Marybeth Norcross

After Thinking About It

If I had to pick one phrase that has defined my life, I think it would be, “After thinking about it.” I have said that phrase so many times! Sometimes it was because I’d done something foolish, and after thinking about it, I had to go back and make amends. Occasionally, I’ve looked at a situation and, after thinking about it, I was able to make a good decision.

Taking the time to think about something is called reflection. Reflection usually alters your perspective. This is why reflection, thinking about it, is the key to growth. When you take the time to seriously reflect, you are able to see things in greater depth, and accept other points of view. It can help you better find the best and most appropriate way to act, and leads to better decision-making.

Most of the mistakes I’ve made in my life happened because I didn’t take the time to think about things before I acted or spoke. I tended to react, usually impulsively, and as you might expect, it didn’t work out well for me. Once I’d settled down, I’d take the time to think, which led to reflection, and I could see things clearly and saw where I had been wrong. I shudder to think about how much of my life I’ve spent apologizing and trying to make amends. Things would have been so much easier if I’d thought before I spoke, or measured my actions before I made them. Life would have been so much easier on the people around me too. I’m lucky my family is forgiving, and that my friends are naturally gracious and forgiving people. If you only reflect after a conversation or event, it’s easy to see what you could have done better, but it’s painful too.

Things work out so much better for me when I think before I speak or act. My response is always more measured and appropriate. It’s a small victory for me that I do that far more often now than I ever did in the past. It’s growth, but it is small growth. I become better when I think before and reflect after I do something or have a conversation. While most problems can be avoided by thinking before, I truly become better as a person, professional, or friend, when I reflect afterwards and then make changes for the future. That’s where the real growth happens.

Do you take the time to think before and reflect after you do or say something? Life is so much better when you do. Might it be a good time during break to reflect after last semester and think before next semester?

A Necessary Rest

Finals are over and the fall semester is coming to an end. Everyone is tired, so the Winter Break is the perfect opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to rest, recharge, and relax. Think about it – there are no impending exams or unfinished projects. The old semester is over and the new one hasn’t started yet. It’s the perfect time to focus on other important parts of your life.

Whatever plans you have for the Winter Break, make sure they include time for rest, friends, family, and activities that feed your mind, body, and spirit. Make sure you spend time with the people you may have neglected during the semester. Your family and friends can be your strongest support when your course work feels overwhelming. Make sure they know how much you appreciate them. And have fun!

Take the time to do things you enjoy. Read a book, play board or video games, draw, paint, sing, cook, or craft. These things can feel frivolous when you are to study, but they feed the creative side of your brain, and are important to your contentment. You’ve spent the semester thinking logically and analytically. Do something that requires you to be intuitive, subjective, random, and creative. Rest the left side of your brain and enjoy engaging the right side.

Finally, get some sleep! Hectic exam schedules tend to leave everyone feeling sleep-deprived, so take advantage of the opportunity to just enjoy sleeping. Do things that will help you get good sleep. Eat well, and don’t overdo the holiday goodies. Good food is important for rest. Take your time while you eat and keep your digestion happy. Make sure you are getting physical exercise too. Right now, your mind is probably exhausted, so getting enough physical exercise will help your sleep be more restful.

Make this Winter Break a real break. Rest. Relax. Enjoy.

Final Exams in the Testing Center

The Testing Center is preparing for final exams. If you have tested with us before, you know we have limited space. We have 24 regular testing computers, 12 reserved special testing cubicles, and hundreds of students to test. So, here are four tips to make your experience as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Testing Tip 1: Know the Testing Center Protocols

Read the Testing Center Protocols before you come in to test. The Protocols clearly explain the rules relating to the Testing Center’s hours, sign-in procedures, testing room policies, and academic integrity standards.

Testing Tip 2: Test Early

Don’t wait until the last minute to take your test. I can’t stress that enough! If you wait, you can expect to experience delays and waiting time if all spots are filled. The busiest times tend to be the hours between 4:00 pm and closing time. Keep that in mind as you plan for your final exams. Come early and beat the rush and the stress of waiting.

Testing Tip 3: Remember the “Drill”

Bring your UAMS Student ID
Place all your personal belongings in one of the lockers outside the testing room with cell phones turned off.
Sign in at the kiosk and be sure to check with one of the testing coordinators and let them know what test you are there to take. We can’t open your test if we don’t know who you are.

