Personal Evaluation of the NQ Access Course at Stevenson College
Motivation and Expectations
I have enrolled on the Access Course at Stevenson College, following the recommendations I have received by an Admission’s Officer at the Edinburgh University’s Open Day in 2007. My motivation is to achieve the necessary level of preparation that would enable me to get an access to University. This course is relevant to my vocational aspirations which are to read for a degree in Languages.
Positive Experience
In the duration of the course I have noticed that my level of confidence have increased with regard to being able to express myself more clearly in English, having in mind English is not my first language. Moreover, I would like to emphasise the importance of the inclusion of the two subjects Communication and Literature in the curriculum, which greatly assisted in my improving in writing in English.
For instance, writing tasks such as essays and other reading assessments were especially designed to develop our analytical, reading and writing skills, which were in fact the practical implementation of these. We were introduced to different systems for referencing, as well as to project planning skills. I have found ‘The Punctuation Book’ that we were given at the beginning of the course a really helpful tool. Also, I have struggled with paragraphing text for my writing tasks. However, paragraphs and clear signposting have become an essential part of my writing now.
In addition, I have acquired useful skills with regard to preparing oral presentations. We have also developed our abilities in planning and writing projects. During the course we were taught techniques for analysing literary works.
Apart from, getting assistance with regard to more effective time management techniques and evaluation of personal progress, throughout the course we have been introduced to new learning and reading techniques that would benefit us in getting prepared for a demanding university course. I think, the subject Study Skills is an essential unit that need to be taken seriously. One may regard it as an unnecessary waste of time, however, without first seeing and analysing weaknesses, one won’t be able to achieve what they know they are able to achieve. As a result, I have certainly become more organised, I have identified certain areas I need to put more work on.
We have access to computers and programmes that are especially designed to enable us to actively apply new learning skills, i.e. understanding of what we learn, why we learn it, and last but not least see the positive results of the learning process.
The course is well structured as there is good balance between writing and practical tasks.
Conclusion
The course is very informative and highly recommendable for anybody aiming at continuing their further education. In the duration of the course I have learned a lot about myself too.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Refelctive Thingy
How the course could be improved eh? Well let me begin. More maths! No word of a lie I loved that class. I planned to do more but I also planned on having a social life too, so maths went! (that seems a stupid thing to say about education). I believe stricter deadlines would help. I know we have been told for months about what we have to do! But any work that is ‘for the end of term at the latest’ is going to be put of by the majority of the class every year. And then we have the build up of work problem again. Imagine the madness if investigating Europe was this term as well, someone would have jumped out of Carlos’s window! What else could we improve? I dunno. In Spanish Alicia was fantastic (shoulda put that in the positives right?). but seriously more classes like hers would have been great, a mix between her and Dieca for the whole year would have people talking a lot better than I can. I don’t have much else on the improvement side of things. I don’t know if this already happens but giving people language exchanges every year would be good – ours were brilliant.
Now were on my performance!! Haha this should be fun and if I have learned anything from study skills I think this is expected to be the longest part. Well I feel my performance has been mixed! History and maths I feel have been my strongest subjects I enjoyed these and tried hardest in these subjects. Plus who can fault Evan, the man is fantastic. if every teacher had the passion for their subjects like he does it would be a great place to be. Spanish has been ok, I feel I have done well but I believe that it took me too long to get a successful studying technique for it. But that’s part of the learning progress. I think that my speaking needs a lot of improvement I still hear Spanish and panic for a few seconds. My reading is my strongest and my listening is no bad. Investigating Europe was interesting, I think I did ok in this. I wish we coulda had classes with Joe cause he’s brilliant. But I enjoyed the class and felt that if I had chosen a subject I enjoyed a little more than something ‘arty’ (I’m just not that guy, give me football or a book any day, but Picasso? Who’s he?) I would have done better. Communication I think I did ok I missed waay too many classes though. I found it difficult to write about some things like the speaking skills! I enjoyed doing the talks for all the classes and feel, other than my attempt at a talk in Spanish, that my skills have improved. Finally literature I haven’t finished all my work for this yet so I’ll find out soon about this. I enjoyed reading all the stuff for this class but comparing one thing to another is difficult and I definitely need work to improve this.
