My Educational Journey

Throughout my educational journey through secondary school and college, different personal learning experiences have shaped and developed who I am as a student by gaining many important academic skills that I believe will be invaluable at university and beyond in my future career.

At secondary school, my favourite subject was English Language and 10% of my GCSE grade came from my Speaking and Listening presentation. One academic skill that I developed was researching. I researched many different interesting topics, using a variety of different sources; for example, the internet and also the books and facilities at my local library. This meant that I could narrow down on a specific topic that I was really passionate about to focus my presentation

Although I studied biology at GCSE, I found the jump from GCSE to A-level tough, due to the complex and in-depth topics. As part of my biology A-level, I had to complete a number of required practical experiments in the laboratory. As well as doing the experiment, I also had to write up each practical; including researching the topic and evaluating the practical. This meant that I further built on my research and critical reading skills that I developed during my GCSE English Language coursework, which proved to be extremely useful, and I also learnt a new academic skill; referencing. Monash University explains the importance of referencing as it “helps create a map of knowledge” and I agree that referencing is an essential academic skill to show how broadly about your subject and to back up your own point of view. I had never had to reference my work at GCSE before, so at the start, I felt quite overwhelmed learning how to reference properly. However, after discussing my worries with my biology teacher, I started to use a reference generator website recommended by my teacher and I believe that using this technique worked really well for me, in that I now understand and feel confident in using Harvard referencing in my essays. On reflection, from this learning experience, I identified a strength, in that I now feel that my confidence to ask for advice when I am unsure, has grown and I believe this has aided my understanding and consequently my grades. I have learnt that in future, I shouldn’t suffer in silence and asking for advice to aid my learning and understanding, is not a weakness but a