Friday, March 5, 2021

The University Center of Academic Excellence: The Best Friend You Didn’t Know You Need.

We consistently find every year that there is a correlation between going to class and a student’s GPA. So for freshmen who answered the survey and said they missed no classes, what do you think their GPA was? 3.39 For freshmen that said they missed 4 or more classes what do you think their GPA was? 1.03. This is one of many new things learned in the workshops sponsored by the UCAE!

Peer Advisors Taylor and Bailey take on a UCAE workshop to review before you go. We went to a Time Management online workshop with UCAE graduate assistant Catherine Moore and we could not recommend these workshops more! The University Center for Academic Excellence, or UCAE, is a great resource for students to help with classes, school development, and overall success. Keep reading to learn more about the UCAE, their workshops, and why these are beneficial to you as a student.

What is the UCAE?

The University Center of Academic Excellence is an office that offers academic support and resources to all UNC-Charlotte students. Its mission is to increase learning effectiveness, enhance student success, and promote academic excellence. All of the services that the UCAE offers students are built into our tuition so therefore you are already paying for the services so use them to your advantage. 

What are UCAE workshops?

UCAE Workshops are highly interactive, 45-minute workshops aimed to help students strengthen their academic performance. These workshops are run by trained Staff and Graduate Students; currently, they are offered virtually, in-person, and across campus.

The UCAE offers 17 different types of workshops that range from Finding Your Motivation to Time Management and more. These workshops are interactive for students to ensure that everyone can get the most out of the workshop and to promote discussions about common struggles we all face as students.

How to schedule RSVP for a workshop

Go to the UCAE Workshop Calendar to view the list of events and details. These are informative sessions designed to effectively help you better balance your coursework and personal life. Once you find one out of the calendar you want to attend then click on it and put it in your calendar! You don’t have to register to attend workshops but make sure to be on time and if they are in person make sure to bring your Student ID.

 

Quick Summary of Time Management Workshop

This 45-Minute session was jam-packed with new information and study tips to help students get on track and stay on track with their studies. The Time Management workshop was very interactive even in an online setting. Some things we reviewed in this session are:

-          Try to break things into portions of 20 to 30 mins weeks or days in advance to manage time properly.

-          Plan monthly, weekly, daily. Prioritize your tasks based on the importance

-          ABC Daily Planning

-          “A” tasks you haveto do today

-          “B” tasks you shoulddo today

-          “C” tasks that would be nice to do today

-          Make sure to plan ‘you time’ for yourself to lessen the feeling of being burnt out

-          If you have a lack of discipline try to remember why you are in college, and what motivates you to study hard.

-          Use the features on your phone such as: hide social media apps from your home screen, block screen time, and remember to take planned phone breaks

What are two things you learned from this workshop?

            The two biggest things we learned from this workshop are:

                        The 4 R’s of Time Management with your phone

1.      Remove - remove any distractions from your proximity

2.      Replace - replace some time spent on social media with productive tasks

3.      Rearrange - rearrange your time and phone apps to be more productive

4.      Reclaim - reclaim your time to get the most out of your study time               

The 3 P’s of Time Management

1.      Plan - “Failing to plan is planning to fail” take time to write all of your tasks down and get them out of your head

2.      Prioritize - Use the ABC’s of daily planning and prioritize your tasks

3.      Perform - Concentrate on each individual task until it is 100% completed and you will perform well both in the short term and long run

What are the benefits of attending a workshop?

Workshops are very beneficial to your success as a student. You may have an effective way of studying or taking notes, but these workshops will help you get more ideas for how you could push a little further to get a high A or actually retain information rather than memorizing for a test (I know we all do that as students sometimes). You can meet other students at these sessions who may be in similar classes or situations and can help with their learning tricks as well. Since these services are free to you as a student, use them!

What other services does the UCAE offer?

The UCAE offers way more than just workshops for UNC-Charlotte students they also provide Tutoring that is by appointment and drop-in, Peer Assisted Learning sessions that are led by fellow peers in groups, Personal Academic Consultations that are one-on-one consultations to ensure your academic success, the 49er Rebound Program to help those on academic probation, and SOS Peer Mentoring that is led by peers to help fellow undergraduate students that are having academic difficulties or on academic probation.

To learn more about the UCAE and all of the services they offer, visit their website! It’s been a challenging year for all of us as students, but keep pushing through and we will get through this together!


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