Introduction
Your level of self-confidence will have a profound effect on the experiences you have during and after university. Achieving a particular goal is not just about having the right skills, knowledge and abilities; it is about believing you can do it. Self-belief will vary from one situation to another, but how is your self-belief when it comes to typical scenarios that life at university throws at you?
Each of the following 18 statements is about a situation many students may typically find
themselves in at university. You need to review each statement and
click on how true that statement might be for you in each case: not at
all true, slightly true, moderately true or exactly true for you.
Read on to find out what this means and to consider whether you would like to adapt your approach.
Having lower self-confidence can impact upon your experiences of university life. Having a good level of self-confidence means that we are in a position to judge our situation realistically and to act accordingly. Low levels of self-confidence and self-belief may well result in someone withdrawing from learning new things and preventing themselves from even accepting limited challenges. There is a wide range of opportunities that can help you both enjoy and develop at university that may pass you by if you do not have the confidence to take advantage of some of them. This may have knock on effects on your life after university in areas such as your career. Reflecting on this issue and taking action now can make a big difference to your life at university and beyond. You may be able to: perform better in assignments and understand course work; find part time work or work experience; develop your skills; make a career decision; and enjoy more friendships and extra-curricular activities.
Having a good level of self-confidence means that we are in a position to judge our situation realistically and to act accordingly. Having moderate levels of self-confidence and self-belief may well result in you being able to take the opportunity to learn new things and to take on challenges. There is a wide range of opportunities that can help you both enjoy and develop at university that may pass you by if you do not have the confidence to take advantage of some of them. This may have knock on effects in your life after university in areas such as your career. If you feel you wish to work on developing your confidence in particular areas of your university life then now is the time.
Reflect on your responses to the questionnaire. Were there particular scenarios that you scored lowest on? Did these scenarios have anything in common? If you wish to work on developing your confidence in these areas then read the guidance below on how to make a start.
Having a good level of self-confidence means that we are in a position to judge our situation realistically and to act accordingly. Having higher levels of self-confidence and self-belief is great if your views of your abilities are accurate. Otherwise you may find you take on opportunities and challenges that are unrealistic and that although you may find your confidence isn't affected, the general results of your efforts may not be good. There is a wide range of opportunities that can help you both enjoy and develop at university so choosing wisely in the limited time you have is important. If achievement evades you because of unrealistically high levels of self-confidence then you may wish to try to adjust to a more moderate level. Being sensitive to others and functioning as a "team player" are often valued. If you feel you are making good progress in the goals you set yourself and are continuing to feel confident then this may mean you don't need to take any action. Realistic self-confidence is a fantastic asset so enjoy it and try to share it with your less confident friends. If you wish to work on managing your high confidence levels then read the guidance below on how to make a start.
This is "Your Plan". It includes the issues that you have identified through
this part of Gro and any action points that you have decided to take to
move you forward plus any notes and thoughts you have written down
along the way. Identifying precisely what your next steps will be after
completing this exercise on confidence will make it more likely that
you will make progress.
You have now finished this section. You can print, download (as pdf) or email yourself a copy of your plan. To move on to another section return to the Home page.
It is widely acknowledged that to successfully embark on developing your employability or choose a career that there are some fundamental attributes that need to be in place. If you think some of the headings below represent potential areas of development for you then continue reading about the components of Gro and consider how you can make the most of them:
Although the reasons for developing Gro are about helping students become more employable and more successful at making career choices, using Gro has the potential to benefit many areas of your university experience.
Consider which of these areas of development you feel you would benefit from reflecting on. This may involve looking at just one or two sections. Once you have completed a section you will have the option of printing, downloading or emailing your results, feedback and plans. Gro does not save data for you, so unless you save your work and then return to the same computer, you will not be able to access it again. This means it is important to complete an exercise in one go and to ensure you either print, email or download the feedback so you can use it again.
Remember, if you are reflecting on your own development and establishing any development plans it is a good idea to save this in iLearn which is a secure central place which you can access throughout your degree.
If your reflection results in a small number of aims and tangible activities you can take forward then Gro will have done its job in helping you on your way.
The whole concept of Gro was borne out of reading through various definitions and models of employability, including "The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability" by D'Acre Poole and Sewell, 2004 and "The Heuristic Model of Employability" by Fugate et al 2004.
The Gro project was led and written by Tania Lyden with contributions from Bill Gothard and Sandhya Patel. IT programming was undertaken by Ruben Arakelyan and Chris Flanagan all from the Careers Advisory Service at the University of Reading. The project was funded by CCMS.
Gro consists of five sections. You can complete them in any order. Some sections are quicker to do than others. You don't have to do them all at the same time.
When you have completed a section and clicked submit your results will be stored on the computer that you use to complete the test for up to a whole year (unless you delete your browsing history) and will be accessible to you on that computer provided you the same the web browser. Do be aware that if you stop part way through a section, however, your results won't be saved.
Once you have clicked 'submit' you can't go back and alter your responses unless you delete all the results for a whole section. When you return to Gro after completing one or more sections you will see a gold bar near the top of the screen. The gold bar shows that you have results stored from a previous session. If you want to remove these results, ie to re-do a section, click on 'forget me'.
All your information and results are treated confidentially by Gro and are not shared with anyone else.
At the end of each section you will get an action plan. You can email this to yourself or download it. We'd recommend that you store a copy in your iLearn space for your Personal Development Planning.
Some of the issues that Gro encourages you to reflect on may potentially create some personal concerns or anxiety for you. If you find you are in this position and would like extra support regarding any of the issues covered here then do seek help. You can:
There are a number of reasons why you may wish to contact us regarding your use of Gro:
If so, then please contact us at example@example.com, stating that your enquiry is about Gro and providing a full description.