Ashlyne Bunting

College Prep
P.4
July 6, 2018

Question: What have I learned this first week?

This week in my college prep class I learned further about my LASSI and what it’s about and
how my results can affect my learning in a negative way and how they can be improved with
practice and good skill practice. I learned that when it comes to my anxiety it’s high enough to
where it could affect my learning meaning that I worry so much about my performance to a
degree where it leads my attention away from my academic success, how this can be lowered is
by coming up with new coping skills for when my anxiety gets to be too high. My attitude is
pretty good but I still have my doubts about college education. These such thoughts can
interfere with my ability to compete for getting into college, getting my work done, and
succeeding in college. To improve my attitude there are some activities and discussions that will
help me develop a better understanding of how college can relate to life and raise my chances
of getting into and succeeding in college. The LASSI thought me about some of my strengths but
mostly my weaknesses in school and what the specific problems are and how they can be fixed
and improved upon overtime and with practice. It also taught me that I’m still young and I still
have time to fix my mistakes before I get to college.

In this class I also learned about 15 important that the top college students have to succeed in
college. Such as planning ahead. This is important for college because you’ll know when the
tests and papers fall in the semester but, they also know the material for the semester and the
work that they’ll have per week so they can plan out a rough draft of a schedule in advance for
studying and working in each class. Another example is managing your surroundings. It taught
to me have a working computer, printer, and all the materials of the course ready to go before
the course starts as well as not hanging around with people that will make it hard for me to
study, and get work done and stay focused in school. Challenging yourself intellectually
energetic so when reading thinking actively about the reading not zoning out in class or getting
distracted most of the time. They are persistent doesn’t give up even if the problem set needs
extra work or a paper need several drafts before you can finally type the final draft putting in
the extra effort to make sure you get the grade and the education you want and are paying for.
They don’t cut corners hung over or tired, staying up until 3 a.m. to work on homework or
studying for a test make sure you stay till the bitter end and work hard to get the material. They
are open to feedback takes feedback and criticism well and learns from it for the next paper of
exam or homework assignment. They keep yourself in tip-top shape, visualize success, learn
from experience etc. this paper taught me that without all of these keeping yourself healthy is
very important in college as you can’t really learn properly when you’re sick or aren’t
functioning properly. I learned that if I don’t have these qualities in college I will fall behind fast
and that in order to get the most out of my education I need to master these skills.
I also learned about time management and its importance in college. Such as knowing how to
prioritize your time for each class you take in college. Having a planner helps a lot. And having a
schedule mapped out for each class such as how long you’re going to spend studying and
working in each class, cut your huge reading into chucks to read each night instead of reading
the whole 400 pages in one night, working on the more important things first and them
switching to the things that aren’t due for a while later, split up the work do some for an hour
then switch to something else, clear your schedule for your work and make sure it gets done
stay persistent. Time management is one of the most important things in college so you have
the time to get everything done and still have time to sleep and stay healthy and take care of
yourself.

College prep class has also taught me the importance of going above in high school too. High
schools have a specific number of credits you must have to graduate and qualify for college but,
colleges want to see you going above and beyond in school instead of getting 2 credits for
world language get 4 instead of getting 2 credits in English get 4 college wants you to exceed
the standard for high school so they know you can handle and be ready for college and so that
you stand out from other students and so that they know you’re not afraid to put in extra effort
and go the extra mile for your education since you got more credits than you “needed” for high
school and college. This class also taught me the importance of SMART goals. Making sure my
goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. These goals will help you
get the most out of education as well as improve your attitude about school your motivation,
and have it so you’ll be more likely to succeed in college and in high school.

This class finally taught me about growth and fixed mindset. How having a growth mindset
means that you take failure with pride and with the attitude of learning from your mistakes and
seeing your education as a change to learn without fear of getting things wrong and not being
afraid to ask for help because you don’t understand something. Whereas fixed mindset is when
you have to look perfect all the time you always have to look like everything’s okay and that
you understand the material for fear that you will look stupid or dumb in front of your
classmates. A fixed mindset only sees the grade, they only want to pass the class and get good
grades on their assignments. Understanding the material isn’t as important as getting the
perfect grades on paper. They don’t like looking dumb in front of others so they struggle with
asking for help. Fixed mindset isn’t necessarily something that just is in your brain, it’s
something that you develop over time. It tends to come from when people in school say that
they don’t understand something or get something wrong in class and they get made fun of for
it or told that they’re stupid or have mean comments said to them for just not knowing
information. I believe that fixed mindset isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something you
develop over time because people have made it so you’re afraid to get things wrong, they’ve
made it so you don’t feel safe in the classroom to say that you don’t understand something.
That’s what I’ve learned in this class so far and I look forward to learning more over the next
few weeks.