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Please note that a number of colleges have Jan. 15th deadlines to have materials in. Don’t wait until the last moment to ask for a recommendation.

This Weeks’ Feature: The Importance and How-To of Academic Goal Setting

This is the time of year when people are typically making and trying to keep New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, people are seldom successful with these promises to themselves. The problem with a lot of resolutions is that they are vague and not attached to any time frame. “I want to quit smoking” is a commonly made resolution, but questions remain. When will the effort start? How will progress be recorded? How often will progress be checked? What methods will be used to quit? What actions will be taken to recover from a setback? Setting a general goal without any specific information is likely a recipe for failure, because to set new habits, it is necessary to specify what they are.

January is also a good time of year to set academic goals, with a new year and semester starting. It is important to set academic goals, because goals can help students know whether they are making progress along the way. That way, if they are struggling in a class, they realize it immediately and can seek help. They can also take corrective action sooner rather than later. Students need to take an active role in caring and taking responsibility for how they are doing in class in order to have the best chance of success. Unfortunately, students who set academic goals usually have the same issues as adults do with New Year’s resolutions. A student may say, “I am going to start doing my homework” for a class, but when will that start? What time of day will homework take place? Where will homework be done? Are the necessary homework supplies in place? What if the student needs help? How often will the student report to the parent on homework progress? What is the motivation the student has for doing the homework in the first place? These questions must have answers that are built in as a part of the goal, or homework may not happen regularly. A better goal might be, “I am going to do math homework every weekday for 30 minutes after I get home. I will sit at the dining room table to do the work. My homework supplies like my math notebook and calculator will come home every day in my book bag. If I need help, I will search the internet for a video explaining the concept or go onto a math web site my school recommends. I will seek out my teacher during ELT to ask questions. I will check in with my parent every day after I am done with the homework, and my parent will check my grades every week. I want to do this homework because I want to pass math so that I can go places with my friends on weekends.” Writing goals down and putting them somewhere visible is also very important. This is like a contract and a reminder all in one. Getting specific and nailing down details in goal setting can mean the difference between failure and success.

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