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Final Essay
As I reflect upon this course, I was worried and pessimistic about achieving a better grade in this course. However, with time and interactions with others during classes and other activities related to this course, I was immensely motivated and optimistic about my academic progress. I had translated several skills easily from high school, but some of them did not translate well. Alongside that, I have always believed that I am a person who gets good at gaining information, knowledge, and laying down a foundation. When I arrived at college, it was clear to myself that I needed more and there were important details that I lacked. I needed improvement, but this was not a hard fix. Taking this course has helped me fix a number of issues a bit as well as strengthened my proficiency in other areas as well as real-life issues. Throughout the semester, I have completed a magnitude of assignments relative to this course that has increased my skills, broadened my sense as a future psychologist. Additionally, taking this course has helped me develop rhetorical knowledge, develop critical thinking, improved my reading abilities, gained information literacy, develop effective strategies for drafting a research paper, and developed my knowledge of conventions.
First, one of the most important new skills I developed in this course is developing rhetorical knowledge through analysis and composition of multiple forms of writing to understand better how some texts and research texts shape readers, research practices, and purposes. As such, learning more about how to write a professional research paper has helped me with new skills and knowledge necessary for advancing scientific research. One of the exciting topics in research that was new and different was research ethics. In this class, I learned more regarding ethics that a scientist has to adhere to before conducting research. I find this to be important, even in my future career as a psychologist.
Second, understanding my personality was the best thing that ever happened to me in this course. When I started this class, I was fearful that I would fail the class. However, with time and learning from a chapter in our coursebook, Personal Motivation, these thoughts and mindset were changed massively. As such, while reading and gaining more information about personal motivation, I realized that for a successful student, one would need more than just doing assignments and passing every test in class. I realized that contacting an advisor and dedicate more time to do assignment and studying were the key things that has helped me throughout the semester in this class as well as other classes.
Third, another outcome that has been an essential boost to my academic life is the ability to develop critical thinking and communication. By doing assignments that involved problem-solving skills, especially those with ethical dilemmas, has helped me as a student and a psychologist understand the best approach to critically analyze a situation and make the best decision from the analysis. Additionally, assignments that involved writing down a synthesis paper, research critique, paraphrasing, and summary also boosted my critical thinking skills.
Conclusively, I agree that at the end of this class, I was faced with completing multiple assignments that I had to complete day by day. All these assignments changed my perspective of college learning; I was able to improve my skills just by completing these assignments and parties such as other students and my advisor to improve my college experience better. If I have succeeded in doing this, I can do more in the future. As such, as a future psychologist, I plan on completing all the courses that are required of a psychologist. My action plan will be focused on understanding behavior that will help take care of patients with mental illness. Through such immersive knowledge and skills gained in this course, I will be able to conduct professional research that will be important to lives out there.