College study skills journal 4

Stepping into college means you are up to new challenges because from now on you must be

independence and responsible in order to carry yourself in life. Surviving in college is one thing but striving

for success is another thing. That is why it is a necessity for college freshman to learn College Study Skills.

If we were to look at the syllabus of our textbook written by Dianna L.Van Blerkom, it contents are

very holistic and detailed. All the explanations regarding a problem or a situation is accurate indeed as if

the writer has been in the shoes before. The power of empathy in writing proves to be a good way to

persuade and convince the reader. Although all of the content is quite general, but when we discuss the

topic in the class, Miss Hannan succeed in clearing all the vague and we are like sometimes discussing our

problems regarding college life with her. That is what I considered as effective and practical learning. That

is why this subject really important and could be really handy for those who learn it.

But the question here is how this subject helps me survive my university life? From my personal

experience, I always have this bad habit of procrastination and lack of concentration in class. Now that I

have learnt how to manage time and improve my concentration, very slowly I tried to apply them.

In my procrastination case, I start with the basic which is just get started. In order to get started, I

did reset my mind and started to believe in the power of now. I remember this quotes saying that times

flies and we are the pilot. So I decided to evaluate myself and I manage to identify my escapist technique. I

found out that I always surf the web, take a nap or suddenly decide to clean the room when I should be

doing my assignments at that time. It is much easier when I have known where I lost my time and I can

avoid from commit myself in unnecessary or unplanned activity. In order to shed my procrastination habit,

a lot of positive self-talk has been done to keep me in track.

On the other hand, regarding my lack of concentration in class, I just get to know that there are

actually a topic focussing on concentration. I have learned the levels of concentration, identify the types of

concentration problem and what causes it to happen. When Miss Hannan discuss with the class, I actually

mark the problems I encountered for reflective purpose. Every problem has its own solution. That is why I

pay full attention when my friends present the strategies to improve concentration. Some of the strategies

that works for me is to create interest in the task and use active learning strategies to stay focus in class.

In a nutshell, College Study Skills is a very important subject actually and need to be considered for

making into the core subject of every course especially during the early semester. Learning this subject

helps me to actually apply the knowledge gained to solve my problems regarding college life. It is crystal

clear that this is sure a subject to be learn.