Pursuing Master's degree in International Commerce and Policy, George Mason University

Luyu Yang's Portfolio

a Reflection Paper from PROV-504-P01

Introduction

This is a reflection paper that I wrote in PROV 501 course. It talked about “How to succeed in graduate school ” related what I learned from PROV 501. I think this is a very important question that every student should ask themselves before they become a graduate student. I find the three main points are necessary for graduate student’ success including making a suitable study plan, writing reflection paper and joining group work. I will use these methods in the future study and try be a successful graduate student.

How to succeed in Graduate School

As far as I am concerned that a successful graduate student means a student who have a positive attitude towards his major, useful study strategies and great academic performance. It seems that all of these three points are necessary for a successful graduate student. And I believe academic achievement is the most direct way to evaluate whether the student is successful.

 

As Jennings, Lovett etc. (2013) mentioned in his article that although we need to define students’ success from academic achievement, social and residential, life management, and academic engagement themes, most of the people still like using academic performance to measure students’ performance when they accept higher education. It is particularly significant for graduate students to utilize efficient methods to achieve their goals. Therefore, the purpose of this reflection paper is to demonstrate some learning strategies about how to achieve great academic performance from my aspect based on my own experiences in PROV 501 class. And I will introduce it from three aspects in the following paragraph including making study plan, writing reflection paper and group work.

 

First of all, making a suitable study plan is the best way to make leaning become efficient and it can also make us be aware of how to spend our time. In the PROV 501 course, we have learned that creating SMART goals. SMART goal is totally different with the normal study plan. It obviously obtains five sections including Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time- bound. After making this study plan based on the SMART goals standards, I feel it really helpful for me to get a full comprehension about my target. I could easily identify the exactly goal of this semester, the current process, the method to achieve the goal and the time which should be spent. Due to the goals become more clear, I could more easily achieve it. And I will create SMART goals before each semester start to help me get academic achievement.

 

What is more, I also learned how to write a reflection paper in PROV 501 class. Writing reflection paper is a really useful method to help us review some important information. In addition, I could get a in-depth comprehension of the event through writing reflection paper. What is more, it could also help me build an intimate connection between the event and personal idea. Reflection paper contains two sections. The first is description section, we have to briefly describe the activity that we attended. We need to demonstrate our own ideas about this event in the second section. For me, I always like writing what I learned from the activity and how it influences me. I will keep writing reflection paper in the future, and do it regularly.

 

Finally, what influence me most is group work. We were required to make a group presentation at the end of PROV 501 course. I think it is really helpful for me. Professor Lewis randomly assigned all the classmates into four groups. Therefore, we did not know the trait and strength of each group member. In order to solve this problem, we had a discussion about it. In this discussion, we made the handout of the presentation together and each member introduced himself/ herself. Different individual has different advantage and shortage. Through working together, we could help each other and learn from each other. Everyone could raise some advises in the discussion. It reminds me of a famous Chinese saying: “The wisdom of the masses exceeds that of the wisest individual”. I think this is what I really learned from the value of collaboration. Sometimes I can not find the mistake by myself but other group members could find it easily, just as one who is in the game is blind while a bystander has a better perspective. Through group work, we can more easily find the problem and solve it. Moreover, we could encourage each other and achieve common progress. Although the result is not very good, we still feel joyful due to learning a lot from this group presentation.

I not only learned some academic knowledge but also get some useful methods to get great academic performance in PROV 501 course. After attending this course, I realized the importance of study method. If I can find suitable learning method, the study efficiency is likely to improve remarkably. As I mentioned before, making study plan could help us get a full comprehension of the goal, writing reflection paper could create a connection between the activity and personal ideal, group work could make the most use of collective wisdom. Therefore, there is no doubt that these three methods that a learned from PROV 501 class could help us improve academic performance and get succeed.

 

Reference

Nancy Jennings, Suzanne Lovett, Lee Cuba, Joe Swingle and Heather Lindkvist (2014). “What Would Make This a Successful Year for You?” How Students Define Success in College. Liberal Education, 99 (2).