A Day at a Time!

How do you use it?

Write a list of up to five sources or stress. Try to focus on each stress causer. Cross out each source once it no longer causing stress. Leave each unsolved source on the list for the next day or days, until it is all solved.

How did I use it?

I chose my top five sources which include Finals for CFS 388, MAT 222 and REL 120, Phi 107 paper, GPA, Getting a job and parents. I wrote these down at the beginning of the week in a list, then by the end of the week I had substantially limited my list. I solved my stress for finals by using the twenty minute test prep for each of the three classes. I began my Philosophy paper, even though I had a few weeks to write it, it just gave me less to worry about. I will always be stressed about my GPA no matter what I do, so as of now, I still have that on my list. I sent out plenty of job applications and have heard back from a few, therefore that lowered my stress in that area. I also called my parents and talked to them about how busy my week was ahead of time so I wouldn’t get any further stress from them and it is always a good way to vent about the week ahead. As of now I still have stress in the area of GPA, but the rest of the stress has been reduced from my life.

Since I am a visual learner, it helps to see the charts and lists drawn out. It is also easy to concentrate on things when a chart shows which is considered he most stressful. This makes it easiest to pick which cause of stress to work on first.

Motivation!

Motivation!

What motivates you? What makes you put in the effort to achieve things?

I have never really had much trouble trying to motivate myself to do school work. I am quite lazy and sometimes would prefer to sit on my bed and watch television, but I am sure that this could be said for many people. I may not spend an excessive amount of time on assignments, but I will never skip assignments intentionally or simply not prepare for an exam. I consider myself to be a highly motivated student. I am process-driven in the aspects of organization and study preparation, optimistic, and persistent. I am not too much of a risk taker and I do put in a valid effort to the standards of my ability.

What is an external motivator? It is something other than yourself that motives you.

What is an internal motivator? A motivation that gives you a sense of accomplishment. It would be doing a task for your own personal gain.

What can cause motivation? A consequence or a reward is a good reason to have motivation. If something is very undesirable, most people would give their best effort to be sure it does not happen. For example, I would fail my math class if I don’t get an A on the next exam, the consequence would be my motivation. A reward would be when I was young I got 5 dollars per A on my report card. The reward would be 5 dollars. If someone desires a result, they will usually make sure that it is reached. Simple things can cause such motivation, which causes some to try much harder in school and life.

When I was younger I got good grades because my parents wanted me to and I would get restricted from fun activities if my grades were poor, so I have always found them to be important. I am personally motivated to attend college because I am hoping to pursue a goal for knowledge. I have not chosen a major yet, but I desire to gain as much knowledge as I can about my area of study and help others with the knowledge that I have. I am motivated for internal as well as external reasons. My motivation is simply reward, which could be determined in the future as a goal. I plan to work in either the social sciences, psychology or business. I hope to be able to help others with my work so my motivation is the people’s lives that I can affect and help.

I am motivated for different reasons in each of my classes. Some classes my motivation is to attain a high average, fulfill requirements, personal happiness and to pass a required class. In CLS 105 I am trying to use this class to teach me the skills to raise the grades in my other classes, as well as to get a good grade in the class in order to raise my GPA. I would like a high GPA to be able to get into any major that I desire without difficulty. For CFS 388, I am interested in this area of study so my motivation is to see if this class is something I would be interested in pursuing, which is an internal motivation. MAT 222 is my hardest class and I am doing terribly. I need to pass this class with a decent grade so that I won’t haveto retake it, in hopes of keeping my GPA from being pulled down. I strongly dislike PHI 107, so I will use this to keep my grades up for my GPA and fulfill a requirement. REL 120 is interested but is also motivated by keeping my GPA up at this point. Ski Team is one of my PED classes which I enjoy and I only use it for personal satisfaction. I don’t necessarily desire to be the best skier on the team, but I do enjoy the sport. I am motivated to get a good grade by simply having fun! I am very motivated in my schoolwork and can find many reasons to be motivated for any task.

What Will Be On My Next Exam???

What Will Be On My Next Exam???

It seems like it may be hard to know what will be on the next exam, but I will discuss some ways to work towards a better grade and further understand what may be asked and how to prepare for it.

