Academic Plan
Background Context and Reflection on Academic Performance
Starting in late September of the 2020-2021 academic year, I suffered from a retroactively diagnosed and thus untreated episode of major depression that made it hard for me to perform well academically throughout the school year. I had low energy, motivation, and poor memory and concentration on an almost daily basis, which contributed to overall poor academic skills and work habits that ultimately compounded over the course of the semester. I started on an antidepressant during the summer of 2021, but due to a combination of misunderstanding how the antidepressant worked (I did not realize that antidepressants can require months to demonstrate effectiveness) and some parental hesitation towards me taking the antidepressant, I had stopped the medication by November 2021 before I gave it a fair trial (retrospectively). My existing depressive symptoms thus persisted through both fall and winter semesters, and with my low energy and motivation I was not able to keep up with my classes. I knew how important midterms were so I would try my best to drag myself out of bed to catch up on my missed material, but I found that my concentration and memory were poor and I was not retaining enough of the information to be able to make a full academic recovery in that amount of time. At that point, I found it so difficult to cope with the knowledge that I was going to fail, and I did not take steps to drop my course load as I retrospectively should have, because I had convinced myself that there was no point in doing so and thus gave up on it. In reflection with my CBT therapist who I am now seeing weekly, I recognize that this was an instance of me acting on my first thoughts about the situation (i.e. to give up on everything) and not objectively looking at the situation. We have now been working on strategies to overcome this. I have done some independent reflection in addition to my weekly work with my therapist, and I??ve also identified that in addition to my low energy and motivation due to depression, reinforcing better academic habits could have possibly avoided my poor academic performance over 2021-2022.
Focus:
If permitted to continue my studies at Queen??s University during the 2022-2023 school year, I will focus on attaining a GPA adequate enough to be considered for the Biology Major stream. I am currently in General Arts and Sciences, and have planned to register for all the prerequisite courses needed for consideration for admission into the Biology stream.
Expectations:
In order to receive acceptance into the Biology Major stream, I will need to achieve and maintain an average of at least a 1.9 GPA on the 4.3 GPA scale and a B grade in BIOL 103.
Strategies for Success:
With respect to my depression, I now have a fuller understanding of the condition and treatment plan and how I did not give my previous antidepressant a full chance to work. I am now seeking further antidepressants from my family physician so I can try it again. I also have consistent weekly sessions with my Cognitive Behavioral Therapy specialist psychotherapist, another treatment of depression, and this has been helping with the symptoms, cognitive dissonance and avoidance behaviors that contributed to my poor thinking patterns. I have been setting aside 30 minutes every day to consciously practice and internalize the strategies that she has taught me across my daily life, which I expect will translate well into strong, formed academic habits as well.
My lack of ability to concentrate and memorize information, which are one of the symptoms of my depression, has also been a detriment to my studies. Besides medication which I will plan to restart, I have learned that lifestyle behaviors such as consistent exercise, a good diet, sleep and staying mentally active will help with these symptoms. I??ve started going out for walks and going to the gym to improve my physical health. I??ve also improved my dietary habits and opting for home cooked meals instead as they are healthier. By adjusting my sleep pattern with melatonin pills, I try to get as good quality of sleep as I can, so I can wake up refreshed. I stay mentally active by simply doing schoolwork. I recognize that consistency is always key to these new habits, so I plan on just continue prioritizing these things as a long-term investment into my health, instead of worrying about the immediacy of results.
Motivation is also something I struggle with in depression, and my CBT therapist has also been very helpful in improving my motivational mindset. I??ve now realized that just because I have certain negative thoughts about situations, such as being too far behind in schoolwork to ever catch up, doesn??t mean that it is objectively true. I could??ve kept attending lectures and tried the best as I could with whatever energy and motivation I had, no matter how small. I have been reading the bestseller Atomic Habits by James Clear, which has taught me various methods of improving my daily habits that can be applied to academics as well. Aside from taking initiative to develop good habits, time and consistency are essential to solidifying habits. For example, just because I??ve started to schedule my studying time during the week, doesn??t mean this habit will automatically be ingrained into me. I need to follow through and mark my progress throughout the weeks in order to successfully turn it into a habit. I have been doing that by making a checklist as a visual reminder. I??ve also picked up a new technique called behavior activation to help treat motivation as well. If there is an activity I do not particularly enjoy such as reading and solving particularly dry textbook questions, I should associate that activity with something positive instead. I enjoy having tea, so I have been drinking tea while reading the textbook, so my mind would associate something that gives me pleasure in addition to completing my work. Overall, I believe I??ve shown improvement in my mindset, behaviors and thinking patterns, which my family has also commented on to me.
