Critical thinking it is a given type of focused thinking, that is purposeful, reasoned, goal-directed and above it all it’s a thinking that aims to solve problems. As a critical thinker, I gradually developed standards that I have been using in my studies and campus life to judge things, since critical thinking to me it is not just jumping into conclusions. Having an open mind is one of the factors that I have been putting into practice, being open-minded it has greatly assisted me not to be biased while making decisions and it has even helped me to easily notice facts and work with them and not just ignoring facts.Having paid attention to the processes and products of my own thinking, I realized that I had to examine each and every decision that I usually make. For instance, when I review my own diary on (03/09/2018) I noticed that I had a strict class schedule, that it forced me to formulate a studying timetable so as I could be able to manage my time well. Formulating my own timetable was not an easy task, I was forced to reason well. The reasoning is the foundation of critical thinking it gave me the opportunity to come to a conclusion based on more than one arguments that I had in my mind at that moment.
After taking time figuring it out why I really needed to formulate a timetable, I was able to analyze each and every single argument that I had and I tried hard to avoid faulty reasoning and eventually, I ended up having my own study timetable.Assessing assumption was one of the key factors that drove me to keep on taking and doing an online assessment test and even course text tests. An assumption is something that is able to limit one’s thinking, hence commonly known as intellectual laziness. I was able to overcome this tragedy by taking every single detail seriously this helped me identify my weak topics and my best study modes on given courses. Having this in mind I managed to work on every single topic that I felt like I was not good at, as from (17/09/2018) to (21/09/2018) and at the end of the day it was one of the best ways of preparing for my exams and CATs.Problem solving, being one of the key aspects in academia. I was forced to be flexible in that my critical thinking skills are supposed to be amenable.
Using this kind of aspect in my studies I was forced to define and identify the problems. For instance, when I review my diary on (19/09/2018) I was able to notice that I had a problem with some of the topics in my course BUS 1010 and I eventually realized that Aural and Visual as modes of studying were not working out for me and by identifying that I was to come up with possible solutions. Having gathered the possible options to work with I decided to create criteria that I was to use to evaluate each options, this made me to take a look on different types of studying modes that I know and used. By doing that I managed to evaluate each possible solution that I came up with and at the end of the day I got rid of Aural and Visual as a mode of study in BUS 1010. Read and write and Kinesthetic emerged as the option to go on with but eventually I found myself going on with Read and write only since it was the best solution to me.
Implementing solution and evaluating the results is the best practice in campus studies. Having used critical thinking skills in solving my study problems, systematically, logically and effectively I was able to gather a higher self-esteem and life satisfaction. I managed to score higher grades in my CATs and even my mid semester exams.
