Final Reflection
Reflect on the Fall semester and the overall experience of your first semester at college…
Final Reflection (100 Points)
Due Date: 12/6, Last Day of class!
Assignment Submission: Google Drive via Canvas
The Reflection will also be posted to your e-Portfolio.
Reflection Instructions
For this assignment, please reflect on the Fall 2023 semester, and your experience as a whole. For each question, please provide a few thoughtful, well constructed sentences.
Your First Semester
- Tell us how you have grown from the beginning of the semester to now.
At the beginning of the semester, I was trying to find a system for managing all my classes and homework, and now I am proud to say I have found a steady pace to prioritize everything. In addition, I have grown socially. I can effectively communicate with other students and make friends faster than at the beginning of the semester.
- What were your expectations for this year? Did this semester’s experiences meet your expectations? Explain.
My expectations for the rest of the year are to transition smoothly into the next semester so I can refine my prioritization skills in managing class work and outside free time. I also expect to improve my study habits. My experiences this semester, about 65% of the way, met my intended expectations. I found a system that I was hoping to achieve for most of my classes, and I currently have pretty good grades.
- What is something you wish you had known 14 weeks ago?
14 weeks ago, I wished I knew how important prioritizing the weekends for study time, and school is and should be. There were a couple of scenarios where I would plan something last minute with a friend, thinking I could manage the week’s given HW assignments, but that ended up becoming a stressor the next week due to additional homework that was assigned.
Study Habits
- 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 would study about 3 hours a week for all five classes. This included homework. I still study for about the same amount of time I did initially. Due to the constant proportionate amount of homework that is always being released, finding time to study can be a bit hard.
- How have your study habits changed?
My study habits have changed in terms of increasing my strategy. I used to focus on memorization mainly, but now I primarily focus on practice to aid in efficiently memorizing particular concepts.
- Tell us about a resource that you have used/learned about this semester that will assist you next semester.
I recently utilized the chemistry tutoring lab in the new chemistry building to better understand a particular concept I struggled with. Since I am taking two science classes this upcoming semester, I plan to use this resource to enhance my foundational chemistry knowledge to succeed in this course moving forward.
- What study habits/techniques will you use going into next semester?
Going into the next semester, I plan to practice problems, small intervals of memorization each day, and group study sessions. Though I have done most of my studying this semester on my own, I need to reach out to other students to help each other with whatever we are struggling with material-wise.
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 unaware of this, so I am unsure what ties exactly with what. Perhaps due to a large number of students with a desire to go into various branches of the health field, the professors were keen on making sure that they touched briefly on the ways that their course can be utilized within the given field of study for their future desired occupation. This is my educated guess.
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?
The additional two majors I would be interested in are Psychology and Sports and Fitness Administration/Management. I love to know why people act and think the way they do. In other words, what makes them tick, and what makes them go boom. For fitness administration and management, I love sports and recreation, so studying the business side and managing this arena would be a great skill to possess.
- What benefit is there to having a parallel plan (or two) in place?
I personally believe that having a parallel plan (one or two additional majors) in place for college is beneficial because if, for some reason, your intended major does not end up being your graduating major, then having something to back that up qualifies as having similar parts to the previous major which is very nice to have. In addition, a lot of the coursework may be closely correlated, if not the same, so it is not like you’re having to start from scratch.
- How could one or both of these two majors benefit your current intended major?
Exercise science touches on many concepts ranging from sports and fitness instruction to understanding how the body works and how to improve function and prevent injury. This psychology course is correlated to fitness management/administration and exercise science because, with both of these in mind, psychological aspects affect both majors’ inner and outer workings.