How should students set their goals for the new semester?

Setting goals at the beginning of the new academic year is very important for every student. Goals and planning to achieve them are an important part of the path to success. In this blog, we have covered all the unknowns about how university students should set their goals for the new academic year. Enjoy your reading!

Why Goal Setting is Important for Students

The university years are a great time for self-knowledge. Identifying your strengths and weaknesses, discovering your talents and making career planning are the biggest responsibilities of students during this period. The most important thing you need for this is to set the right goals. Setting goals for students is something to think about. Your goals should be realistic, clear, measurable and cover a certain time frame.

In the rest of our article, we will examine the stages of goal setting in detail.

1. Evaluate the Past

Review your performance in the previous semester. How effective was your study method? What were your most successful and least successful subjects? The answers to these questions are an important step in setting your new goals.

2.

Implementing goal-setting strategies is very important for students to set accurate goals. Setting measurable, attainable, specific, relevant and time-bound goals are key elements of success. This is exactly where the Smart goal method comes to the fore. So what is the smart method? We will examine the smart goal method in the next section.

What is the Smart Method?

Smart goal method is a framework that includes various parameters for specifying and routing goals. Smart is an English word and each letter has a different meaning. In this section we will examine each component of the smart method with its Turkish equivalent.

S- Specific: Your goals should be defined as clearly as possible. It is necessary to define a goal in a way that is understandable for everyone.

M- Measurable: Your goals should be identifiable by a specific measurement, such as quantity or number.

A- Achievable: Your goals should be attainable and realistic.

R- Related: Your goals should be in line with your interests.

T- Time-bound: Goals should be time-bound.

Smart Technique Examples

Specific: For example, "I need to study three hours a day to get a higher grade in the English exam. I also need to identify where I made mistakes last semester. Such specific and goal-oriented sentences will significantly increase your success rate.

Measurable: For example, you can monitor your goals by making sentences like, "I need to identify my deficiencies in my classes and make a good plan to complete these deficiencies. If it is not enough, I need to revise my plan."

Areachable: For example, "I will get 10 more points in the next exam." or "Next semester I will raise my grade in each course by one letter."

Relevant: For example, you should answer the questions "I want to go on Erasmus, but do I speak English well enough?" or "Do I have the financial means?" with a relevant answer.

Time-Bound: For example, "My finals are still a month away. Until then, I need to review my subjects and make up my deficiencies. I will work hard for this.''

3. Determine What Your Priorities Are

When setting your goals, you should first determine your priorities. Examine your achievements in your classes to see what you are lacking or in which area you would like to progress. Once you set your priorities, you can better manage both your time and your goals.

4. Make a Good Plan

The essence of achieving goals is to plan well. Make a plan, either daily or weekly, on study schedules, study strategies, pre-exam preparation topics. You should always keep your plan updated and keep track of how well it works for you.

5. Get Support

You can get support from your environment for correctly set goals. You can ask your academics, family members or friends for help. If you feel that it is not enough for you, you may want to seek professional support.

6. Track Your Progress

Review your progress on your goals periodically. If you are not where you need to be, you can make some changes to your planning. In this way, you can move forward in a controlled manner and maintain your personal development while reaching your goals.

7. Stay Motivated

Motivation is often an important part of success. Consider your goals and think about the end result. Having a positive attitude towards your goals will increase your motivation. You can also reward yourself for each step achieved.

Being in a working tempo parallel to your goals in the new period is the most important factor that will lead you to success. In this content, we have prepared a guide to help you set the right goals for the new academic year. Always be open to development and change. We wish all students success in the new semester!

Üsküdar University Health, Culture and Sports Department's Have you checked out the other blog posts? Check them out now!