In conclusion (I feel that’s a great opener for this final part of the story) I have learned a lot of important things. Like never break into a hotel in Düsseldorf if you plan on walking normally afterwards! 300 euros is not enough spending money to take to Madrid if you plan on getting drunk every night. Never miss a £1 a drink opportunity, you never know how long its gonna last for. Don’t waste a sunny day in Scotland inside!! And finally my biggest lesson I have learned is if you want to use the language centre; switch off your phone! Don’t eat or drink! Keep quiet! Write your name in the book! AND NEVER print more than 5 pages! Your life depends on it.
Now were on my performance!! Haha this should be fun and if I have learned anything from study skills I think this is expected to be the longest part. Well I feel my performance has been mixed! History and maths I feel have been my strongest subjects I enjoyed these and tried hardest in these subjects. Plus who can fault Evan, the man is fantastic. if every teacher had the passion for their subjects like he does it would be a great place to be. Spanish has been ok, I feel I have done well but I believe that it took me too long to get a successful studying technique for it. But that’s part of the learning progress. I think that my speaking needs a lot of improvement I still hear Spanish and panic for a few seconds. My reading is my strongest and my listening is no bad. Investigating Europe was interesting, I think I did ok in this. I wish we coulda had classes with Joe cause he’s brilliant. But I enjoyed the class and felt that if I had chosen a subject I enjoyed a little more than something ‘arty’ (I’m just not that guy, give me football or a book any day, but Picasso? Who’s he?) I would have done better. Communication I think I did ok I missed waay too many classes though. I found it difficult to write about some things like the speaking skills! I enjoyed doing the talks for all the classes and feel, other than my attempt at a talk in Spanish, that my skills have improved. Finally literature I haven’t finished all my work for this yet so I’ll find out soon about this. I enjoyed reading all the stuff for this class but comparing one thing to another is difficult and I definitely need work to improve this.
In conclusion (I feel that’s a great opener for this final part of the story) I have learned a lot of important things. Like never break into a hotel in Düsseldorf if you plan on walking normally afterwards! 300 euros is not enough spending money to take to Madrid if you plan on getting drunk every night. Never miss a £1 a drink opportunity, you never know how long its gonna last for. Don’t waste a sunny day in Scotland inside!! And finally my biggest lesson I have learned is if you want to use the language centre; switch off your phone! Don’t eat or drink! Keep quiet! Write your name in the book! AND NEVER print more than 5 pages! Your life depends on it.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Study skills evaluation
Motivation and positive experiences
My main motivation and expectation of this course was to help get myself into University with ok marks. I really wanted to do well with this course as I hadn’t done well at school.
I have to say I have really felt this course has worked better for me than school ever did.
My most positive experiences have not just been doing the course, but meeting others on my course and having really good conversations and debates with some of them about a range of topics: from whether Euthanasia is right or wrong to how useful Wikipedia can or cannot be.
Dieca's study skills really helped me to be reflective about my study and how much I’d achieved. I have to say a diary that I at first felt was not the greatest way of planning has now become really useful as a reference to what I’ve done, what I’ve to do and helped me to remember the way I’ve revised last time. I think I may even continue to use it, maybe not online but as a diary or something. We’ll see how well my time management goes.
I also feel like my speaking and writing of French and Spanish has improved. For Jordi’s class it included a lot of extra work on grammar and writing, but that was expected as I was doing an Advanced Higher course. I feel like I really learnt a lot from Spanish i.e. how to check my work properly, not something I always did before.
Roger helped build my confidence up on speaking and writing assuring me that the writing mistakes were mistakes even French people make due to the sound of the language.
I have to say John really helped in the way he taught maths, it was something I was really rather scared of. Most of my maths teachers before were not as patient and therefore I had believed that I’d always be useless at it, but John helped build my confidence up on that.
