Friday, September 30, 2011

I told you so.

For my Interviewing class we had a success interview assignment. The guidelines were to find someone over the age of 50 and talk to them about success, being successful, and their definition of the word success. I chose to interview my high school French teacher, Mrs. Davis.

During my interview with Mrs. Davis, we discussed things that made a high school student successful versus a college student. Since we hadn't talked in a while we went off on a side tangent. This other topic was about things that I learned after being in college for two years that I didn't know prior or didn't listen to while I was in high school.

My purpose in writing this is to compare what my thoughts were in high school about motivation in college and how they held up with what actually happened when I got here. I had quite a few ideas in my head as to what college and personal motivation would be like and how I would hold up, but the biggest rude awakening I got came from my opinions on study habits.

Thought: I studied sometimes in high school and turned in my homework on time. As long as I keep up this habit, I will be a golden student.
I was wrong times a million and then some! When I started my freshman year here at ONU I had every intention to listen to what my high school teachers told me about studying and reading for classes, but that's always easier said than actually done. Here is a perfect example. I studied harder than I ever did in high school for my first college Psychology test. I felt like I knew the information; i was confident and then my teacher handed out the exam. I started skimming through the test to find that what I had studied wasn't in depth enough or at all what was in the questions. I finished the test feeling ok and thought I had completed a "B" test. Again, I was wrong. I completely failed that test. Even though it was a hard lesson to learn, Introduction to Psychology was what I needed to "self-motivate" into a proper study gear.

In high school, concepts and basics ideas are primarily what is being tested on, but college is a whole different ball game. The professors want their students to dig deep into the material being taught and invest both their class and outside-of-class time. This includes readings (side notes, footnotes, etc.), homework, looking at the links given as references, and asking questions as soon as something doesn't make sense. Basically, utilize everything offered to you. 

My conclusion from this interview was that the word "self" is a very powerful thing in the college realm. This is very true especially when adding it to the word "motivation." Finding my "self" in college was what really changed my outlook on the path that I was taking to my career and individual goals. Also, what I am getting out of my time here at Northern is only worth the amount of effort that I am putting in, so I might as well make my time worthwhile!

1 comment:

  1. I took this class last year and really enjoyed it! It motivated me to go out and talk to people about advice on life and carreers. And I completely know where you are coming from with the different study habits! Mine were a lot different in high school also!

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