Math 222 in my opinion is my hardest class this semester. I struggle to understand the problems. I can comprehend the problems when I am shown how to do them but I find it to be difficult when the question is in a different format, to determine what the question is asking. During the faculty interview, my teacher recommended that I look at all the practice questions and be sure that I can determine what all of them are asking, even if I don’t complete the problems. These questions are usually muti-step and asking many different questions, so it takes a long amount of time to even work through one problem.

What Do You Do?

Its easy! Make practice questions that you think will be on the exam!

Use your syllabus to determine the types of questions that will be asked. Make sure to go over information that YOU DO NOT know how to do, rather than building confidence with the ones you already have figured out. If you interviewed this faculty member, you should also have a far better idea of what should be asked and the amount of preparation and types of things that will be given on an examination. If you have had any quizzes, those would be great questions to work through and know how to do. If there is a study guide, certainly know all of the information on it, but know HOW to do them, not just what each problem is.

How has this helped me?

I have not actually had an exam since I started using this method, but so far, it seems to be helping. I am learning how to approach all types of problems in all different formats. I have learned plenty more information and spent more time studying than I have yet this semester. I am finding that doing simple problems on occasion can really help to gain knowledge that will certainly be needed throughout the course. This will certainly benefit me on the next exam.

Below is a problem that is similar to the example problems shown in class. It is easy to substitute numbers for other numbers in example problems and see if it has the same result or a similar one with different numbers. As long as I have this format figured out, I should be able to do any problem given to me. The problems are so lengthy that I will only show one example.

Ranking Priorities

Ranking Priorities!

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed by your work that you end up just avoiding all of your assignments all-together? Do you ever waste time wondering what you should do first? Do you ever do all other assignments and save the huge dreaded project for two in the morning the day it is due? I do. I often spend a long period of time just playing on my computer because I can’t choose an assignment to begin with. Sometimes I forget that I have assignments due the next day, and accidently do long term projects instead and forget things that are more necessary, and end up staying up later to complete them. It is also hard on nights when I have so much work to complete, to choose where to begin.

I have other activities and things I need to keep up with that aren’t class related, considering I am a member of Syracuse University Ski Team and Danceworks. It is hard to balance these activities, but using this method and “D’s Due and Due,” I manage to keep everything straight.

I started by listing my classes in priority order. So I took my REL 120, CLS 105 and MAT 222 classes and put them in order of importance, for what order I should do them in. I picked a specific color for each class to make it easy to read. Then I put them into the days that I should do them on. I put those in order of what is most important and should be done first. I also added tasks I need to do for clubs and campus activities that were important. I would recommend this method for others because it really helps to be able to see all of the tasks I must complete that evening, so I need to budget my time in order to get all of these things done. I used colors on mine as just a fun way to keep things straight visually, but I think it helped, so I would recommend this to others also.

This method keeps me on track and kept me from procrastinating. I spent a night this week at the library until six in the morning and this was helpful, because I did only the most important tasks and left the least important for another time, rather than not having time to complete the most important things.

D's Due and Do

D's Due and Do

I am blogging about the topic “D’s Due and Do.” I have used this in all of my classes as well as to remind myself what I need to do daily even when it isn’t regarding my classes. I used this strategy in CLS, MAT 222, REL 120, CFS 388 and PHI 107. I already used this method to some extent before this class, but now I just added the words “due” and “do,” but it was already very similar. I found that by adding these words it became easier to understand my schedule and what I should plan on doing when. I prefer not to split my schedule with a line, I simply prefer to write them out plainly on the date, because I will read them all anyways and I find it easier to read. I also put all of the major due dates into my monthly calendar at the beginning of my schedule in to be sure that I do not miss any assignments.

Above there is a picture of my weekly schedule.

This strategy has not failed me yet. I find it very useful and I honestly intend to continue using it throughout my college experience. I have always been very organized and used my schedule already, so this small step should not be a hassle and should be more helpful than the method I was using before. I chose this strategy because I basically already used it, I just made a couple little tweaks to the way I wrote things down.

It is very important to be organized; “D’s due and do” is a very easy method and takes only a few minutes to set up. It can save me from forgetting little things I may previously have forgotten. This is my favorite method so far, I know it isn’t a method for actually doing the work, but if I don’t know I need to do an assignment, those other methods will never come into effect. I would recommend that everyone give this method a try! I am sure it will continue to be useful from that point on.

Below there is pictures of my monthly schedules.