Week 24

It is now the final weeks of the year and I will be looking back at my original skills audit to see where I have made improvements and to look at any skills I want to further work on.

I used the system of numbering the skills with 1 being I am not strong at this skill at all and 5 being that I am fully confident with this skill. I also gave myself a date to achieve the skills by so I will be discussing whether I met the targets.

Skill 1: Referencing.

Original score: 1

Date I aimed for: 14/12/18

Score I give myself now: 3

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: I was still struggling with referencing at the date I set myself, although it took longer, I am now at a stage that I am able to reference my work, although I still could be a lot more confident.

Skill 2: Essay writing

Original score: 1

Date I aimed for: 14/12/18

Score I give myself now: 3

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: Although I am better at essay writing than I was at the start of the year, I still struggle with getting my thoughts onto paper. I continue to work at this skill.

Skill 3: Stress management.

Original score: 2

Date I aimed for: 01/05/19

Score I give myself now: 2

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: Although I feel I got better from the beginning of the year, I ended up not being able to handle the end of year stress very well which is why I am sticking to the original score of 2. I will continue to work on this skill further next year.

Skill 4: Confidence with presenting

Original score: 2

Date I aimed for: 14/12/18

Score I give myself now: 4

Did I reach the goal? Yes

Other information: I quickly was able to overcome my fear of presenting. Although I still get nervous, this is normal. I still feel like I am able to improve further, especially when it comes to presenting to larger groups.

Skill 5: Computer skills.

Original score: 2

Date I aimed for: 14/12/18

Score I give myself now: 3

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: Although I am more confident with using publisher, word, power point etc, I still really struggle to use excel which is a big part of data analysis.

Skill 6: Maths

Original score: 3

Date I aimed for: 29/04/19

Score I give myself now: 4

Did I reach the goal? Yes

Other information: I was able to improve my maths skills by my aim date as I practiced working out data, especially as I struggle using excel. I also worked on my ability to work things out mentally, relatively quickly. I still feel I can improve further.

Skill 7: Time management

Original score: 3

Date I aimed for: 01/03/19

Score I give myself now: 3

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: I failed to improve in this area as I am still able, for the most part, able to get work in on time. This excludes end of year assignments when I have had to get extra help. Even when I have got work in on time, I feel I could have done the work earlier so I was less stressed when it got closer to the hand in date. I find that I start the work when it’s set and then leave it until its closer to the hand in date to finish it. I need to work on spreading it out better.

Skill 8: Animal handling.

Original score: 4

Date I aimed for: 14/12/18

Score I give myself now: 4

Did I reach the goal? No

Other information: Although I am confident handling animals, I felt like I was at the beginning and not much has changed. There are still some other animals that I want to learn how to handle but have not had the chance to yet, for example, I want to work on handling bigger birds.

 

Overall, I feel I have improved in some areas, yet I still have a long way to go in others.