Week 4: Academic Integrity & Performance

           Assalammualaikum! So today, we learnt about Academic Integrity & Performance by Mdm. Nurul Afzan Najid. In this topic, we learnt on how to avoid plagiarism and to calculate our Grade Point Average (GPA). She told us, when we enter the university life, we need to plan our goal so that we are not going to waste our time around doing something inappropriate that may caused something bad for our future. She also told us to be independent and don't be too easy to be influenced because in university, we will meet new people from different backgrounds, so it is up to ourself to guide our own life. 

           In university, it is often to found the student unintentionally guilt of plagiarism when they write reports, assignments and research papers. This is because lack of knowledge about plagiarism. So, what is the meaning of plagiarism? Plagiarism are; 

• turning in someone else's work as your own.
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.
• failing to put quotation in quotation marks.
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation.
• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit.
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that back up the majority of your work, whether you give a credit or not.

              Without student realizes, there are a lot of factors that bring to plagiarism. But, there are also some ways on how we can prevent it. 

1. Planning your paper.

               If you do not know or want to know something, do refer to your own instructor/lecturer. After that, you can plan your paper on how you are going to write it. Don't forget to take effective notes so that you can use it to support your main point.

       2. Writing your paper.

               When writing your paper, don't forget to cite sources. Make it clear who said what. You should also know how to paraphase. When evaluate your sources, make sure it is right. Make sure you know where your sources come from. This is for to prevent some false informations. And lastly, not to forget to include your references.

               These are the steps on how to paraphase:

• Read carefully.
• Make sure you understand.
• Go away and take a break.
• Return to rewrite in your own words without looking (make sure to change grammar and vocabulary).
• Check the differences in words and grammar.
• Cite the paraphased text.

                For the second part, we learnt about academic performance. It means, the final examination results and assessments at the end of every semester. We learnt on how to calculate the average of the letter grade student earns in each semester.

                  Students with extremely unsatisfactory academic performance will/can be dismissed from his/her study. That's it for this week. Bye 😀

             

Week 3: Memory Learning & Improving Concentration

      Assalammualaikum! 😊 It's the third week now, and we learnt about memory learning & improving concentration. We were taught by Miss Shamsina Rahmat. I must say that she's kind of fierce. Well, at first. Before we start our lesson, she asked us about things that can distract our focus when it comes to learning in class. Some of us said, it's hard to take some notes and listening to what our lecturer said at the same time. I could not agree more. I must say, that's one of the distraction that we faced as a student. Our smartphone also could be a distraction. 

      Before we start our lesson, she told us the importance of Interim. First, she told us on how some students failed in their semester due to not being able to adapt their university life. So, this Interim session teachs us a lot of experience that can be used for our next semester.

      Miss Shamsina also showed us a list of things from the slide and asked us to memorize it in few seconds. Then, she asked us what things that were wrote on there to see whether we remember it or not. I only got 3 things right 😅 We also learnt that brain is a physical, visible, tangible world of body while memory allows us to remember facts and experiences. 

      We learnt that learning is a process of acquiring information. There's some factors that make people forgot about what they learnt such as, not paying the fullest attention in class, easily get distracted, last minute study and not having a strategy when study. She also gave us some tips to understand what we learnt better. If we gain some knowlegde, we need to share it with others. When we share it, we undestand it better as we have the confidence on sharing it.

      Some strategy that can be used to improve our concentration are to create interest in our work. When we don't like it, we will never enjoy it. We can also use time management for studies. We create a time table to manage our time wisely and not to waste it. Reduce the multitasking also helps to gain more concentration. We don't need to think about other things while doing our work. Never need to worry about others. That's it for this week. Bye 😊