How to Manifest Academic Success

This week’s materials provide perspectives about how we think and learn, and how we can improve our problem-solving abilities and overall performance. In our educational journeys, there have been times when we struggled; there are other times when we were “in the zone” and learning felt effortless. Obviously, we would prefer to be “ in the zone” all the time, but we can only attain higher levels when we have done our work in the “learning zone”, as Eduardo Briceno describes in his TED talk. Describe a time when you struggled with a course or a project to the point where you had to “reset” your direction and strategy. What kind of deliberate practices did you employ? How did you spend time in the “learning zone” to improve in your “performance zone” as Briceno describes. Please share your experience here.

Description of the experience

There are multiple times when students fail to realize that there is a difference between the learning zone and the performance zone. Most of us focus on the performance zone, not realizing that the learning zones allows us to make as many mistakes as possible to perfect our skills. The performance zone on the other end does not allow errors; hence one has to be perfect. From my experiences as a healthcare student, I have been focusing too much on the performance zone. There were times when I used to dislike studying but always wanted to acquire high grades in school. This created so much tension and stress during my exams which I studied for hours before the test. The anxiety and panic caused me to fail most of my tests. After getting the exam results, I always looked at what I did wrong, and from my research, I found out that what I needed was enough time to go through my notes thoroughly and adhere to the feedback given. From this time, I decided that I would use another method to study where I dedicated more hours to studying.

Deliberate practices

The kind of deliberate practices that I employed included expanding my reading hours, doing more research on topics I did not comprehend, enquiring for feedback from my teachers and experts, and doing many tests that were not part of my classes. All these contributed to my overall performance in the later exams.

How I improved my performance

As Briceno describes, I spent time in the “learning zone” to improve my "performance zone" by enhancing my mindset on the balance I have to create between my learning and performance zones. I also improved my mindset of growth and the need for this growth in my weak areas. Also, I created ways to improve my weaknesses through thorough, deliberate practice. Finally, I practiced in low stakes, which had fewer consequences (Briceño, 2016).

Reference

Briceño, E. (2016, Nov). How to get better at things you care about. [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about/transcript

Describe a time when you struggled with a course or a project to the point where you had to “reset” your direction and strategy.

With me being honest I am struggling now with all three of my courses that I am in. The courses are not hard at all and they are not something I have to dropped however medically I have had a few set backs and they are taking a toll on me now to the point that I don't have the mental capacity to push forward so I thought. As of today I truly have to reset and start over for a few reasons. First this is my last semester, two I need to complete this for me and all of the years that I have been fighting to get it done, and third this is my DESTINY, I deserve this and will have it and will complete everything by the end of this semester. I am learning that I am my own struggle and when I stop being hard on me then learning will come easy to me. I do need to change that mistakes are normal ad things happen so I just need to relax

What kind of deliberate practices did you employ? The kind of deliberate practice I have change are using my mistakes for teaching moments. I think about what I need to do and find the most important thing to do first and check my list as i move forward. I have learned to talk to other people and get feedback and understanding from others

How did you spend time in the “learning zone” to improve in your “performance zone” as Briceno describes. Please share your experience here. I have learned to give feedback and be open to my confidence, and information that others give to me. I learned to reflect on the things that I an doing right and how to put them with the things I am doing wrong to learning from the whole instead of the partial

Reference:

https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about/transcript