First Year of Higher Education

Question: Write an essay on first year experience of higher education? Answer: I started my higher education and transitioned from high school to college. It became very difficult for me manage the course as I had the characteristic to procrastinate and get easily distracted. The major problem in the first year of my college was to decide as to concentrate on which field. This is because in the initial year I was not sure about what I was really interested in. Once I decided the field in which I am interested, it seemed to be easy to tackle things but in the reality, the effort in the college just tripled from the effort that I exerted in high school. The volume of homework has increased and the quizzes, tests and assignments seemed to be tougher than the ones that were done in the high school. Analyzing the college years and starting from the first year, there were substantial improvement in the productivity and growth in my career and life. The first hurdle that I had to face is the huge volume of homework. Doing the homework was not of a problem as the homework allowed me gain new ideas and knowledge about different topics. When I was in high school, sometimes the homework had to be done within the same day, it is then that I face the difficult to manage my homework. In College the volume of the homework are so many that I had to prioritize them in order to complete within the deadline. This allowed me to categorize my homework in terms of the degree of time consuming (Hirt, 2005). Suppose that homework is most time consuming and I cater to this homework first. Again suppose that homework carries a lot of points then I try to finish the homework on a priority basis. One of the struggles of my life after getting enrolled in the college is the poor performance in the quizzes and midterms. I devote a lot of time to studies but the more I prepare the more I perform poor in the tests. I believe that the tests are like personal assessment and it does not have any relation with the numbers rather the idea of the test must be to identify whether the students have acquired correct and knowledge about a particular subject. The first year of college focuses on the real life and its interpretation. So I decided that I had to make changes in my approach to exams. I get panicky and nervous before the day of the exam or tests. The next thing that I reformed was my approach towards the tests and quizzes. I stopped getting nervous before the tests and kept motivating myself that I am well prepared and can perform well (Kyung-Hwa Lee, à ªÃ‚ ¹Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¬Ã‚ Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ªÃ‚ ²Ã‚ ½ and Lew Kyounghoon, 2013). This helped me to stay calm before and during the test. Even tually I improved and started performing well. In the first year of my college I faced a lot of challenges in writing. This is because in high school the writing style was simple and easy to assemble. The writing style in the college is different and difficult as it had a distinct writing guidelines, structure and level of writing. In this context, the professors are strict in marking the answer so I had to be more cautious regarding my writing style (Swick, 2009). The writing centre had helped me a lot to improve my writing skill by providing me with the comments at each level of my writing. The improvement of my writing was ensured when each professor made great comments which encouraged me (Smith and Wertlieb, 2005). Writing had always been my weakness and it was a challenge for me to overcome it. Finally, I receive grade of B+ level on my writing considering the fact that I received B level grade in the initial period of first year. This is more like an achievement for me. The first year of college was like a character and personality building year. One of the assignments that I had to complete was done in the form of group projects. Initially I faced a lot of problems in coordinating with the other group members as different students had different views and opinions about a particular topic. It became difficult for the group to come to a common conclusion. In the beginning of the college, I had to handle a similar group project where I found multiple disagreements among the members. I became relentless and failed in that group project. It is then I realized that this is e a part of shaping my nature. I took up the challenge and participated in more of the group project. This enabled me to develop communication skill and working within teams. I developed the skill of concluding the opinions all of the members so that no one is offended regarding their involvement in the project. Gradually, I started participating in more of group projects and performed quite well. On the first day of my college I encountered with an amiable Professor who guided me to my class as I was unable to find it. Thereafter The Professor maintained a cordial relationship with me. I later found out he is hailed from mathematical background and since I had problems in numbers, I often landed in the teachers room to seek his advice and suggestion regarding a particular mathematical problem. The other professors are also friendly and cooperative and the supported and helped me a lot in my academics. It is the professors that helped me to improve my knowledge on any subject. They took the initiative to stay after the class dissolves to help the weak students in enhancing their understanding about the lessons that were taught in the class. I always found the professors to be cooperative in helping the students and introduced a special class after the actual class gets over which the college authorities named as doubt clearing class. This class had helped many students to clea r out all their problems and doubts about the lessons. And no doubt it also helped me to gain better understanding of the lessons (WOOSLEY, 2005). Another major problem that I faced in the beginning of the first year was interaction problems. The college had students enrolled from different cultural and ethnic background which was not prevalent in the high school framework. Establishing an interaction with a particular student who hailed from a different cultural background was difficult for me. I felt that our opinions and views would not be met and there can be conflicts and disagreement between us which will cause a problem in their relationship. As time passed I started made friends from different cultures and found that it was a myth that I had in my minds regarding the culture clash (WOOSLEY, 2005). I found that students from different cultural backgrounds were friendly and pleasant in their behavior and I made couple of friends who hail from different ethnic background. The next good thing that I learned in the initial years is the aspect of time management. As such in the high school there wasnt any time exact framework unlike in college where the assignments and the projects had to be submitted on time and failure to do so would have points deducted. It was once that I failed to submit an assignment on time and got points deducted from the curriculum and it is then I learnt to respect time. I stopped procrastinating and completed the assignments and projects on time without any delay and point deduction. Thus, the overall experience on the first year of my college was personality building and knowledge gathering that will help me in the future. Before entering college I had a perspective of having a fun-filled life with less tension and more of excitement but after attending the first few classes, I understood that college is not just a fun-filled place but also an informative and career building place beneficial for my future. Going back to the first year of college, I can recall the way I improved my writing skills, developed feeling of union, established interaction and communication of friends from varied cultures, learnt to develop cordial relationship with the professors and value time the most (WOOSLEY, 2005). The first year of my college seemed to be challenging for me as the transition from high school is always difficult for a freshman. I shall imbibe all the good learning and memories of the first year in college and make use of them for future enhancement. References Hirt, J. (2005). Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for Improving the First Year of College.Journal of College Student Development, 46(5), pp.561-564. Kyung-Hwa Lee, à ªÃ‚ ¹Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¬Ã‚ Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ªÃ‚ ²Ã‚ ½, and Lew Kyounghoon, (2013). The Relationship of Parental Involvement, College Life Adaptation and Academic Achievement in First Year College Students.Asian Journal of Education, 14(3), pp.184-201. Smith, J. and Wertlieb, E. (2005). Do First-Year College Students' Expectations Align with their First-Year Experiences?.Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 42(2). Swick, E. (2009).Writing better English for ESL learners. Chicago, IL: McGraw-Hill. WOOSLEY, S. (2005). SURVEY RESPONSE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AMONG FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS.Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 6(4), pp.413-423.