Introduction
Have you ever asked yourself, why is it important to do assignments while studying? Or, why do I have to go through the stress of doing an assignment all the time? As you already know, assignments are a core part of studying. This is because they help enhance the learning that students get out of their studies. Whilst the academic importance of doing assignments is emphasised, the non-academic benefits are underrated.
This article will inform you of the academic and non-academic benefits of doing assignments. The non-academic benefits will be categorised under transferable skills and good characteristics. After going through this article, you can see the big picture beyond the academic benefits when faced with an assignment in the future.
Academic Benefits Of Doing Assignments
The course or topic-related knowledge gained and enhanced by doing each assignment is important. This helps develop you into an expert in your field of study. You are also exposed to the core and emerging issues faced in the field. Acquiring topic-related knowledge and being exposed to issues in the field through assignments come with academic benefits too. Some of these benefits are below:
Critical Thinking
The requirements of assignments, especially at level four and beyond, don’t allow straightforward thinking. Instead, you have to think critically and analyse the information you find to effectively answer the assignment question. The critical and analytical skills you develop in the process will be applicable to many fields. Especially, in fields that involve dealing with people, which are most fields really.
Enhance Understanding
To be able to apply the concepts and theories learnt effectively, you need to understand them properly. Using concepts and theories in an assignment helps you gain a deeper understanding beyond classroom learning. You can then apply them in more contexts beyond what’s studied. This also helps you build confidence about the specific module and subsequent ones.
Exam Preparation
In modules where you have assignments and exams, assignment is a good opportunity to practice. The concepts and theories that will be used to answer exam questions are first practised while doing an assignment. This is in addition to gaining more knowledge about the subject or topics. Being knowledgeable about the topics and practising them help reduce exam anxiety. This allows the focus and clarity you need whilst answering exam questions.
Feedback
Assignments provide the opportunity to get improvement feedback. Feedback will be on topic-specific issues and general study skills that will enhance your abilities when put into practice. Also, feedback will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses that were not obvious to you before. This allows you to take advantage of your strengths and improve on your weaknesses.
Transferable Skills Acquired from Doing Assignments
You may know someone who studied a specific course and went into a very different field. For example, someone who studied psychology but works in finance. This is not surprising because the transferrable skills you acquire while studying can be used in many fields. What’s important is to hone these skills as much as possible while studying. Assignments provide a good opportunity for this. There are many transferable skills that can be acquired from assignments. This part will focus on some popular ones.
Organisational Skills
Assignments are projects, which can be small or big, that require you to organise the different parts to come up with an answer. These parts include identifying the specific assignment requirements for each assignment. Others are organising how to start each assignment, what the different parts should include, etc. Also, the deadline set for the assignment requires you to set a time frame for the different parts.
See each assignment as an opportunity to practice these skills. Being organised and managing your time well will enable you to do your assignment effectively. This will impact your grade positively. Having excellent organisational and time management skills will enable you to stand out in most job roles.
Research Skills
A well-done assignment requires good research. Having determined what the different parts should include from the question, you need to find materials on them. Doing research to find the right sources to use in each assignment will help you develop research skills. In most professional jobs, the ability to be able to independently find, locate and use the information found to solve problems is highly sorted after. Use the opportunity provided by all that assignments to learn and hone your research skills. You will need them to shine in that amazing job you are aiming for.
Writing Skills
It is one thing to find the right information, but another to communicate it in the best way possible. Or at least, as you intend to without confusing the reader. Better still, to make the impact you desired. How best to learn this than from having to write one assignment after the other? Each assignment is an opportunity to make your written communication clearer. When it comes to written communication, clarity is king. Also, the ideas in your written communication have to be organised and presented in a logical way. Coherence is also important. Doing one assignment after the other is an opportunity to practice these skills.
Interpersonal Skills
It is possible to have gone through life before university without having to work on something important with strangers. You may have worked on important things with friends and family members. However, group assignments at the university will get you to work on something that is as important as your grade with strangers. Group assignments will help you develop the interpersonal skills required to work with people that are different from you in several ways.
You will learn to collaborate, exchange ideas, and create something with them despite their differences. It may be better to avoid them altogether but you can’t in most cases. You have to find a way to work with them to get the assignment done. This is sometimes the case in a work environment. You will have colleagues that are very different from you and some that you find annoying, or strange. However you find them, you still have to work will them anyways. Group assignments prepare you for this.
Good Characteristics Developed from Doing Assignments
The characters developed from going through university, which includes doing assignments, are underrated. For some people, if not most, the character developed at university will take them further than the qualification. Doing one assignment after another helps to develop those good characters that don’t have shortcuts to develop. They take a long and sometimes challenging process to develop. This part is on some of the good characteristics that you develop from doing assignments.
Resilience and Perseverance
Answering assignment questions will present challenges that require resilience to overcome them. These challenges include being unable to understand the concepts, theories and what the questions require. Others are not knowing how to use the concepts for the assignment and the difficulty in finding the right sources to use. The inability to write academically, achieve the word count or meet the deadlines considering other responsibilities can be challenging too.
In addition to the endless list of challenges, the fear of failing the assignment if it’s not done properly make things worse. Taking on these challenges, instead of giving up, and doing all you can makes you more resilient. Having to do this over and over again, assignment after assignment will build your persistence in the face of challenges. Being resilient and persistent will enable you to take on a lot of life challenges after you graduate.
Respect and Discipline
It takes self-discipline to take on an assignment and submit it by the deadline. Having to do this for every assignment means being goal-oriented, consistently avoiding distractions and remaining focused. This enhances your self-discipline abilities in ways that will enable you to make a difference in many fields and areas of life. Collaborating with others to complete assignments means that you have to respect their ideas, opinions, manners and so on. Being able to do this makes you gain the respect of others too. Overall, part of the respect you get from being a graduate is what your qualification says. That is, you have been there, done it, which includes the assignments, and come out more knowledgeable.
Responsibility and Integrity
Students are entirely responsible for completing their assignments. Being able to do your assignment and submit it by the deadline makes you responsible. Having to deliver in this way for every assignment will make you a more accountable and dependable person. Doing your assignments in the right way without being monitored takes honesty and integrity.
Having to do every assignment in the right way without cheating or plagiarising, despite the many challenges, and submitting by the deadline makes you more responsible with commendable integrity. These traits make you stand out at work and in life. People know when you have these traits, and it positively impacts how they interact with you.
Conclusion
These skills, abilities and characteristics are best learnt when you are intentional about them. See each assignment as an opportunity to acquire and enhance them, not as a problem. Also, It is easy to go through university without consciously knowing that you have developed these skills, abilities and characteristics. I can assure you that if you have studied for a certification or a degree you are likely to have developed them. It can be challenging to communicate how you have developed them if need be.
Reflecting on how you have acquired them during and after each module is a sure way to do this. However, ensure that you have a reflective journal to document them. This is important because your course will take a while and you are likely going to forget some if you don’t document them. Documenting them will help you prepare for interviews effectively. This is by using these skills and abilities you have acquired to show how you meet the job requirements.
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