PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
As a student I have found it at first difficult to adjust to the lifestyle as a student in the United Kingdom. At first I found it challenging to adjust to the time table as I was finding myself waking up late and being late to a few lessons, however I have since improved on this and have been attending my lessons on time and I am now up to date with my lessons. I have found the language barrier quite difficult as my English may not be as good as people who are from this University and I at time find it a bit challenging to understand what the teacher are sometimes telling me. To improve this I have been reading work on Moodle to gain a further understanding and have been talking to teachers after lessons to gain a full understanding of the tasks at hand. For me the main reason I am up to date with the work even though I may not have the advantages as other students is because I attend my lessons with a can do attitude, If I am confused with the work I will ask the teachers and fellow students to understand the tasks. I have found it very helpful socialising with students as it has helped me make friends and has aided to get help on anything I may be stuck on, as first when I joined this university I was very quiet and did not interact with other students and found myself falling behind.
I have also found online resources such as using articles very useful in helping me with assignments and I have also YouTube videos very useful as they provided me with help on the assignments. I have also found using the Birmingham City University’s library located in the Curzon building very helpful as there were many materials for me to use to gain a further understanding on the assignments. I have also been attending personal support sessions with my support tutor this have been very helpful for me as I have had one to one support with my lessons. I have been able to rely on my support tutor this has helped me gain confidence in myself and has also helped me to enjoy Computer Networks as a topic. My personal tutor has aided me in overcoming my anxiety and shyness and made me into a more confident student and more confident in my abilities. I try and associate myself with motivated students as this affects me and makes me more motivated and to always complete the work at the highest standard possible to excel in my course.
I try to not associate myself with student who are lazy and try to complete the work at the last moment as this will make me lazy and not underachieve, as from experience completing work at the last minute has not gotten me the grade which I know I am able to achieve. Being from another country has been difficult however I have found that sometimes being alone has helped me to think about how I can improve not just at University but as a person, it has helped me to be a better person and student. As a student I find myself more confident for example when I first came to Birmingham City University I found myself quite shy and would not interact much with students or teacher and would find out later on that this was effecting me negatively and would cause me to stress a lot as I would find myself falling behind on assignments. I now have associated myself with the right students who are self-motivated and have an urge to complete the work on time and as efficiently as possible, this has helped me to achieve a higher grade in my assignments. I have also found myself able to help other student in my class who may be stuck on a certain thing which I have greater understanding on. I always try to help others as this may be useful in the future for example if I find something difficult I may be provided with help by the same student if I am ever stuck on a topic. I have found communicating with people very useful as this has helped me with work and has also helped me to make new friends


When I first joined BCU I found it quite difficult being from a different country and took me some time to get used to the lifestyle here. When I came to BCU I found that all the students and teachers were welcoming and I felt happy being at this university. On my course that I am studying, my classmates are very helpful and I also receive a lot of help in all modules that I am currently studying. This has been very encouraging for me as it has made my academic experience quite good to this date. There has been a time where I had a couple assignments due in a space of days but the fact that I have started these assignments early has really helped my time management and has eased the stress of meeting deadlines. So far my experience on being a higher education student has been quite good because I am enjoying everything about the course I am studying and the modules within the course are fun and interesting to complete.
Preparing for assessments has been kind off challenging for me because of the amount of coursework I have had from all modules. So, I have had to space them all out and come up with a plan which could help me complete all assessments efficiently. The fact that I have helpful classmates has been very useful to me because they are people who I can go over the assignments with and receive help from. In class activities and homework have also been very useful to me because I am able to learn from these and take notes which will help me complete the assignments
So far this year I have learnt quite a lot. Before I came to this country my maths knowledge was good but doing this module at university has improved my maths knowledge and I feel as I have progressed in this area. Programming has been the most enjoyable for me because I have always had a passion for programming and doing this at university has only made me better at it and I am learning something new every time I do this module. Personally I think I have grown in confidence over this academic year, this is because coming from abroad I was quite nervous and thought I will find it difficult making friends but I have enjoyed every day in this country and this is because off all the friendly people in this city and most importantly this university. If I had the chance to start again, one thing I would definitely do is try my best getting to university earlier. There have been some days where I leave my accommodation late and then rush to university leaving things behind. So, I would have definitely been more prepared.
Dealing with time management and organisation hasn’t been the best for me this year. So, this is one thing I definitely have to improve on because if I carry on with poor time keeping this bad habit can affect me this year and it could really make me end up with a low grade. Personality tests have been important for me because it has made me understand myself better as a person and it has helped me identify how I can become a better person and how I can improved academically at university.
One issue that I had at university was time management and getting into lesson on time. For me this was a bad issue because it was affecting my learning development and it was also making me lazy and made me lose motivation. I tackled this issue by setting my alarm earlier so I have the time to ensure I got all the things I need for the day and make it to my lesson earlier. In the future I have to ensure that I am always motivated to go into university as this will help me get the best grade available and it will also help me get to lessons on time. This will be important for the future as it will have a positive effect on me academically and personally.

SMART ACTION PLAN
In this report section I will talk about action plan SMART. Action plan SMART incorporates 5 characteristics of a goal:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-based
1.	The first step to set SMART Goals is Make it Specific
“To help you be specific with your goals, answer the questions of: who, what, when, where, which, and why.  These answers are going to help you formulate the steps you need to achieve in your SMART plan to reach your goals. “(NG, 2019)
2.	Second step is Make it Measurable
To ensure that your goal is measurable, you will need to have certain criteria that will help you measure your goal and the progress of your goal.
•	Set a timeline for your goal of achieving it and other mid-goal conditions to keep you from falling back on your goal
•	Having a daily reminder (write on a whiteboard, notes on smartphone) to help you stay on track is a good way to measure the progress of your goal.

3.	Third step is Make it Attainable
Make sure that the goal you aiming for is attainable. Person needs to think about information and resources that he has and if it will be enough to achieve SMART goal. Person needs to think about information and resources are needed to achieve it and how they are going to use it to achieve it.
4.	Fourth step is Make Your Goal Relevant
If your goal is based on someone else’s wishes or desires, then it is not going to be one that is going to benefit you realistically in the present. Make your goal relevant to the reality that you wish to currently achieve in your life. Think about the goal and how realistic it is. For instance, don’t set goals that are unrealistic or unreal.
5.	Fifth step is Make it Time-Based
A smart goal should have a deadline.  A goal is not a goal if it is not time-bound.  A goal should have a set deadline.  This will help the goal seem more serious and it will motivate you to work harder, faster, and stronger to accomplish it.” (NG, 2019)”
“The more specific you are with your goal, the easier it will be to achieve rather than trying to focus on a general goal.  Make your goal focused and defined to ensure a greater chance of accomplishment. “(NG, 2019)
Action	Specific	Measurable	Appropriate	Realistic	Time	Staff Responsible	Status
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CONCLUSION
To conclude, I enjoyed my first semester very much. I enjoyed the challenges of first year such as: meeting new people, experiencing a new culture, and learning new things during my lectures and seminars. I plan to focus on my work by going over labs at home and spending more hours on trying to learn the content of my course more thoroughly. I also plan on being more social and trying to learn more about other cultures carry on meeting new people and hopefully making new friends that would help me in my development by working alongside me by helping each other with work.