Improvements
I feel that the course could be improved by having the history assessments a bit closer together as it would give people more time to work on the history investigation, despite Evan’s thought that it takes barely anytime at all. I am aware of people worrying rather a lot about it.
The other improvement to the course that I believe needs to be available is access for communication classes to computers or laptops, and a PowerPoint screen. It’s a shame that the technology meant our first recorded presentations meant that many of us were almost blinded by an OHP light. I think that could have been avoided by having a better room. It’s a shame that the class has only changed location in the last month of the course.
Conclusions
I have learnt a lot from this course, how to time manage, finding different ways of revising, how to write essays. I have also found out how to structure my essays a lot better, when I think back to my first one for Jerry, structure was practically non-existent.
I think I’ve learnt more about myself from this course than I expected. My first thought was just to do as well as I could, but I’ve found I’ve done better than I thought I would. The fact I’ve got the marks I got, and passed things that I thought I’d panic, stress and therefore fail has allowed me to gain a bit more confidence with the things that I do, and I believe that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learnt.
My main motivation and expectation of this course was to help get myself into University with ok marks. I really wanted to do well with this course as I hadn’t done well at school.
I have to say I have really felt this course has worked better for me than school ever did.
My most positive experiences have not just been doing the course, but meeting others on my course and having really good conversations and debates with some of them about a range of topics: from whether Euthanasia is right or wrong to how useful Wikipedia can or cannot be.
Dieca's study skills really helped me to be reflective about my study and how much I’d achieved. I have to say a diary that I at first felt was not the greatest way of planning has now become really useful as a reference to what I’ve done, what I’ve to do and helped me to remember the way I’ve revised last time. I think I may even continue to use it, maybe not online but as a diary or something. We’ll see how well my time management goes.
I also feel like my speaking and writing of French and Spanish has improved. For Jordi’s class it included a lot of extra work on grammar and writing, but that was expected as I was doing an Advanced Higher course. I feel like I really learnt a lot from Spanish i.e. how to check my work properly, not something I always did before.
Roger helped build my confidence up on speaking and writing assuring me that the writing mistakes were mistakes even French people make due to the sound of the language.
I have to say John really helped in the way he taught maths, it was something I was really rather scared of. Most of my maths teachers before were not as patient and therefore I had believed that I’d always be useless at it, but John helped build my confidence up on that.
Improvements
I feel that the course could be improved by having the history assessments a bit closer together as it would give people more time to work on the history investigation, despite Evan’s thought that it takes barely anytime at all. I am aware of people worrying rather a lot about it.
The other improvement to the course that I believe needs to be available is access for communication classes to computers or laptops, and a PowerPoint screen. It’s a shame that the technology meant our first recorded presentations meant that many of us were almost blinded by an OHP light. I think that could have been avoided by having a better room. It’s a shame that the class has only changed location in the last month of the course.
Conclusions
I have learnt a lot from this course, how to time manage, finding different ways of revising, how to write essays. I have also found out how to structure my essays a lot better, when I think back to my first one for Jerry, structure was practically non-existent.
I think I’ve learnt more about myself from this course than I expected. My first thought was just to do as well as I could, but I’ve found I’ve done better than I thought I would. The fact I’ve got the marks I got, and passed things that I thought I’d panic, stress and therefore fail has allowed me to gain a bit more confidence with the things that I do, and I believe that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learnt.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Reflective Study Plan week beginning 19.05.2009
I have decided not to do the Spanish exam, and focus more on the History assessment and investigation as otherwise I feel like there's too much to do and it will cause me more stress.
I have done the second literature essay, but that still needs a bit of tweaking. I will do this on Friday afternoon.
The history assessment revision I'm focusing on just now. I've used a similar method to before which was to use coloured paper for different parts and to put parts of the essay onto it, so that I can visually remember the parts I need to write the essay during the assessment.
