Final Reflection

As we come to the end of the semester, I find that I’ve learnt a great many things from this module. I took this module because I read that ES2007S involved learning how to write resumes and application letters, as well as understanding and practicing interviews. I’ve had some bad experiences in interviews, and prior to this module, have never written a resume.

Through this semester, I have learnt about conducting myself in interviews and presentations (in the peer-teaching presentation with Chi Cheng), and managed to utilize these during our final presentation. In both my presentations, my partner(s) and I utilized the 7C’s. These C’s were something that I considered so trivial, and yet as I progressed through the semester, realized were so important. The same applied to body language. I never realized that I tended to pace during presentations, and that my hands were often awkwardly placed, and the mock presentations were very helpful in realizing and improving that. I also learnt to manage group work, and to properly and efficiently delegate work within the group.

Conclusion

All in all, I am glad that I have taken this module. I have learnt so much from the class, definitely improving myself. I have learnt how to be a better leader, whilst still being a hard-working group member. I have learnt how to approach and handle interviews and presentations, as well as any complications that may arise. Most importantly, I learnt how to work well in a group. I learnt that being a leader, often entails much more than actually leading and giving direction.

Finally, the best thing that happened aside from all this, has been the great people I have come to know during the semester. I was initially a tiny bit skeptic about doing the proposal, but in the end my group exceeded all possible expectations, and for this, I am very grateful.

It has been an honor and a privilege to take this module with all of you, and thank so very much Mdm Fazilah for leading us through the semester. I’ll leave you with a poem, that will hopefully inspire you all through this coming exam period.

Onset of Spring

The pale white field of winter land,

makes way for the spring green.

From creatures small to fauna large,

the slumber fades away.

The fresh clean air is beautiful,

the sun is nice and warm.

The babies play and flowers bloom,

and winter's all forgot

Reflection on Team-based Research Project Proposal

After spending nearly one semester on our group project, I've found that I learnt a great many things. I found that despite having worked in projects before, there are new things that I have had to adapt to in project work.

First is that having too much freedom might be a bad thing. Making the choice for our project, we were given almost complete discretion. Whilst at first seeming to be a great boon, this soon turned out to be very frustrating. We found that our project choice was in fact very vast, and that soon posed some problems (that we resolved in the end).

Second, I have realised that time-management is of the utmost importance in project work. I have found that despite the hectic timetables of our group, we still managed to meet regularly. On occasion, our meetings might have started late, however we managed to conduct the meetings productively.

Thirdly, I have had to adapt to the occasional loss of focus and procrastination. This happened to myself once or twice, and while it was not even remotely catastrophic, it could have led to problems down the line.

Through working with my group, I’ve learnt very much about managing projects. I was chosen as the de facto leader of the project, and this allowed me to assign work to those whom I believed to be most suited. This delegation allowed my project mates to contribute to their strengths and still have enough time for their other academic and external activities.

Despite my group mates constant worries, I believe that as a group we have managed to perform exceeding any expectations for this project, especially with the problem that we selected. Indeed, while I was not expecting us to fail, I was initially expecting us to produce work of a slightly lower quality, with more generalities and uncertainties. However, we managed to produce a proposal that has impressed all of us.

There are of course, areas for improvement. I think that we could have possibly worked more efficiently, and perhaps been a bit more focused. Our meetings had slight tendencies to be distracting and occasionally unproductive in the first half hour.

All in all, I have enjoyed working with my group. They have taught me valuable lessons about focus, time management and that while people may seem to be perfect, nobody is infallible.