With regard to my future “professional self,” I ideally want to be better at time management, and I want to become a Certified Public Accountant working as a manager for a big-four accounting firm. I can break down my “professional self” goals into academic, workplace and professional skills categories. Studying for and passing the Certified Public Accounting Exam is an academic goal. Working for a big-four accounting firm and becoming a manager would be a workplace goal, and becoming better at time management would be a professional skills goal. I am intrinsically motivated to better at time management, and I am extrinsically motivated by the cash bonus I would receive for passing the CPA exam and by the yearly salary amount for a manager. With respect to challenges, the Certified Public Accounting Exam is a difficult four-part exam taken on the computer, which requires months of self-studying using an online review course and textbook. Self-motivation will also pose as a challenge. Passing the exam and trying to advance to manager will require a lot of self-motivation.
I plan to overcome these challenges by setting S.M.A.R.T. learning goals for myself. I will set short-term and long-term goals to stay motivated and on track. For instance, I will study six to eight weeks for each of the four parts of the CPA test. Before I start studying, I will make a day-by-day schedule of what sections in the online course material and book I need to study. This schedule will help me to improve my time management skills and help me to be prepared to take and pass the CPA exam. Another learning goal I can set is related to my workplace category. I can set a short-term goal to maintain a high GPA my last semester, so I can accept my job offer from PwC, one of the big-four accounting firms. I can set a long-term goal to advance to a new employment level every three years, until I reach manager. My objective for these goals would be to maintain my self-motivation and improve my time management skills by planning out my day-to-day study requirements and responsibilities.
Before this class, I thought I was a “self-regulated learner.” I keep up with my assignments and plan ahead (Pintrich, 3). Based on my responses to the Week 2 Survey, my perception of myself were fairly accurate, I do plan ahead for my courses and I keep up with my work. However, the survey made me realize that I sometimes doubt my abilities and rely too heavily on memorizing material, instead of actually learning it. I will make changes in my learning practices so that I can become my best professional self by having confidence in my abilities when I work and study hard. I will also utilize other learning techniques instead of memorization, such as comparing and contrasting different concepts or taking my own notes on course readings.
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