I have written out passages and possible quotations to be added into my history investigation as before it was mainly from one main source, which wasn't good. I plan to edit, rewrite and work on it on general once I have the literature essay tweaked. I hope to have it finished by the end of May or first week of June at the latest, as I'm away to Prague in the Czech Republic after that.
I have done the second literature essay, but that still needs a bit of tweaking. I will do this on Friday afternoon.
The history assessment revision I'm focusing on just now. I've used a similar method to before which was to use coloured paper for different parts and to put parts of the essay onto it, so that I can visually remember the parts I need to write the essay during the assessment.
I have written out passages and possible quotations to be added into my history investigation as before it was mainly from one main source, which wasn't good. I plan to edit, rewrite and work on it on general once I have the literature essay tweaked. I hope to have it finished by the end of May or first week of June at the latest, as I'm away to Prague in the Czech Republic after that.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Pride Fills My Heart
Thanks Dieca I'm so happy to be given the honourable Tin Star.
I very much appreciate that; East Enders will be welcoming me with open arms from now on.
But it's good to hear you're doing well.
So far so good, my study plan:
This week I've been a bit of a lazy muncher. I've got 2.7 million piles of work to do.
Literature
I very much appreciate that; East Enders will be welcoming me with open arms from now on.
But it's good to hear you're doing well.
So far so good, my study plan:
This week I've been a bit of a lazy muncher. I've got 2.7 million piles of work to do.
Literature
- Comparison Valentine and Sonnet (from the very beginning of the course. To be fair, I have done about a page 'already')
- Comparison of The Awakening and A Doll's House
- Essay on an individually chosen book
History
- 'How did Hitler rise to power?' (This will be the worst task. As you can possibly imagine in Alemania we've been punched the story into our brains more than four times. Secondly, Evan's archaic style of teaching does not seem to ask us to draw the link to modern society -> e.g. how does the Nazi regime affect our modern society nowadays? This, I believe, is the most interesting part of history, innit?)
Last night I began this essay and I got to 500-odd words. Not a huge success but hey, five hundred words are five hundred words. - Choose a topic for the project we are required to do for history
I've been thinking about posing the question, what could have prevented the so-called Islamic revolution in Iran; to what extent were the United States responsible for Saddam's bloody dictatorship; or maybe What crucial factors dominated Churchill's governance?
Finally I need to start writing Jerry's 5-minute-presentation and for the Spanish presentation.
That's it for the week...should be manageable, eh?
Study plan
I wasn't as successful as I'd hoped to be last week. I have managed to finish my personal study literature essay, and am more than half way through the second essay on The Awakening and A Doll's House.
I have to prepare for my talk for communication tomorrow on Couchsurfing tonight.
After Communication tomorrow, I plan to finish off the History Essay on Hitler by the evening.
Then I will just need to work on Spanish essays for exam, memorisation of last history essay for assessment and my history investigation, which has been causing me a bit of hassle due to sources. Glad to say that has now been sorted.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Hola
Just to let you know that I am still here and passing the time reading your contributions.
Gold star this week goes to Dom for a very good reflection on what he has learnt so far. If you haven't read it, do so, it may inspire you to write your own experiences.
Tin star goes to Mend, for just being there and making a contribution (albeit small!).
Bronze goes to the others who have been entering their study plan.
No stars for the absent ones (Arturo, donde estas?)
I am still worrying about you all, so please, do what Jordi tells you.
I hope to be back on Tuesday 12th May, and I hope your Spanish will have improved tremendously by then.
Love
Dieca
Gold star this week goes to Dom for a very good reflection on what he has learnt so far. If you haven't read it, do so, it may inspire you to write your own experiences.
Tin star goes to Mend, for just being there and making a contribution (albeit small!).
Bronze goes to the others who have been entering their study plan.
No stars for the absent ones (Arturo, donde estas?)
I am still worrying about you all, so please, do what Jordi tells you.
I hope to be back on Tuesday 12th May, and I hope your Spanish will have improved tremendously by then.
Love
Dieca
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)