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WRITING A SELF EVALUATION  page 1 of 2 pages      To be able to evaluate oneself fairly, candidly, and helpfully is a valuable life skill which will be an asset to you long after you leave college. This is perhaps the most important reason why this course requires a self-evaluation.      There is no single way to write a good evaluation. That will depend upon the course, your goals, your style, and your needs. The advice below is only that - advice. Do not follow it slavishly or respond as if it were an outline to be followed. And do not assume that you must touch on all of the points mentioned. A good evaluation selects the most important results of the learning process, and from this selection much else is evident. Give time and thought to what you write and care to how you write. A sloppy, careless self-evaluation filled with misspellings, incomplete sentences, and half-thoughts leaves a poor final impression even if you did very well in a course of study.      A VITAL POINT: Try to write in a way which communicates information about the content of a course or independent study. Do not just speak in abstractions and personal feelings, such as "This class was extremely important to me because through discussion and the readings my thinking developed immensely." What subject? Which discussions? What did you read? think about what? developed from where to where?? A reader who does not know what the class studied should be able to gain an idea from your self-evaluation. One should be able to form some judgment about how well you understand a subject from what you say about it, not merely that you claim to understand it. In other words, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, and, finally, BE CONCRETE.
One of the important skills in a good education is being able to ask the right questions.  Likewise, writing a good evaluation depends upon good questions. In fact, one might begin an evaluation by inquiring "What are the important questions about this subject?", listing several, and then discussing some good answers. There are many problems and issues which one might address to oneself in order to trigger a good evaluation. Here are some-suggestions only: Did I do more or less than was expected by the instructor? by me? Why, or why not? This is a 3 credit class, which should have an investment of 9 hours of study time per week. Did I give it that much time? What do I now understand best about this subject? least well? My strongest and weakest points as a student? What did I do to improve the weak points? What will I do next? What do I need to learn next about this subject? What was most satisfying about the class? most frustrating? your responsibility for each? Has the course irritated you? stimulated you? touched you personally? Has it made you uncomfortable about yourself, about society, about the future, about learning? Are you the same person who began the class fifteen weeks ago? What's different? What did you expect to learn? What did you actually learn? more or less, and why? Continued on Next Page.  Click HERE.