Testing Tip 4: Know the login procedure for your test before arriving.

Is your test in Blackboard? Lockdown Browser? ExamSoft? ATI? The initial phase of logging in and accessing your exam is your responsibility. Make sure you know what to do.

Keep these things in mind and taking your final exams will be a much smoother experience. Remember, our Learning Specialists will be available to meet with you during this time is you want to talk about test-taking or just to relax in general.

Focus on Finals

It’s hard to believe, but finals are just a few short weeks away! which means you are probably buried in papers, projects, presentations, and unit tests. Don’t let this sneak up on you! Planning for your finals doesn’t have to be difficult. With just a few steps you can go into finals focused and prepared. Make a plan now so you are ready when the time arrives.

Focusing on Finals

Focusing on finals means that you know what you plan to accomplish. One good way to approach this is to make two sets of goals: what you need to do, and what you want to do.

Need to Do. Think of these goals as your minimums. Look at your class performance over the semester. What scores do you need to make to achieve satisfactory performance in each of your classes? Distinguish the classes that will require more effort from those where you already have high scores.

Want to Do. These goals are what will please you. In answering this, make sure you keep these goals realistic. Don’t set impossible goals for all your finals. Set these goals class by class to help keep them achievable.

Balance the two sets of goals and determine a goal for each class. This will help you focus your time management and study strategies to achieve your goals.

Preparing for Finals

Preparing for your finals involves more than just going over notes. It’s strategic. It starts right away with time management. Clear your calendar as much as possible and set a study schedule. Then find out whether your finals are comprehensive. If they are comprehensive, then you will want to begin reviewing past material right away. What do you know and what do you need to study? You can’t prepare for a comprehensive final by reading a semester’s worth of notes two days before the final.

Find a way to create notes that allow you to test yourself, especially in content where you are weak. The more you practice retrieving information, the better your test performance will be, whether you are trying to remember information or applying your knowledge. Self testing will reassure you that you know what you think you know.

Ready for Finals

Being ready for your finals means you have learned as much as you can and have set goals for each test. You’ve stuck to a study schedule, and carried out a study plan. It doesn’t mean you won’t be anxious. Ready means that you have done what you need to do, to the best of your ability, for the goals you set.

Take control and plan for your finals now. Don’t wait until the last minute. If you need help getting started, use the Academic Coaching Request make an appointment with a Learning Specialist in the Student Success Center. Beginning now will help reduce your anxiety and make you better prepared when the time arrives.

Stay Caught Up with a Study Schedule

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you had great time and were able to rest and relax. Now that classes have resumed, it’s a great time to make a renewed effort to stay caught up in your classes, and win the battle with procrastination. Making a study schedule can make all the difference in finishing the semester strong.

Create a Study Schedule

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is easy to do. It will help you stay on top of your work, rather than having to drop everything to study for an exam. It will reduce your stress and improve your long-term retention of information. Most important, it will provide structure to your study time.

Creating a study schedule is easier when you can actually see time. Block out the hours for class/lab/clinic and work. Now add any other commitments you may have, like family time and exercise. This will set some boundaries and provide structure to your days.

Weekly Schedule Template Download

Finally, add blocks of time to study. The number of hours needed will vary by College and by program, but all will require concentrated study time. Try to include study blocks every day. You may want to take a day off – like Friday, when you are exhausted at the end of the week – but otherwise, plan to study every day. This will spread your studying out over time, and give you the opportunity to process new information within 24 hours of its presentation. You will be able to stay on top of the work and still have time for reviewing and connecting the new information with what you learned previously. Planned daily study time is the best weapon you have to fight procrastination.

Get Help with Your Schedule

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is the first step toward staying caught up and improving your academic performance. If you want some help creating your own study schedule or need tips on how to study more effectively, the Learning Specialists in the Student Success Center would be happy to work with you. Just complete and submit the Academic Coaching Request form, and we will contact you to set up a meeting.

Spring Break: The Outdoors is Calling

Many of you at UAMS are on Spring Break! It’s the perfect time to relax, have some fun, and rest before the push to finals and the end of the semester. Everyone needs a chance to slow down, catch their breath, and enjoy some of the good things life has to offer. For me, Spring Break is the perfect opportunity.

