I have been study in the Pathway program for one year and I gained a lot of knowledge and skills during this study. Pathway program is a different system of education from what I have received during my former learning experience, and it kind give me a general understanding of how American graduate education system look like and what I need to do to achieve success in graduate school in the United States. There are a lot of work in Pathway program, and for my discipline which is accounting, most of them are very hard and challenging, so it requires many elements of personal skills. For me, there are three essential elements that are the most important for successful graduate study, which are: time management, pre-class preparation and writing skills.
First of all, for my experience of studying at Pathway program, I believe that the ability of time management is the most important element in graduate study. In accounting courses, there are a lot of work we have to do. For example, we have to read more than 40 pages of our text book for each of our major course, and most of us have two major courses, that means we have to read more than 80 pages every week. Other than that, we have more than 100 individual questions to study and answer, as of course we have to memorize these knowledge. Also, we have to write at least two summery articles every week. What’s more, there are one big and most important midterm exam every month. All in all, there are lots of work to do. After one year of study, I understand that time management is a very important skill. If you don’t have this element, then you won’t survive this graduate study.
Second important element for me is pre-class preparation. The best way to avoid nervous before class and deadline is to do the reading before class. From my experience, I found that finish reading the chapter even before the semester begin is the most useful way for graduate study. A good preparation work is even more valuable for international student, because during the class, the professor won’t explain too much about some specific terms and concepts. So it is necessary for us to prepare and read the text book before the class start. Also, in America, most of the classes require participation, that means you have to speak out your own opinions about the topic of the chapter you are studying. Read the book before class can help students build a general idea and structure of the knowledge, also we can come up with some own ideas when reading, for example, the own experience and information can give us different opinions, and that can be very useful during the discussion.
Last but not least, I think that writing skills is also an essential element for graduate students. Every graduate student have to write many papers during their graduate study. Most of the papers are research papers, that require many professional skill of academic writing. Also we have to know how to do the right citation in our discipline when writing, it can be very challenging. In addition, during the graduate study, most of the time the university and our professors will use email for contact students. So it can’t be avoid to writing emails to them. So, for me, writing is a very important skill to have.
After attend Pathway program courses, I feel I have been developed a lot than before. For example, the class PROV-501 and 502 gives me a general idea about what a graduate course should look like and what a graduate student should be able to do. I think in the future, when I attend the graduate program even when I get employed, the personal skills I learned from Pathway program will be very helpful and valuable.
For conclusion, I think that different people have different perspective and opinion, it is important to get your own idea after practice. For my pathway experience, I find that time management, pre-class preparation and writing skills are the most essential elements for graduate studying. I believe if I can do my best to develop these skills, I can finally succeed in my graduate study.