Post Midterm

For all of you finishing your last rounds of midterms, its finally time to take a nice breather. In no way is the hard work over, but at least now you have more time to reply to those emails that may have piled up, hit the gym, and catch up with those friends who have been saying "Hey! I haven't seen you in a while! "(even though it's only been like a week).

So how to get through midterm season? How to recover from it? Here are a few of my favorite thoughts: 1.The most obvious way to re-charge your batteries, but so often neglected for more thrilling and exciting endeavors. Nothing will fuel you for the rest of the semester like crashing at 8:30pm and letting your alarm take the night off too. 2. Eat at a fancy restaurant. Dress up, find somewhere new, or revisit an old favorite. I love the restaurants in downtown GR, because it's so close to campus. I went to dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse a couple weeks ago, and brunch at The B.O.B. (near the river) last weekend. So delicious, and yet so necessary to fuel a midterm-ready brain. 3. Go shopping! Enough said. River town and Woodland Mall are great places to do some retail and window shopping. Fourth, get back in your old habits.     

With midterms out of the way, I'll start calling my mom more often, catching up with my roommate again, and re-visit to the gym with my semi-regular gym buddy. Fifth, catch up on seasons of your Favorite TV show. For me, that means it's time to see what's happening on the "The Originals."

Midterms aren't always so bad, but it can be rough when you have more than one in a week! It's important to do well on all of them, and recover in ways that don't include too many coffee runs. Of course, there are many other ways to de-stress in GR, like going to the beach (when it is cold outside, that's not a smart idea), going on a run, a walk through downtown, going to concerts, seeing a play, etc… Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to do those this week!

Pre-Midterm

Those pre-midterm jitters get you very time. Students rushing to cram for an exam that they have known about for months,

I guess constantly putting homework/study off gets old. Campus libraries and study halls are being filled up to capacity, power outlets over filled with the cords of computers and tablets. The floors of the library look strands of power lines before they are attached to the telephone poles. A cluster of young adults in pajamas and bed head fill the libraries halls followed by the constant fiddling and clicking of pens. Students passed on tables, desk and are camping out in the library from sun up to sun down just to study. When they could have just planned ahead instead of stressing about the test that is worth 15% of their grade, that is also about to lower their grade because they decide to not plan ahead.
Now with this it is possible to avoid this whole train wreck and limit your stress during finals week. You just need to plan ahead and take the time out of your day and do nothing but focus on studying for your test.

It has been proven that students that have better study methods and strategies score higher on exams. Here's just a few things students could do to improve their scores by: first by reviewing the material right after class when it's still fresh in your memory. Second have all of your study material in front of you: lecture notes, course textbooks, study guides and any other relevant material. Third find a comfortable and quiet place to study with good lighting and little distractions (try avoiding your own bed; it is very tempting to just lie down and take a nap). Fourth space out your studying, you'll learn more by studying a little every day instead of waiting to cram at the last minute. By studying every day, the material will stay in your long-term memory but if you try to study at the last moment, the material will only reside in your short-term memory that you'll easily forget.

Characteristics of a Critical Thinker

We all have our flaws. We gossip, boast, and over exaggerate. While were fulfilling our ego we can often deny ourselves intellectual growth and opportunity. We may not always want to apply critical thinking skills, but we should have those skills available to be employed when needed.

We are thinking critically when we use: reason over emotion, require evidence, ignore unknown evidence, and follow evidence where it leads, and are concerned more with finding the best explanation than being right analyzing apparent confusion and asking questions.

When I employ the characteristics of a critical thinker, it is mostly when I am driving. I try to be rational, self-aware, and discipline. I am discipline and self-aware in the sense that I stay within the speed limit, I stay off my phone, and I am always keeping constant awareness of my surroundings. I recognize my own faults while driving and use them to enhance myself as a driver and to furthermore make the roads safer. I try to be rational when other drivers around me want to speed and dodge in and out of traffic. When people dodge in and out of traffic there not only endangering their lives but the lives of others. I really love it when there dodging traffic and they cut me off and I have to slam on the breaks, which is my favorite. Even after all this I try to remain calm and not flip a gasket. I become a critical thinker in the car.

Schedule reflection

My class schedule reminds me of my high school schedule, I start at 9 in the morning and I am finished at 2. Then for the most part I have the same classes 3 to 4 times a week. So my schedule still has that high school feel but the major difference between my high school schedule and college schedule is that now in college I have a lot of free time. I mean that when I finish my last class of the day, the day is still young, I am no longer mentally exhausted after leaving class and I have more time to myself.With this comes a lot more responsibility of time management unlike high school. With high school I was able to procrastinate with my work and either finish during a late-night cram session or I was able to get an extension. With college it is a whole new ball game, I actually had to do that once and it did not work out in my favor. I did not really procrastinate with my assignment but I did not plan t out, so the reality was that I missed my dead line to turn my work in and I lost a few points it was not the end of the world but I learned a valuable lesson that night. I cannot wait to the last minute to turn assignments in, it will never work.
Also with my abundance of free time I have learn time management, so that I do not miss deadlines and other important things. What I have to constantly remind myself of is that if I am not careful I can let the day go pass me. I will look up and it is 9 pm and I have a paper due at 12 midnight and I have not done anything productive. What I am learning slowly but surely is that time management is a necessity for me to succeed.
    

Prinera semana de clase

Maybe it is just me but, I expected college to be right to the point. Classes to have ten page essays due the following day, to come my dorm room every night with a ton of homework.

The first week of classes for me were great; light, simple, easy going. My standards were apparently set too high for a incoming freshman, when I tell people how I feel it is either why do you want all of the stress or just wait until later in the year. I can not wait, for some reason I like to be under stress. when I am under stress it seems as if I work better, I become an academic beast that is hungry for the next task, hoping that the prey provides more of a challenge. Over all I like college life so far and hope my endeavors take me far here at GVSU and in life.