There’s something about spring that calls me outdoors. I’m not generally one who craves time with nature, and spring does tend to bring a lot of pollen, but there is just something about the first few tentative weeks of spring when I can’t wait to be outside. Maybe it’s the first softening of the temperature, the slight warming, before the mosquitoes become active. I don’t know what it is, but whether I leave on vacation or remain here in Little Rock, I try to get outside.

Spring Break in Central Arkansas

There’s a lot to do if you are staying local this week. The weather looks like we will have a few days with mild temperatures and without rain so you might consider visiting some of the nearby places to enjoy the natural beauty of Arkansas.

Pinnacle Mountain State Park is a great day trip. The park is free, and offers some great hiking trails and beautiful views. It’s a family- friendly outing that everyone can enjoy.
The Arkansas River Trail is a well maintained place to walk, bike, or run along the Arkansas River. You can even rent bikes from a shop downtown. The trail covers a lot of ground, so you can choose how far you want to go.
Riverfront Park offers both an opportunity for the kids to run and play. It is also a great place to take a romantic stroll through the sculpture garden and watch the flowing current of the Arkansas River.
Big Dam Bridge is the perfect place to take a walk and watch the sunset. Whether you start your crossing in Little Rock, or across the river in North Little Rock, you will be able to see some great views, and maybe even some boats in the locks.

You can find more fun places to go in Central Arkansas at https://www.arkansas.com/places-to-go/central/. So take advantage of the time off and mild weather this Spring Break to get outside and enjoy the natural beauty of Arkansas.

Mid-Semester Adjustments

We are now more than six weeks into the semester, which is a good time to stop, evaluate your progress, and make adjustments. How are you doing overall? Are you on top of all your work? What study strategies are you using? Have you prepared for your upcoming midterms? Do you have a plan for completing all your projects, papers, and assignments before the end of the year? If not, what adjustments do you need to make?

Adjustments to your System

Many students who come into my office tell me they don’t have time. They feel unprepared, which increases their anxiety, and often results in lower performance. Usually they can turn their performance around by making a few adjustments to the way they manage their time and stay on top of their work. Here are a few common problems and some suggestions for making changes.

Things falling through the cracks: Maybe you need to make some adjustments to how you are planning. Have you listed everything you need to accomplish in your calendar or planner? Determine when you will start each one so you are not working on everything at the same time. Prioritize what you have to accomplish, and watch for lighter time periods so that you can take advantage of slower times to get work done. It helps to keep a monthly overview calendar so you can plan further in advance.

Too behind to catch up: Feeling like you can’t catch up can cause serious motivation problems, leading you to think, “why bother”, and give up. To catch up, try to figure out how you got there. Are you a procrastinator? If so, the key to solving these time troubles is to stay on top of your work so you don’t fall behind. Start by breaking down all your tasks into smaller pieces, until you can find something you can do immediately. Keep working away at those smaller pieces and check them off as you complete them. It can be very motivating to watch yourself making progress.

Overworked: There will always be times when your classwork overwhelms you. Multiple tight deadlines surrounded by long reading assignments will leave you feeling exhausted. Try making adjustments to how you track your work during your study sessions. Keeping a log of your assignments and tracking what you accomplish will tell you whether you are actually working as much as you think you are. Next, look at your weekly schedule and your dedicated study time Make a realistic list of what you will accomplish during that time and how much time you will assign to each task. Organizing your work time in this way can help you stay focused, and helps you stay within your time limits.

Feeling like you don’t have time doesn’t have to result in increased anxiety and poor performance, especially if you make some adjustments to the way you are doing things. If you would like help making adjustments to improve your academic performance, contact the Learning Specialists at the Student Success Center at http://studentsuccess.uams.edu/learning-services/academic-coaching-request/.

Academic Care Week-At-A-Glance

I love the beginning of a semester. When a new semester begins, your grade is an A+ and you are completely on top of your work. It seems like the farther into the semester we get, the poorer our habits become. What we need to do is practice academic care to keep our habits strong.

It’s not difficult or time consuming to practice academic care. In fact, you can improve your academic health and fight the procrastination monster by focusing on one aspect every day as you study. Try using the Academic Care Week-At-A-Glance below.

Sunday: Prepare for the Week Ahead

Look over your course calendars to see what content you will be learning during the week.
Look ahead to plan for future exam or project due dates.
Skim the readings for the week’s classes to familiarize yourself with the content. Look at the headlines, subheadings, images, and vocabulary.

