First Year University Academic Skills Reflection Assignment

This reflective essay provides an account of the student's academic skill development during their first year at university. The essay details the challenges faced, such as overcoming shyness and adapting to the university environment, and the strategies employed to develop effective academic skills. It highlights the importance of attending lectures, taking notes, and utilizing communication and presentation skills. The student reflects on their ability to balance personal and academic life, emphasizing the need for qualities like punctuality, honesty, and dedication. The essay concludes with the importance of continuous self-assessment and the development of skills for success in higher education, referencing key academic literature to support the reflection.

REFLECTION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Reflection on the development of academic skills.................................................................1
Reflection on requirements for being an effective university student....................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
This reflective paper is an account of my academic skill development during the first year
at University. This consists of the opportunities and challenges that I had to deal with during my
tenure at college.
Reflection on the development of academic skills
When I first began the course, I was a student hungry for getting education and facing
challenges as combating them would assist me in developing skills required for academic and
professional career. During my second semester, I found certain difficulties in the university as I
was a student who was of very introvert and shy nature to ask doubts to my tutor within the
lectures. As a consequence of this, I had to write up all my problems in my notebooks and take
extra sessions from the tutors in order to clear my doubts. At first, this used to be a tedious task
and sometimes, I even got late for my next scheduled lecture.
Nevertheless I possessed the zeal and enthusiasm towards my academic life to use my
full potential to achieve success. Thus, after passage of a certain period, I got comfortable with
the class and my mates and thus, I overcame my shyness to ask doubts. Now, in today's
competitive academic environment, it is not easy for a student to keep equilibrium between
personal and academic life so as to avoid any negative impact upon one’s studies (Ghanizadeh,
2017).
For being an individual with effective academic skills, one must possess the zeal and
motivation to attend the lectures, revise it again at hostel and then preparing for the semester
examinations (Pereira and Costa, 2017). In this regard, drawing upon the feedbacks from my
peers, tutors and seniors at university, I found out that I have always been a student who
possessed high potential and encouragement to display utmost observation during the lectures.
Also, I had a habit of taking down notes which could be taken into consideration later at the time
of exams to gain high percentage. Furthermore, I made use of my communication skills in order
to initiate interaction with the fellow mates and enhance my existing level of knowledge base. I
also had strong presentation skills owing to which I could effectively present my views and
opinions in front of my tutors, seniors, peers etc. Besides this, I experienced the demonstration of
my memory skills while recalling what was taught in the class in morning.
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I faced certain difficulties in taking a control over my reserved nature at start yet the
passion and charisma within my personality to utilising my analytical skills to demonstrate
attention to minutest details during the lectures and remembrance power at the time of weekly
class tests and examinations helped me a lot. Being a good and effective learner who constantly
takes steps for enhancing my skills by feeding my brain with the rightful knowledge, I was a
good university student throughout my first year of the course. Also, by attending the one week
writing workshop, gaining knowledge about plagiarism and the consequences that a student has
to bear when one does copying of material from any source available over internet or from the
assignment of another person became easy (Rosman and et. al., 2018).
Reflection on requirements for being an effective university student
As per my opinion, one can be a good university student only when one possesses
qualities such as punctuality, honesty, integrity and fairness towards the lessons given in class.
Also, a student needs to be highly directed and focussed upon the course work in order to be
rightly capable of memorising the information and knowledge which was imparted by tutors in
lectures (Gee, 2017). I believe that when a student possesses relevant analytical, observation and
presentation skills, they are able to demonstrate the same at the time of weekly class assessments
or examinations.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that a student must constantly reviews
one's own skills and performance in order to gain knowledge of the shortcomings and
weaknesses and effectively reconcile them. Further, it has been identified that punctuality,
honesty, integrity, dedication and hardwork should be constantly practised by an individual to
get elevated in the opted field of studies.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ghanizadeh, A., 2017. The interplay between reflective thinking, critical thinking, self-
monitoring, and academic achievement in higher education. Higher Education. 74(1).
pp.101-114.
Pereira, O. P. and Costa, C. A. A. T., 2017. The importance of soft skills in the university
academic curriculum: The perceptions of the students in the new society of
knowledge. International Journal of Business and Social Research. 7(3). pp.25-34.
Gee, N., 2017. A study of student completion strategies in a Likert-type course evaluation
survey. Journal of Further and Higher Education. 41(3). pp.340-350.
Rosman, T. and et. al., 2018. Conceptions of scientific knowledge influence learning of
academic skills: epistemic beliefs and the efficacy of information literacy
instruction. Studies in Higher Education, 43(1), pp.96-113.
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