Gen_105_Final_Project

Gen_105 Final Project Student Survival Guide My survival guide for attaining my dream of a higher education is a simple one. Like the old Nike slogan “just do it” is easier said than done. My survival guide will help me to “just do it!” The survival guide contains all of the information I will need to use the resources available to me, manage my time wisely, apply my learning style and personality type to my studies, develop my reading comprehension, uphold academic honesty, set and achieve my goals and being real with myself. Success in these seven areas will lead to my completion of my chosen field of study and my gaining the knowledge and skills to have a successful career. No survival guide can help you until you first take a look at where you are now, and how did you get here. I define being real as: 1st being honest about your self. 2nd accepting your short comings. As an older student I have to accept the fact that I am trying to complete my education at this age because I am lazy and easily distracted. Everything that I have ever done has followed a pattern. I start out strong and fizzle in the end, not because I could not finish strong but because I loose interest in things. In order to overcome these weaknesses I must find a way to keep myself motivated. Setting and achieving goals contains the answer. My long term goal is to get my degree in Information Technology. This is normally where I would stop, set a goal and work towards it. But by looking at my past realistically I know I will start strong and stop before I reach that goal. I have added some short term goals which I can achieve in a relatively small amount of time to keep me focused on the long term goal. My first set of short term goals is to pass every class. Every nine weeks I get to see how I am doing in relation to achieving this goal. To help achieve those recurring short term goals I have weekly shorter term goals to complete my weekly assignments on time and to do my best on each assignment. As simple as it sounds by taking this approach it will have a huge impact on my overall success. Using the resources Axia College provides is another key component to my academic survival. The university library contains many helpful tools. The databases have information of a verity of the topic I will be learning. Unlike a search of the internet, the information in the database is trustworthy. The plagiarism checker will help me to keep from inadvertently turning in work that I may have forgotten to cite a source on. There are also free workshops on a verity of subjects that I can take to increase my skills in. One of them is the essay writing workshop. While learning in an online environment is new to me, Axia College offers every possible aid to help me get the most out of my experiences here. Managing my time wisely allows my to find the balance I need between work, home and school. Learning to be flexible with my schedule and to work to minimize unforeseen problems will lead to a less stressful college experience. My attending Axia College is important to me and it means I cannot spend the time with my friends doing nothing. To make sure I keep to my shorter term goals I need to use all the time I have in a productive manner. Being aware of the resources available to me also saves time that would otherwise be wasted searching for information and verifying the accuracy of that information. It is important to note that all of these keys to my academic survival are related. Everything must be viewed together to be of any substantial benefit. Developing my study skills will decrease the time it takes to perform certain task. Time management means allowing time to complete task but it also means learning to use the time you have effectively. Reading comprehension and retention are vital to managing time wisely and learning in general. The ability to read and understand what you are reading is important to everyone, but more so to students in a distance learning environment. The majority of my communication with my instructors and classmates will be written. Reducing the time it takes to discern what the author/writer is trying to convey will help me to apply that information in the correct way. No one can remember every word they read, but being able to get the main objective or concept is the real key. By identifying what is important and needs to be committed to memory helps me the most. My learning style and personality type then comes into play. By organizing my reading material in a logical way is the best for me. As a person with a logical mind it helps to put my information is logical formats. Learn to apply the right format for the information to be studied by the subject matter. For example in a history class placing information in chronological order will make retaining the information easier to recall. Another class may require me to list information in categories or by related content. This is particularly effective when dealing with new or unfamiliar information. It is also important for me to understand that while my logical mind can help me it makes it necessary to double check my logic. I have to make sure that I have all of the facts before I jump to a conclusion. Reread the information to make sure I have all of the key concepts and information. This will keep me from being blindsided by a low grade on an assignment, which may lead to discouragement and even failure. Academic honesty is the heart of my academic survival. To me it encompasses why I am enrolled at Axia College, to learn. The academic honesty pledge I took was not only to Axia College, but to me. I am here to learn, not to cheat myself out of an education or try to steal someone else’s work. Academic honesty touches all other areas of my survival. My goal is the work as a computer tech, which will be impossible if I don’t learn everything I can, which will not happen if I am academically dishonest. Likewise if I am cheating I am not being challenged and will lose interest in going to school. My survival guide starts with me and ends with me. As useful as the strategies I have set in place are, they require only one thing to defeat them. Me! I am the key to my academic survival. My academic survival guide helps me to stay focused on my education. It forces me to look in the mirror, see where I am, ask where am I going, how will I get there, what do I need to get there and more importantly allows me to gain the confidence that I can make it there. .