The Opportunity to Learn and Reflect on Several Issues - Essay Example

The Opportunity to Learn and Reflect on Several Issues As an International Foundation Student I have had an opportunity to learn and reflect on several issues. I am currently in the second semester where we have learned to write essays, prepare and give presentations, make projects, prepare an Independent learning portfolio and attend lectures. My experience with each of these has been different. What I found most interesting in this semester was preparing a business project. I chose to write on China and UK especially as China is an upcoming country. China is known as the world’s factory and it was truly thrilling to browse through the numerous books borrowed from the library. It also gave me the opportunity to learn how to search through the internet and extract the right information. This project allowed me an insight into the British and the Chinese economic conditions. This project was for 1700 words and since I enjoyed working on it, I finished it ahead of schedule. I did ask a friend to check the work for grammatical mistakes though. The assignment has not yet been marked and I am very anxiously waiting to see the outcome as I put in a lot of effort into it. I enjoy the lecture sessions taken by Jo as she makes it very interesting and the subjects too are interesting. Her lectures are helpful and the explanations clear. Even though our class size is small in this semester, this particular lecture is attended by many other students. There are some who have a good sense of humor and the class becomes all the more enjoyable. We have learnt a lot about the British culture, its people, the NHS, and the leisure. It helped me to get a good knowledge about UK and its traditions and culture. We had an assessment just before the Easter but unfortunately I did not do well in it. This could probably be because I did not put in any revision and tried to rely on what I had learnt during the lectures. Preparing the Independent learning portfolio was really depressing. This put me under a lot of stress as we were asked to prepare the portfolio of more than 100 pages. I had no alternative but to copy from several English books as I was totally at a loss. I felt I had given my best but it was disheartening to see that all I managed in this was a 36 percent. This translates into failure and I strongly feel that a fair assessment has not been done. At the same time I wonder whether it would have been better if instead of copying, I prepared it myself. Perhaps I could have learnt more and got better scores then. In copying we do not really gain anything and most often it is mechanically done. We do not even know the words we are copying at times. Actually I did not learn anything through this. All I was trying to do was to get good scores, where I failed too. I dislike presentations also. We have been repeating projects and presentations in this semester and I feel there is nothing to practice in presentations. We had already done all these in the first semester and it is boring to do it all over again. Presentations depend upon an individual’s confidence and do not really call for repeated practice. I would strongly feel that presentations could be done away with. Having it in the first semester is enough and it is not really required to be done again. I am somehow not feeling very comfortable with the second semester. I find it tough at times. I also find it boring as there are too few students. Because of this many times I keep away from class too. I know this is not a good practice because I need to study well and gain at least a pass in the module. I realize that nothing comes on a platter and we need to toil. There can be no substitute for hard work and hard work will definitely reap rich dividends. We need not expect results because labor has to bring results. I also realize now that if the concentration is not passing or getting results, the effort or devotion to work is reduced. We remain anxious about the outcome and this anxiety affects our work input. Over confidence is another negative quality that affects our work. I did not revise for the assessment on UK and I felt I knew everything as the lectures had been interesting. This has taught me that confidence is essential but not over confidence. I still need to pick up grammar as I do not like to ask my friends to check the paper for me. I know it takes time but this is another area where I would like improve. We as students always complain about things we do not like doing. I realize that if we could decide what we should or should not learn and when to learn what, we would not have been students. Our teachers know what is best for us and it is best to go with the flow. At the same time, teachers need a feedback also to ascertain where things could improve. I have been contemplating on why I feel the lack of students in class. How does it really matter how many students are there in the class? Why should that affect my mood and the learning process? I recognize the areas where I need to change and put in efforts. Perhaps failures have opened my eyes. It is also well known fact that failures are stepping stones to success. I have decided to put in sincere efforts in getting the pass scores and not just for the sake of passing but to gain knowledge. I am sure the teachers know what is best for us and I shall abide by their suggestions. I do hope that I start the next semester on a better footing. Read More