Outside of the depression itself, I think I can also further improve on my my academic work habits. I have started again to build on and modify good study habits that I had already researched last year, to ensure consistent practice of them. For example, the Pomodoro technique I tried last year was too overwhelming for me at the start, I??ve changed it from the standard 25 minutes of studying to 15 minutes instead with 5 minute breaks in between. This method has been effective especially for physics, which I find can be draining to work through at certain times. For my current summer courses, I??ve also switched from pen and paper notes to using an iPad and laptop to take notes, as I??ve found it to be more efficient and I still retain the same information. I expect this to help with live, in-person classes next year. Furthermore, through experimenting and researching these past weeks, I??ve found that I learn better by constantly practicing questions in order to ingrain concepts into my head. If there is a difficult concept I don??t understand, I should prioritize doing even more practice questions on these topics, especially when it comes from subjects that require application such as mathematics and physics. Pure memorization without understanding the context is not as effective for me, as I find understanding the principles behind why certain things occur such as cell division is more effective than simply memorizing the steps. Once I understand the concepts, I finish off by practicing active learning by speaking out loud and imagining that I am trying to teach this concept to someone else. With all these study habits and strategies, I am seeing good results with the PHYS118 course and BIOL102 courses I have been taking over the summer.
In summary, I am currently seeking support from my CBT focused therapist and medical support from my doctor to help me through the various contributing factors identified above. My family is also very on board with my academic hopes and plans, and they are very supportive and will be doing regular check-ins with me to ensure I am doing well. In the past, I have not reached out to access the list of help and support resources which I have previously researched, because I found it hard to reach out and I gave up on situations and myself too quickly. My therapist is currently trying to change my thought process about that and I believe I am improving. I have also proactively worked on making it easier to take the first step to get me help if needed, and I have pre-written email templates with a brief explanation of what my background situation is and what areas I may need help with. I expect that removing the barrier of having to summarize my situation, will make it much easier for me to seek help if I need to in the future.
All in all, I believe I have identified all the factors contributing to my performance over the past academic year, and I've developed effective strategies and plans to address each factor that has affected my studies. With the support of my family, therapist and family physician I sincerely believe I have the tools to demonstrate improvement in academic performance this upcoming year.
Starting in late September of the 2020-2021 academic year, I suffered from a retroactively diagnosed and thus untreated episode of major depression that made it hard for me to perform well academically throughout the school year. I had low energy, motivation, and poor memory and concentration on an almost daily basis, which contributed to overall poor academic skills and work habits that ultimately compounded over the course of the semester. I started on an antidepressant during the summer of 2021, but due to a combination of misunderstanding how the antidepressant worked (I did not realize that antidepressants can require months to demonstrate effectiveness) and some parental hesitation towards me taking the antidepressant, I had stopped the medication by November 2021 before I gave it a fair trial (retrospectively). My existing depressive symptoms thus persisted through both fall and winter semesters, and with my low energy and motivation I was not able to keep up with my classes. I knew how important midterms were so I would try my best to drag myself out of bed to catch up on my missed material, but I found that my concentration and memory were poor and I was not retaining enough of the information to be able to make a full academic recovery in that amount of time. At that point, I found it so difficult to cope with the knowledge that I was going to fail, and I did not take steps to drop my course load as I retrospectively should have, because I had convinced myself that there was no point in doing so and thus gave up on it. In reflection with my CBT therapist who I am now seeing weekly, I recognize that this was an instance of me acting on my first thoughts about the situation (i.e. to give up on everything) and not objectively looking at the situation. We have now been working on strategies to overcome this. I have done some independent reflection in addition to my weekly work with my therapist, and I??ve also identified that in addition to my low energy and motivation due to depression, reinforcing better academic habits could have possibly avoided my poor academic performance over 2021-2022.
Focus:
If permitted to continue my studies at Queen??s University during the 2022-2023 school year, I will focus on attaining a GPA adequate enough to be considered for the Biology Major stream. I am currently in General Arts and Sciences, and have planned to register for all the prerequisite courses needed for consideration for admission into the Biology stream.
Expectations:
In order to receive acceptance into the Biology Major stream, I will need to achieve and maintain an average of at least a 1.9 GPA on the 4.3 GPA scale and a B grade in BIOL 103.
