Your First Semester
Tell us how you have grown from the beginning of the semester to now.
I have grown from the beginning of the semester because I have created a schedule that really works for me. For example, when I go to the gym, do laundry, study, and have free time. I am really satisfied with this and impressed that I have stuck to this schedule because I created it all by myself and it has helped me stay organized with everything from school work to everyday things.
What were your expectations for this year? Did this semester’s experiences meet your expectations? Explain.
With my class schedule for this semester I expected for me to do all my work outside of class on Tuesdays and Thursdays because on these days I don’t have any classes. Although I do a lot of work these days, I feel that I do more in a shorter time on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after my class because I am already in a work mindset.
What is something you wish you knew 14 weeks ago?
I wish I knew how to check my account balance at the beginning of the semester. Because I didn’t know how to do this, I was unaware that one of my loans didn’t go through and it pushed back my registration for classes next semester by two weeks. Since I know to check my account now I have checked it a couple times just to get familiar with it.
Study Habits
How much time do you spend studying for each class now vs. at the beginning of the semester?
I honestly spent more time doing work in the beginning of the semester but this was because I would dedicate a lot of time to do things that I didn’t need to do. For example, in psychology I would take notes in class then go back and revise them and then read through the textbook and take notes on that. By the end I only took notes in class and then went back to revise them outside of class. I found that taking notes from the textbook weren’t helping me and were just wasting time. At the beginning I also was spending about an equal amount of time per class while studying. Now I have found that that was wasting a lot of time because I need to understand which classes I should dedicate the most time to and which ones don’t need as much time.
How have your study habits changed?
Basically what I just said in the last answer, but furthermore I have found which time of day works best for me. Either early in the morning or late at night. My brain kind of shuts off and needs a long break before it can get back focused. Hopefully that will be the same case in a class setting because I have two night classes next semester and I’m not sure how that’s going to go. I also stopped going to the library, especially when it got closer to finals because of how crowded it was all the time. Instead I will go to the second floor of Webb or just stay in my room.
Tell us about a resource that you have used/learned about this semester that will assist you next semester.
I really like how my advisor is just there to help guide me through everything even if it doesn’t have to do with my major specifically. For example, she helped me figure out what to do about the holds on my account and I know this is her job but she’s very helpful and I’m glad she responds to emails.
What study habits/techniques will you use going into next semester?
I will be utilizing those times of day when my brain is focused the most and I’m also going to try to have a more structured study session. For example, I will have a certain amount of time for each assignment or subject and try to plan it out by time. What I have been doing is just having a to do list and going somewhere and just working until I was done or was just not focused anymore. What would normally happen is I wouldn’t get to everything and then I would get behind.
Health Professions Learning Community
This semester you were enrolled in at least SOC 201S, and HLTH 101. Many of you were also enrolled in CHEM 105N and CHEM 106N, and some of you were enrolled in HIST 104H with Professor White. On the surface these classes do not appear to be connected; however this semester each professor was intentional about drawing connections between content, and subjects discussed. Discuss the ways in which these courses are tied together.
I was confused at first at how a history class was a part of the learning community but now I understand that Professor White implements health science topics into the course. This was done especially through our history snapshot project where we had to pick a health related topic that was going on during the time period we were discussing and create a research question related to the topic and conduct research to answer it. Health 101 was very helpful in my opinion because it exposed me to the different career fields that were within the health science field.
Parallel Plan
This semester we had presentations from different majors in the College of Health Sciences as well as from different majors on campus. This was to give you an idea for possible parallel majors to your current intended major.
Which two other majors would you be most interested in? Why?
Another major I am thinking about doing is recreational therapy and either becoming a rec therapist or going to graduate school to become an occupational therapist.
What benefit is there to having a parallel plan (or two) in place?
It is always good to have a parallel plan because it is another option and you could always change your mind and realize that a different way is the better path for you. It is good to continuously explore what interests you because you could easily find something that catches your eye, for example, recreational therapy caught my eye.
How could one or both of these two majors benefit your current intended major?
Recreational therapy will benefit my major because even if I don’t change my major I can still add it as a minor. It’ll expose me to great skills that, if I do pursue physical therapy, I will use and will make me more competitive while applying to grad school.