Monday: Start Strong

Break down large assignments into chunks that you can work on over time.
Begin your readings, filling in information missing from your lecture notes.
Start turning new information from your notes and readings into study questions.

Tuesday: Stay the Course

Continue with your strong start from Monday.
Don’t start to procrastinate! Stay on top of your notes, readings, assignments, and study questions.
Review your study questions, focusing more attention of questions you can’t answer.

Wednesday: Look at your Progress

You are at the midpoint of the week.
Look at what you’ve accomplished so far. Identify the benefits of Preparing for the Week, Starting Strong, and Staying the Course.
Focus on what you need to do for the rest of the week to stay on top of your work.
Continue with your notes, readings, assignments, and study questions.

Thursday: Modify and Adjust

Review your plan for the week. Are you still committed to following it?
Identify anything that got in the way of sticking to your plan.
Modify and adjust so that you can successfully complete your work. Do you need to change your schedule? Are you using the most effective study strategies?

Friday: Relax and Have Fun

Make notes of important information you need to review or relearn from your classes, clinics, labs, or exams.
Take the night off. Relax, rest your brain, spend time with family or friends. Do something creative and give the left side of your brain a rest.

Saturday: Finish, Review, and Reward

Finish any work from the week so you don’t have to carry it over and risk getting behind.
Review all the new content learned during the week.
Review content learned during previous weeks and connect new information to what you previously learned.
Reward yourself for all your hard work. Do something you enjoy, spend time with friends or family, whatever you want.

Enjoy Winter Break

With finals over,students are ready to rest and enjoy the Winter Break. It’s important to take time to have fun and relax so you can begin strong when the new semester starts, so here are four ways you should take care of yourself over the winter break.

Take Care of Your Physical Self

No doubt you want to have some fun during your break, but take time to get some rest and relax. You don’t want to return in January more tired than you were when you left. During the crunch of finals, many students don’t take time for meals or eat enough of the right foods. What you put into your body is important, so refuel your body by making good food choices. And, make time to exercise. While it is tempting to lay around watching movie marathons on Netflix, exercising consistently for thirty minutes three to six times a week will increase your ability to be proactive when you return to campus instead of reacting to all the outside forces around you. As a bonus, all the endorphins you produce will help you enjoy your break even more.

Take Care of Your Brain

After all the studying and preparing you do before your finals, you may think that you just need to empty your brain for a while. What you want to do it feed it; or more specifically, feed the creative side of your brain. Let’s face it; almost all your finals required you to use the left side of your brain. You had to practice logical thinking, accuracy, and analysis, and all that brain work has left you exhausted. To refresh your brain do something creative. Read a book, just for fun. Write in your journal, or blog, or just a letter to a friend or family member. Paint something, take some pictures, build in Minecraft, sing and dance, or play some video games. Do something that requires you to be intuitive, subjective, random, and creative. Rest the left side and enjoy engaging the right side of your brain.

Take Care of Your Spirit

Taking care of your spirit means to reconnect to your value system and the things that inspire you. This is a very personal form of renewal and people do it very differently. Some people immerse themselves in distinguished literature or surround themselves with great music. Others head outdoors to communicate with nature. Still others refresh their spirit through prayer and meditation. Whatever method you use, take the time to reconnect and recommit yourself to those things that inspire and uplift you.

Take Care of Your Emotional Self

Take some time to heal after the stress of finals. Spend time with people you enjoy: with family and friends who make you feel loved and secure. Perform at least one act of service, especially an act of anonymous service, where you will gain nothing more than the satisfaction of helping others. Make a difference to someone else on a small way. As humans, doing something that is meaningful and beneficial to others brings out the best in us and renews our emotional self.

You will find that the best self-care comes through finding the balance in each of these four areas. So enjoy your Winter Break, relax, and we will see you when you return in January.

Final Exams in the Testing Center

Tip 1: Know the Testing Center Protocols

Tip 2: Test Early

Tip 3: Remember the “Drill”

Bring your UAMS Student ID
Place all your personal belongings in one of the lockers outside the testing room with cell phones turned off.
Sign in at the kiosk and be sure to check with one of the testing coordinators and let them know what test you are there to take. We can’t open your test if we don’t know who you are.

Tip 4: Know the login procedure for your test before arriving.

Is your test in Blackboard? Lockdown Browser? ExamSoft? ATI? The initial phase of logging in and accessing your exam is your responsibility. Make sure you know what to do.