sure that I met all of my deadlines. Another online tool that I will most likely be taking advantage of are some of the study prepping websites that I stumbled upon when researching online study tools. One of the most beneficial sites was quizlet.com. With this website you can generate quizzes that fit whichever topic you need to study for so that you can better prepare yourself for upcoming exams and quizzes. Without this class that is a study tool that I would have never known about or taken advantage of. It actually helped me to prepare for the GRE which was super helpful.

This class not only taught me about some online learning tools, it also made me more self aware about my procrastination. The scores that I got on the time management and procrastination quizzes made me fully aware of the fact that my study habits and time management habits needed to change. I do still however feel that I work better under pressure, but there are a few things  that this class allowed me to improve on. I am much better now at managing my time and planning what tasks I need to do each day at the beginning of each week. This was something that I never used to do and sometimes that led to me missing deadlines or forgetting to turn in an assignment all together. Hence, another reason that I believe this course should be required at the beginning of every college career. Learning how to better manage my time and track everything out was probably the most meaningful thing that I took away from this class.

In the future I am  extremely excited to use some of the tools that were brought to my attention in this class. Most of them being the online study websites that I stumbled upon. Studying was never one of my strong points and I often find my strategies useless when it comes to retaining information. I cannot wait until my next exam so that I can better put my new study habits to good use. Hopefully they allow me to better retain information so that when it comes time for my exams, I am less stressed out and can focus more on what I need to accomplish on the test.

use study tools in the future

Writing academic papers in college is much different than what was expected of you in High School. It can be more intricate and professors may require much more of you than what you were required to do in High School. More than likely, when you were in High School, you just picked a topic and began writing about it, in college there are multiple steps to the process and you want to make sure that you are covering all of your bases. You may want to begin with researching the topic of your interest. You can choose to use the search engine of your choice, but I find google to be the easiest one to access and it tends to give more of a selection.

When using google, there are more intricate ways of searching for information than just the traditional basic way. You can do an advanced search which allows you to filter out irrelevant information and locate more specific information that is more relevant to what you are researching. Another thing that may be different from writing papers in High School, is that in college you may be required to have a minimum amount of different sources, with more than two being from a scholarly source such as a peer-reviewed journal. The cool thing about this is that google also has an option where you can look through an online library and locate peer-reviewed articles that discuss whatever topic you are researching so that you can knock these sources off of your list and add them to your citation to make the research paper more reliable. I hope that these pointers are helpful in allowing you to write your first research paper when attending college!

If there is one thing that I wish someone would have taught me before starting college, it would be an efficient way to take notes. Taking notes was very hard for me entering college because I felt the need to write everything the Professor was saying down. This led to me missing certain topics or going into autopilot mode and not actually retaining any of the lecture. There are multiple steps to note taking, and it took me a little while to discover all of them. One of the first things you need to do is prepare for the lecture, you can do this by reading the textbook and prepping yourself ahead of time. This will definitely help to keep you in tune with what the lecture is going to be about and make it easier to understand. The next thing to do would be to show up and actively listen while taking notes. If you are actively listening and involved it will make the information much easier to retain. While taking notes it is best to use whatever method works best for you. You want to choose something that you are comfortable with, because it will make the note taking go much smoother and allow for you to get the most of the information. One of the final steps involved in note taking would be to actually review your notes. This is part of the studying process, and by reviewing your notes it makes it much easier to recall information when it comes time for an exam.

Not only is note taking crucial, but there are other things you can do outside of the classroom supplementally so that you can be prepared for exams and quizzes.  The internet can be a very good supplement to what your professor talks about in lecture along with what you read in the textbook. There are sources online such as podcasts and youtube videos that may cover or help you work through topics that you do not understand. This can be very helpful, especially when you are in a large class and don’t exactly get one on one time with your professor. Next time you don’t quite understand something, it may be beneficial to look up a tutorial on youtube or download a podcast to help you better understand the topic. This is a source that is very beneficial for a college career, especially if it is learned early on.

This video is wonderful because it explains the common misconception of Positive Psychology. It simply describes how positive psychology differs from all other forms of psychology strictly because it does not hinder the question of what is wrong with an individual, but more so what is right. It highlights the good things in ones life so that they can better themselves and steer away from negative thoughts or feelings. It revolves around well-being, which can be described in 5 pillars. Those being, positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. Positive psychology can be and extremely rewarding experience.

The above video really helped me to better understand the topic because positive psychology is something I have always been interested in but never done research on. It summarized the difference between positive psychology among all of the other fields of psychology. It enhanced my knowledge on the topic by breaking it down into 5 pillars which made it much easier to understand the broad overview. I think that this is a very good video to watch to understand the basics of the topic, it allows you to understand the topic well enough so that you know how to further research positive psychology and learn more about it.

It is no secret that when  entering college your responsibilities increase along with the amount of time you need to study. When I first entered college this is something that I struggled with. It can be very difficult to change your study habits, and in college you’re required to put in a lot more effort and time when studying than what was demanded of you in high school. Luckily there are many resources online that can help you to do this, and it is best to use them and become familiar with them at the beginning of your college career rather than at the end.

Many people struggle with getting started studying. This can go hand in hand with time management. You must never procrastinate when it comes to studying because then it may lead to cramming last minute and in turn not being prepared for your exam. There are many resources online that can help with time management and organization when it comes to studying, one of them being  http://www.howtostudy.org. It is definitely something that every student should use supplementally to increase the productiveness of their studying.

Another problem many students struggle with is retaining the information that they are studying. The most helpful tool that I have found in successfully remembering things is using flash cards. I used to do it all by hand until I realized  that there are online tools that make making flash cards much easier and allow you to make them more organized. There is a very helpful tool that I have begun to use in college that not only allows you to make notecards to study, but it also creates quizzes and matching games to get you prepared for your exam and track how well you are retaining your information. The most helpful site that I have come across thus far for this is,  http://quizlet.com.

I’m sure by now most of you are fairly familiar with using online resources to not only complete assignments for school but also as a form of communication to fellow classmates and/or professors and teachers. If you have no college experience, I believe it is safe to say that as your college career begins you will now begin to use online resources as a tool to help you get through all of your courses. Email is probably one of the biggest contributors to this. Emailing faculty and professors when dealing with issues or concerns is something you may have to get used to. There are both pros and cons to this, and I can explain why. While being able to get in touch with your professor at any time of day can be a huge pro, there are also some cons in the picture. When communicating online you have no non-verbal cues, and this can lead to a larger than expected amount of misunderstandings. When emailing professors, it may be easiest to write the email, under your official college account, in the format of a letter with no signs of jokes or sarcasm. These may only lead to further misunderstandings.

Another thing to think about as you enter your college career, is your communication with your peers and fellow classmates. Sometimes in certain classes, you will have to be involved with class discussion posts. While doing this you will be communicating online with fellow students from your class. When it comes to class discussions there are a few things you may want to think about. First off, treat people the way you wish to be treated. While commenting on posts that your peer is displaying, it is best to think before you post and make sure that if you are criticizing someone, that you are doing so constructively in a way that will benefit them. Like stated above, steer clear from using sarcasm and jokes because with non-verbal cues being absent, it can be very easy to misunderstand someone. There may be a time or two where the conversation may need to finish in person so that communication is on point. Another tip that may help can be to use emojis sparingly and where they are needed so that people may have a better understanding of what you are trying to get across to people. These are just a few tips for communicating online, and I really hope that they can be of help!

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