Category: Study

Results arrived today, better than I thought they would be! My tutor’s comments about essay structure, expanding on ideas were pretty much what I expected. She provided some great feedback and helpful suggestions.

Misgivings about my essay started growing last week after completing a couple of writing exercises – which would have been handy before the essay had to be handed in. My essay structure was all over the place and I hadn’t answered the question very well.

Well, this is encouraging – the fact that I have not been harshly marked, and also that I am able to see how my work could have been improved.

I am learning there is no right or wrong answer so long as you can back up with evidence and effectively argue the position.

As this unit is rapidly drawing to a close I am fighting off feelings of alarm about the amount of work I have left to do, in the little time that is left. It is proving to be a double edged sword for my study aims.

On one hand I appreciate that discipline and working towards solid goals will help me achieve what I want to do at university; on the other hand the time factor is an important one.

Throughout my life I have been aware that my thought process is to quickly evaluate factors and make snap judgements in order to produce a result (for work). At university I hope to learn how to reflect deeply, thoroughly examine ideas and articulate these in a solid, considered way.

However this requires time – time for me to change the thought patterns of the last 20 or so years, and time to reflect. I suspect that if my mind was not so well conditioned towards its current thought process I would have sufficient time for studying the content in this unit.

It is a struggle however, and recent disruption at work has not helped. It has taken time for my mind to return to the ‘zone’ where I am reflecting on the readings instead of skimming them.

I do wish I had a couple more weeks to work on this assignment! The volume of work I have left to complete in the time remaining is overwhelming. The time management skills I’ve learned earlier in this unit suggest that macro-management is the key to retaining control over the course of one’s studies, to avoid feeling overwhelmed. However in order to ‘catch up’ from the weeks when I was totally non-productive, the time I spend on studies is becoming all consuming.

I love the challenge of study, even in the face of declining self-confidence in my thinking abilities. I believe that if I apply myself there is some benefit to be derived. In pushing myself beyond the point of exhaustion however I fear I will burn out and abandon my studies. What can I do to avoid this in the face of looming deadlines?

I feel I’ve wasted so much time in this unit, the first couple of weeks I was trying to get my head around what I was doing. I’d love to have that time back!

Now in week 4 and I have just skimmed through the last of week 2/3.. I have completed five of the required eight assessment log entries and have yet to start my essay, due next Friday.

Feeling a little bit of pressure – I would have liked to have started my essay by now. I have five full study days left, then a few shorter sessions here and there around work.

It is all going so fast I am not sure I am absorbing everything I’m learning, it is hard to put some of the time management exercises into practise when I don’t seem to have enough time!

A full day of study on Wednesday, lots of reading and thinking about where this study unit is taking me. I was surprised at how well I was absorbing the information, it is exciting to be learning something for the hell of it and feel my brain shifting into gear!

Then yesterday I worked. It was a full day of answering phone calls, solving email and connection problems, answering questions about phone and internet services. I did some more study after tea, until I could study no more. Then I checked out the student forums. It is heartening to know there are other students feeling the same as me – a little overwhelmed, worried about falling behind, yet excited at the prospect of learning.

This morning I feel a little drained. It is clear I will need to pace myself better to keep up my energy levels. It has been a long time since I’ve worked so hard. I am very fortunate that I only work part-time and have two or three days a week (plus weekends) to give to study. Some of the other students are working full-time, raising families. How do they do it?!

I am still completing last week’s exercises but I am not panicking yet. I should be able to get through a lot this weekend. I think the first week is a write off anyway, it is all about wrapping your brain around the study materials.

The first assessment task is due in three weeks, it is a 1,000 word essay. I copied and pasted some text into my word processor to see what 1,000 words looks like – it is quite short: approximately two pages!

Another day of work today. If I feel up to it this evening I will finish off the exercise I started last night. Otherwise the weekend starts tomorrow.

The unit has the following broad aims:

• to develop students skills as university learners by integrating their practice of generic skills with a study of concepts that are relevant to several disciplines, and
• to inform students understanding of themselves as learners within their university studies generally, as well as within their chosen disciplines.

On successful completion of this unit you should be able:

• to apply your skills as an independent, reflective and critical learner to your university studies;
• to demonstrate that you have developed tertiary level reading, writing, and study skills;
• to articulate your needs and strengths as a learner at university through writing;
• to compare and contrast how different world views or paradigms define the concept of the self;
• to recognise and assess the impact of world views on learning and communicating at university;
• to demonstrate your understanding of the nature of concepts through the application of the concepts of self and culture to university study;
• to apply the concept of culture to the university setting, and
• to recognise that different disciplines have different modes of enquiry and approaches to learning.

Almost at the end of the first week of my first university course – Introduction to University Learning. I’ve been reading through the study materials and gradually getting a handle on what I need to submit for my first assessment, due in four weeks.

One of the tasks is to create a learning log, split into various categories including reflections on “the self” as a learner, textbook exercises, and reviews on various supplied reading matter.

So that is the purpose of this blog; it is a format I am used to, having become a keen “blogger” last year. I am pleased I have been pushing myself to write in my other blog. From what I’ve read so far in the study materials, this is exactly the sort of practise I need to help me at university. Not only does it help develop my writing style but, more importantly it allows me to articulate my thoughts and encourages deeper thinking.

One of my downfalls with essay writing at highschool, I am sure, was the lack of thought I put into my writing. I would regurgitate facts and figures and other people’s opinions, but struggled to make any exploration or assessment of my own.

As I record my reflections in this log I am confident it will be tremendous value in helping me to learn how to think and articulate my own thoughts and conclusions.

Update: All the posts for SSK12 have now been transferred to my student learning log on Blogspot.