School Project: use your mental power! by Soohee

School Project: use your mental power! by Soohee - December 2017 Scholarship Essay

When people think of a word ‘school’, a word that automatically comes into their mind is ‘education’. Since humans have entered information age, this ‘education’ became necessary. However, the need for the education has increased since then. As a result, a school has become a tool to education. Education is often defined as learning or obtaining information or knowledge. Humans have created test or exam to check student’s knowledge. As technology rapidly evolves, humanity cried for creativity as a result of the anxiety that this technology might take over the world and become the top predator. Thus, the exam evolved and altered its form to project. This project usually requires time management skill, teamwork, and creativity, all of which humans have superiority over programs.

It is typical for the person to think that planning what to do in their diary or agenda until due date is a way to successfully complete school project. However, this was not the case for me. When I am given a project, I first mentally organize what exactly the teacher wants us to learn from it. For example, if the teacher gives the assignment to write an essay about pre-historical monuments in Aztec. Then, the teacher would probably want us to learn the Aztec civilization, the relationship of Aztec with its surrounding civilization, and the similarity of Aztec’s monument with other civilization from similar time period monuments. Then, read rubric and learn my teacher’s grading style and personality. Reading the rubric usually reduce the unnecessary works that I do and allow me to avoid getting points off because of unessential things such as format, font, or even the color of your paper. Additionally, learning my teacher or professor’s grading style and personality helps me anticipate what unnecessary things I must do and style of my project. If my professor is a hard grader and passionate about what he or she teaches, then my project will have a much more detailed explanation and extra decoration on my project. However, if my teacher or professor is laid back, easy grader, and tolerant, then my project will have straight-forward answers and clear style decoration. Integrating my professor or teacher’s personality and rubric’s direction is one of the ways to successfully do the school project.
Apart from this, my own way of managing time before project due date is a way to successfully complete school project. When I am given a school project, I do not immediately plan out what I will go to do every day until the due date because my plan fluctuates so much to the point where the time it takes to edit my plan takes longer than actually doing my project. Thus, I first mentally think about what I must research for my project. Then, I plan out on my note what sequence I will research. After I plan out, I physically go into internet and research and write down or type everything that might be useful on my note or computer. Based on what I have researched, I plan out how I will organize my project. For the project where I have to write an essay, this process will be about what my every paragraph will be about, my sequence of the body paragraph will be in order to flow well, the tone, the audience. For the project that involves board or creating figures, I will organize where I will place decoration, in which side and sequence I will put my explanation, and what type of font I will be using to attract the audience but at the same time let them grasp about what type of tone I am using. After all these mental organizing and consideration has been done, then I go on and physically plan out in my agenda how I will use my remaining time until the due date to type up my essay or explanation and decorate my project. This is usually at most a week, but usually 2 days, before the project due date. The reason why I do this at last step, also why I do this so close to the due date is that of my personality. The closer I get to due date, the more I feel nervous and anxious about this project. Therefore, my productivity usually goes up during this period. Then on the due date or a day before the due date, I ask around and look at my classmate’s project to compare my product with their product. If there is something that my classmate has but I am missing, I will ask them if this was required or if I they look at my product and suggest some fix, I do a final touch and turn my project in.

These are my strategies for successfully completing my school project. However other than this, one of the most important ways to get good grades on the school project is maintain a good and healthy relationship with your instructor. Always smile when your instructor talks to you, of course when the topic is appropriate, and nod when you understand the things your instructor explains. This good relationship will benefit you since your instructor will look at your project more positively than when you did not.