This academic year has been more difficult from the previous
ones in terms of its content and the required quality of work in preparation to
our future carriers. However, I prefer this year than the previous ones as the
subjects were more related to the desired profession I’m aiming to. I always
showed interest in design, especially interior design. Although I had been
confused several times in my life to what should I be studying for my future carrier,
I ended up choosing the right course. Interior design interior is something
that intrigues me because each project consist of different tasks and each
project has its individual challenges. During
this year we had the opportunity to design several projects which we were assessed
on and I feel that I’m starting to gain a bit of experience and knowledge on
what spatial design consist of.
The assignment ‘Critical Thinking’ has helped me further my
understanding of being critical. In the beginning of the year, I had small idea
of how to be critical, however having this assignment focused on such topic, had
further my understanding and knowledge. Meaning that I feel more mature in
addressing different situations and know how to look at the negative and
positive side of each situation or task. I’m now also more aware on how to
argue with someone without having large conflicts. The idea of writing a blog
per week was somehow helpful for me as in written and argumentative aspects. However,
there is still room for improvement and I’m aiming to further my knowledge
during summer while I would have more time to reflect on what could be improved
before the final year will resume.
At the beginning of the year I had almost no idea of how a
proper debate should be done. During my debate session, I feel that I did well
but not excellent. This means that I’m aware that I could improve further. Going
to the debate I was a bit nervous and had thoughts that I would do very bad. What
I should have avoided is reading out instead of debating instantly. I had prepared
very well for my debate and I made a very detailed introduction, then I prepared
several counter arguments, so I counter-argued instantly without hesitation. The
most part that I struggled the most during the debate was during the question and
answer session, where each question needed to be answered instantly with the
information prepared. My opponent was also well prepared so the debate was more
challenging. During the debate, I was being criticised that my voice projection
was bad and most of the audience couldn’t hear everything. This made me realise
such weakness, so I will keep this in mind for future presentations and aim to
project my voice better and clearer.
Regarding the ‘Critical Thinking’ assignment, one thing that
was difficult to identify was the hypothesis for the final essay. The research
was quite time consuming and overall, I feel that I discussed and argued most
important points of the researched topic. However, as a conclusion I think I should
have been more accurate and straight to the point, while I had to clearly
mention whether it was approved or not in a better way.
Regarding the dissertation, I feel a bit more comfortable
about it now, as till few months ago I had little idea what the dissertation consists
of. I should say that the new course is much better now than the previous BTEC
course which hadn’t any assignment that aims to prepare for the thesis. So, an
assignment which was called ‘Critical Studies and Research Methods’ which was
assigned for the first semester of this academic year, was aimed to prepare us
for the dissertation next year. Thanks to this I managed to choose a hypothesis
and now I have some knowledge on the subject I wish to do the dissertation about.
Overall this academic year had been great and I learned from
different experiences and tasks which helped me mature more as a person. From now
on I will start dedicating some time in preparation for the dissertation as I’m
aware that it’s going to be a very challenging year which needs lots of
dedication and good time management.
