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End of the Semester Reflection

 Final Reflection 

Transition to College

  1. What did you expect college would be like 14 weeks ago?  Coming into college, I was unsure about what college would be like. I knew that it was going to be a change from high school to college. I expected many students to be confused and lost roaming around campus. I did not expect the amount of independence that is required for college. The student is required to get their own food, do their own laundry, make appointments, be responsible for their own schoolwork without anyone reminding them to do it.  I think it was a lot of adjustment that I have made to have a better experience living on campus.
  2. What is something you wish you knew 14 weeks ago? One thing I wish I knew 14 weeks ago would be the library has a room where you could work in silence. I usually went to one of the rooms in the web center; however, the rooms filled up very fast. If I had known earlier about the rooms within the library, I would not have struggled with trying to find a room on the web. In addition, the web can be very loud even if you’re in a room. Being in one of the rooms in the library is quieter and allows me to concentrate more on my studies.
  3. What is a resource or activity you have found helpful this semester? The gym was one activity that I found helpful this semester. Whenever I was stressed out or overwhelmed with assignments, going to the gym was beneficial for me. I was able to let go of the stress and work out at the same time. I found that after the gym I had more energy, I was able to focus on completing my assignments, and had a good night’s sleep.
  4. What is a resource or activity you have found unhelpful this semester? One resource that was unhelpful for me this semester was the writing center. Whenever I made appointments m with the writing center, I would never receive feedback on the paper I previously wrote. It was frustrating trying to figure out why I was able to make appointments but I could not join video calls to discuss my papers. Other than that, the resources at Old Dominion University were very helpful.
  5. Name something you have learned this semester that will assist you next semester?  One thing I learned this semester that will help assist my next semester is the tutoring center. I did not go tutoring this semester because I often had to help work out problems for chemistry or any other class. Going to a tutor will allow the one on one focus with the tutor so he/she could help me solve problems.
  6. Study Habits
    1. How much time do you spend studying for each class now vs. at the beginning of the semester?  At the beginning of the semester, I did not study that much. At the time, I felt like I had a clear understanding of the topics I was learning. I would spend about an hour studying for all of my classes. As I got closer to the end of the semester, I studied for about 2 to 3 hours. There is too much information that I have learned for me to study for a short amount of time. Studying longer allows me to really look at topics and determine which topics I need to spend more time on.
    2. How have your study habits changed? My study habits have changed throughout the semesters. I used to study with music playing in the background or in a public place. Music and people ended up distracting me, I lost interest in studying. I study in quiet places, which is something I did like in highschool. Studying in quiet places was necessary for me because I kept getting distracted by the music.
    3. What specific study techniques do you think work best for you?  How do these vary from class to class? When I study I found that practicing quizzes, making a game out of the information Learned, re-writing my notes, or even reading over my notes works best for me. Depending on the class, some techniques are more useful than others. For sociology and history, doing practice quizzes and re-reading more notes plenty of times help me remember information for that class.
  7. Health Professions Learning Community
    1. 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.
      1. 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.
      2. Many of the classes that I was enrolled in this semester, correlated with each other. Chem 105 and Chem 106 were tied together. The information that was learned in Chem 105, overlapped with the experiments in Chem 106. Without learning how to solve for density, molarity, or converting grams to moles: I would not be able to complete the labs. Sociology and History correlated this semester as well. Learning about the theories in sociology and why people think the way they do was beneficial in history. It was easier to understand the causes and effects of a battle, war, or any events in history.
    2. This semester we provided events (Health Chats) for you to hear from health professionals from ODU. 
      1. Which Health Chat was most beneficial for you as a student, and why? The Health chat that was the most beneficial for me was the inter and intra culturally informed health care chat. The chat focussed on how important it is to be informed about people’s health no matter the gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. It is important to understand why some patients are not open to having healthcare and others are. Many patients are scared of receiving some form of health care. As an aspiring health professional, it is important to have that knowledge because it will help me understand a patient’s viewpoint.