Learner

Learner:

Weaknesses:

1. When my stress levels are high I lose momentum and often stop working on a project for a few days which isn't great. I can sometimes put off the things that I’m really not looking forward to doing and hope that they just go away, which obviously doesn't work and has the adverse effect of actually making things more stressful. I need to remember that if something is stressing me out the best thing is to make a start on it and then talk to someone when I start to struggle
2. I find keeping up with reading and writing really difficult, whether thats in COP essays or researching something for a brief. It does take me a while to unpack and retain the information I’m receiving which both panics me and puts me a little bit behind
3. I find it hard to ask for help if I’m finding something a struggle, in terms of going to a tutor anyway. I can always ask my peers but sometimes what I need is just a one on one with a tutor just to clarify things, I think this is generally just down to me being a shy awkward person (always have been)
4. I would work a lot better if I got to sleep at a decent time each night, I am starting to see how much of a struggle I find it to make myself motivated enough to do a full day at uni if I haven't slept properly but the lack of sleep could also be partly put down to the noise at my place. Maybe this one will get better next year?
5. I compare myself to others a lot. This is such a bad quality to have as I realise theres literally nothing that can be gained from doing this as much as I do it. And its not like I look at other people and think “If I worked a bit harder or put in more hours I could be like them”, I do in the way that I look at other peoples work and think “I could never have come up with that”. 

Strengths:

1. I am dedicated. This is the only course I’ve ever wanted to do and the fact that I put it off for a year has given me some more time to think about it and realise how much it means to me. I am willing to put in the hours and stress because I know this is what I want to be doing
2. I am self motivated, again probably due to being so sure that this is the subject I really want to do. I know when all my deadlines are and I do really want to do and hand in the work on time because the grades matter to me
3. I am organised. This is something I never did at school mainly because I hated it so much that I didn't want to do the work anyway, but with his course the work is enjoyable (mostly). I have learnt that writing to- do lists works well for me and so does setting reminders, but that keeping an academic diary doesn't as it means I then have to remember to look in the diary to see when my deadlines are
4. I am interested, which in turn makes it easier to stay motivated, organised etc. I consume a lot of media around illustration and think about it in terms of my own and other peoples practises a lot of the time. 
5. I am competitive (with myself more than anyone). So if I do badly at something once I try not to let it put me off now, instead I try to challenge myself to beat my own high score and do better. This is sometimes a massive draw back as it means I can often be unhappy with the work I make as I can tell I could have done better and therefore know that I’ll beat myself up about it, but it also means that I know what I can achieve so if I could have tried harder and didn't then I can think about why that happened and put it right