Strategies for Success:
With respect to my depression, I now have a fuller understanding of the condition and treatment plan and how I did not give my previous antidepressant a full chance to work. I am now seeking further antidepressants from my family physician so I can try it again. I also have consistent weekly sessions with my Cognitive Behavioral Therapy specialist psychotherapist, another treatment of depression, and this has been helping with the symptoms, cognitive dissonance and avoidance behaviors that contributed to my poor thinking patterns. I have been setting aside 30 minutes every day to consciously practice and internalize the strategies that she has taught me across my daily life, which I expect will translate well into strong, formed academic habits as well.
My lack of ability to concentrate and memorize information, which are one of the symptoms of my depression, has also been a detriment to my studies. Besides medication which I will plan to restart, I have learned that lifestyle behaviors such as consistent exercise, a good diet, sleep and staying mentally active will help with these symptoms. I??ve started going out for walks and going to the gym to improve my physical health. I??ve also improved my dietary habits and opting for home cooked meals instead as they are healthier. By adjusting my sleep pattern with melatonin pills, I try to get as good quality of sleep as I can, so I can wake up refreshed. I stay mentally active by simply doing schoolwork. I recognize that consistency is always key to these new habits, so I plan on just continue prioritizing these things as a long-term investment into my health, instead of worrying about the immediacy of results.
Motivation is also something I struggle with in depression, and my CBT therapist has also been very helpful in improving my motivational mindset. I??ve now realized that just because I have certain negative thoughts about situations, such as being too far behind in schoolwork to ever catch up, doesn??t mean that it is objectively true. I could??ve kept attending lectures and tried the best as I could with whatever energy and motivation I had, no matter how small. I have been reading the bestseller Atomic Habits by James Clear, which has taught me various methods of improving my daily habits that can be applied to academics as well. Aside from taking initiative to develop good habits, time and consistency are essential to solidifying habits. For example, just because I??ve started to schedule my studying time during the week, doesn??t mean this habit will automatically be ingrained into me. I need to follow through and mark my progress throughout the weeks in order to successfully turn it into a habit. I have been doing that by making a checklist as a visual reminder. I??ve also picked up a new technique called behavior activation to help treat motivation as well. If there is an activity I do not particularly enjoy such as reading and solving particularly dry textbook questions, I should associate that activity with something positive instead. I enjoy having tea, so I have been drinking tea while reading the textbook, so my mind would associate something that gives me pleasure in addition to completing my work. Overall, I believe I??ve shown improvement in my mindset, behaviors and thinking patterns, which my family has also commented on to me.
Outside of the depression itself, I think I can also further improve on my my academic work habits. I have started again to build on and modify good study habits that I had already researched last year, to ensure consistent practice of them. For example, the Pomodoro technique I tried last year was too overwhelming for me at the start, I??ve changed it from the standard 25 minutes of studying to 15 minutes instead with 5 minute breaks in between. This method has been effective especially for physics, which I find can be draining to work through at certain times. For my current summer courses, I??ve also switched from pen and paper notes to using an iPad and laptop to take notes, as I??ve found it to be more efficient and I still retain the same information. I expect this to help with live, in-person classes next year. Furthermore, through experimenting and researching these past weeks, I??ve found that I learn better by constantly practicing questions in order to ingrain concepts into my head. If there is a difficult concept I don??t understand, I should prioritize doing even more practice questions on these topics, especially when it comes from subjects that require application such as mathematics and physics. Pure memorization without understanding the context is not as effective for me, as I find understanding the principles behind why certain things occur such as cell division is more effective than simply memorizing the steps. Once I understand the concepts, I finish off by practicing active learning by speaking out loud and imagining that I am trying to teach this concept to someone else. With all these study habits and strategies, I am seeing good results with the PHYS118 course and BIOL102 courses I have been taking over the summer.
In summary, I am currently seeking support from my CBT focused therapist and medical support from my doctor to help me through the various contributing factors identified above. My family is also very on board with my academic hopes and plans, and they are very supportive and will be doing regular check-ins with me to ensure I am doing well. In the past, I have not reached out to access the list of help and support resources which I have previously researched, because I found it hard to reach out and I gave up on situations and myself too quickly. My therapist is currently trying to change my thought process about that and I believe I am improving. I have also proactively worked on making it easier to take the first step to get me help if needed, and I have pre-written email templates with a brief explanation of what my background situation is and what areas I may need help with. I expect that removing the barrier of having to summarize my situation, will make it much easier for me to seek help if I need to in the future.
All in all, I believe I have identified all the factors contributing to my performance over the past academic year, and I've developed effective strategies and plans to address each factor that has affected my studies. With the support of my family, therapist and family physician I sincerely believe I have the tools to demonstrate improvement in academic performance this upcoming year.