Throughout this semester, I have had opportunities to grow both academically and personally. With this self-assessment, I’ll be able to reflect honestly on my efforts, achievements, and challenges, and acknowledge the steps I can take to continue improving myself. When it came to my overall learning throughout this class, there was much that I needed to learn, especially when it came to learning new ways of writing. That’s because I was never that great when it came to putting my thoughts into writing, and I can say that that is one of my weaknesses. As a result, I doubted my writing skills. For instance, in my critical analysis assignment, I was more than confident to get it started because it was the first big assignment that needed to be done for the class, and I was prepared to put my all into it. However, that all backfired when I actually started the assignment.

When it came to stating my claims it wasn’t very clear for the readers because there was not a clear thesis or claim in the essay so it didn’t flow as naturally as it should of been for example “To some, radio is a source of connection to the outside world that gets to be heard by just having to turn on the radio, while others think that radios are just taking control of the minds of others because what they are saying is a portion of the truth of certain things.” I feel like I could have done more and explained more of what my point was trying to prove, especially when it needed to be well-explained for the reader to be able to understand my point without having to look for it throughout the reading. This led me to learn more about how to emphasize my thesis or claims when it came to writing my essays. Have a very structured and strong thesis for the readers. Additionally, based on the feedback I received regarding my critical analysis, I was able to improve on aspects that I had previously overlooked. As a result, I was able to make progress in areas that I thought I wouldn’t be able to.

In addition, time management was a big part that came into play regarding school and assignments. So far throughout the semester, I have been able to keep on track with my assignments to make sure that they would be perfect, and there was no need to rush them. However, that all changed when it came to my research essay. I knew that regarding my research essay i would have to have a lot of time to myself when it came to researching for evidence regarding my essay, and that takes time but when you have other classes on top of this FIQWS class it gets harder to handle, especially when other classes work was also due at the same time than the research essay was due. I struggle with being able to keep up with my assignments as well as being able to have time to myself. But due to my past experiences, I was able to stay focused on what must be done and what can be done faster. Because of that i was able to take the meaning of time management differently and see how I can use it moving forward.”There is room for more improvement regarding this matter because we have been down that road before and are now able to deal with it.” This helped me understand how we all can improve in our own way.

As a student, we don’t get to see what we are doing wrong, which is why our professors tend to point that out for us. But does that also apply to students who don’t give their professor enough time to get feedback? Looking back, I realized that students tend to rush at the end of the semester and not because they want to finish up and be able to enjoy their break but rather because they have so many things piled up for them to do and that was a result of being too relaxed when it came to having too much time for themselves to the point that they must have forgotten that they also had other stuff to do. However, that didn’t stop them from getting their jobs done, and that includes me as well. Since starting this semester, I always made sure to stay on top of all my assignments and make sure that they were all turned in on time. But that didn’t last long when we started to reach the end of the semester. I was so disorganized with all the piled assignments that I had to do them back-to-back to the point that there wasn’t much of a break for me. Therefore, I made sure to have a day or two for myself to be able to complete all those assignments that needed to be done because I wasn’t going to let my disorganisation ruin what I have built since the start of the semester.

At times, I found it challenging to keep myself positive when it came to all these responsibilities. I felt that due to that fact, our mental health can be affected. Although our responsibilities are very important, so is our mental health, and that can be badly affected when under stress. Being a college student means being under stress many times, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop yourself from keeping your responsibilities. There was a time where I was under stressed that i felt like my mental health was being affected but even after that i made sure to finished all my responsibilities because thats what i signed up to do and it was my commitment that keep me going, im not the time of person to give up i always give it my best and if that meant fighting again whatever was trying to hold me back then that is what i must do because this is something that I must accomplish with my efforts. With that mindset, I was able to keep myself going and finishing strong because I knew I had something to prove, and I couldn’t give up just yet when I barely started my own path. So, regardless of what comes my way, I’ll do the best I can to prove myself.

Works cited  

Hernandez, Greyci. Critical Analysis. The City College of New York. 2025

Hernandez, Greyci. Research essay. The City College of New York. 2025