9A: The Real world

College is much different than high school in many ways.  It is a bigger atmosphere, there are all new people, and you are on your own and independent.  Teachers in high school often give you work to complete and directions on how to complete that work.  I have found that college is much different in this aspect.  Professors expect more out of you once you reach college, they don’t draw everything out for you like they used too in high school.  Professors now expect more critical thinking.

The real definition of critical thinking is the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.  This can also be understood as thinking outside the box.  In college, professors don’t lay it all out for you, and they do this on purpose.  They want students to actually think and analyze things on their own now.  I have noticed that all of my professors do most of the same things.  We take a lot of notes and when the test comes, I have to study all of it because they don’t tell me what specifically is going to be on it.  Back in high school all my teachers would give us study guides and problems to practice so we knew what exactly was going to be on the test.  I had no practice critically thinking because of this.  I didn't have to dig deeper and really learn the material.  I would just study and learn strictly what my teachers would say I would be tested on.

Now I have realized real life is not like that.  There is not always going to be someone there giving you the answers or telling you exactly what to focus on.  This is where critical thinking comes in.  Now that I am on my own I need to rely on my own thinking skills to study and learn.  It’s definitely a hard concept to grasp and I haven’t totally gotten the hang of it yet.  I need to do extra things at home, like read chapters before class, and question things I don’t understand.  Once I get my brain in the habit of critically thinking I know it will be an easier thing to do for me.   For now I am just trying my best.  My grades from my first few tests were a wake up call to me.  Not every answer is going to be there right in front of me anymore.  Thinking critically on my own to solve problems and doing extra work to help me understand things better will help me get those test scores up.