FYO26: Preparing for Success at University: Reflective Essay on Skills

This reflective essay, written for the FYO26 module, examines the crucial skills necessary for success in university and beyond. The essay delves into the importance of time management, critical thinking, reading comprehension, and effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal. It reflects on the author's personal learning journey, utilizing Gibb's reflective cycle to analyze experiences and identify areas for improvement, such as enhancing research and critical thinking abilities. The essay also addresses common challenges faced by university students, including time management, financial constraints, and social integration. Ultimately, the essay emphasizes the development of a diverse skillset as essential for academic achievement and future career success, particularly in fields like human resource management. The essay highlights the significance of reflective practice in personal and professional growth, offering a comprehensive overview of university life and the skills needed to navigate it successfully.

FYO26 Preparing for
Success at University:
Knowledge and
creativity
CW1: Reflective Essay

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The skills that one gets to inculcate at the level of university learning is very important in
life as it shapes the future trajectory of one’s career along with the outline of their academic and
personal lives going forward. In order to succeed at the University, one needs to have a tight grip
on a variety of skills which are in demand in today’s job market such and time management,
critical thinking skills, reading along with communication skills of both verbal and non-verbal
nature. Having a wide variety of knowledge related to different fields is also very important to be
meritorious at the university as the tests and the scope of the content taught there is quite broad.
This essay will highlight a reflective account of the way in which university learning is granted
to the students, the way in which it develops their knowledge and skillset for future career
endeavours along with a brief outlook over how to manage university expectations and overcome
potential challenges (Casey, 2021).
MAIN BODY
The modern job market has become quite complex and there are numerous checkboxes that one
individual has to tick in holistic manner in order to justify their selection for high paying and
esteemed job positions. This road towards having a fulfilling and lucrative career path is
intertwined with the way in which people study and undertake their academic rigours in learning
institutions such as schools and universities. Among such places, the role of university is quite
vital for people as the amount of skill and personality building that takes place here along with
the detailed subject specific knowledge which is distributed helps shape one’s future. This
module has helped me develop quite a lot of skills when it comes to university based learning
that will help me succeed in my university years along with providing me with a rewarding
career opportunity of my choice down the line which will be in the field of human resource
management (Barker, 2022).
One of the major skills that I learnt through the study of this module is the art of doing
reflective practice to look back upon one’s experience and deduce meaningful assumptions and
facts from the same for the sake of personal improvement. I learnt about various models of
reflection such as Kolb’s, DIEP model along with Gibb’s reflective cycle which has been used
herein to describe my learning experience via the study of this module.
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The first step of this model is the description of the experience which one gets to incur in
their present which is to be reflected later on. The study of this module helped me learn about
various skills such as proper communication skills which are quite transferable and useful in
virtually every career pathway going forward. I also learned about reading skills which is
necessary for knowledge gathering along with learning about various forms of research skills to
succeed at university and undertake holistic projects.
The second stage of cycle is about the feelings which one attains in context of the
experience being talked about. The communication skills which I learned during the study of this
module will help me immensely going forward as I learned various visual cues related to both
verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. I also learned about various forms of reading
such as skimming and scanning which will help make my life at university easier. My overall
learning experience was quite positive.
When it comes to the entire evaluation of the learning process which I undertook with
the help of this module, it become clear that my experience was both good and bad. My
communication skills of both vernal and non-verbal nature got improved by a major degree
through both practical and theoretical knowledge. I also learned about reading and gaining
maximum knowledge from complex bodies of text but my research skills and critical thinking
left a lot to be desired (Smith and et.al., 2020).
The overall analysis of the situation is that I benefitted majorly from this study from this
module as I got to learn about many key skills which will help me move towards scoring a good
job in the field of human resource management. By learning about the ways of reading various
types of texts, I will be able to comprehend many texts. However, the research skills and critical
thinking abilities need to be enhanced further on a much bigger scale.
In order to conclude my experience of learning this module, I have developed a lot as a
learned as I got to acquire key skills such as proper communication skills, learning about
academic research and referencing and enhancing my reading skills. I am grateful to embark on
this learning journey and I also got to learn about my weaknesses such as lack of critical thinking
and analytical thinking which I will improve further.
As far as the action plan is concerned, I will improve my critical thinking skills going
forward as they fell short of the mark. I will also work on improving my research skills by
undertaking more projects and developing hypothesis on crucial and mainstream topics while
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only focusing on primary research via survey and questionnaires to develop credibility and
proficiency in this domain.
There are different types of challenges that university students face such as transitioning
from high school to university can be challenging for some students. Students are responsible for
managing their own time and can face difficulty with classes. Paying for education can be a
difficult for students, tuition costs are rising and the cost of meals supplies and textbooks make a
recipe of debt for students. So many students drop out because they cannot afford the expenses.
Social relations can be a problem in university life. If you make many friends and start spending
too much time with them, it can be challenging for student life. However, social relations are
needed. University environment can derail student's time management, flexibility and freedom to
students who are not good with time management can cause trouble for them. Students often
struggle to balance their academic and personal life after joining university courses (Malouff,
Rooke and Schutte, 2018).
A normal expectation of students from university courses are that is will improve their
academic prospects. Students expect resources and individual consultation to support their
learning from universities. Students expect support from academic staff and timely feedback on
their progress in the course. Students usually take universities as continuation of high schools.
They expect lectures in universities to be similar like they have encountered in schools. Hence,
most students found themselves not ready for more informal style of teaching. Students often
underestimate the time of self-study require for their courses. Students also come with unrealistic
expectations about their assessments. Students expect to face financial troubles during their
degree, and most of the times they do face these troubles.
CONCLUSION
The above reflective essay went into detail regarding the various ways in which modules
and academic courses help inculcate wide variety of skills in individuals in order to help them
succeed in the university along with shaping their career pathway in a holistic manner. The
report utilized Gibb’s reflective cycle model to highlight the way in which people develop as
learners while studying such modules by focusing on skills such as communication skills and
reading skills. It was concluded from this reflective essay that in order to succeed in university,
one needs a diverse skillset and needs to be equipped with various forms of knowledge
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Casey, R., 2021. Importance of feedback and personal leadership development plans. In Practice,
43(1), pp.50-52.
Barker, A., 2022. Improve Your Communication Skills: How to Build Trust, Be Heard and
Communicate With Confidence (Vol. 2). Kogan Page Publishers.
Malouff, J., Rooke, S. and Schutte, N., 2018. Simple Strategies Academics Can Use to Help
Students Improve Their Writing Skills. Online Submission.
Smith, K.E., Bandola-Gill, J., Meer, N., Stewart, E. and Watermeyer, R., 2020. The impact
agenda: Controversies, consequences and challenges. Policy Press.
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