Self-evaluation is a very important aspect of life, both in our professional and personal lives. How can students evaluate themselves when there are no exams? Why is it important?
Self-evaluation is considered as one of the most effective tools to understand one’s own performance, strengths, weakness, attitude, motivation levels and much more. It helps you in understanding your expectations, will help you set and tune your goals, plan your academic journey and your career path ahead.
Is it just about the marks? Yes and no. ‘No’ because the point of this exercise has more to do with your interests than anything else. ‘Yes’ because if your marks are good, it’s evident you’re able to perform well. If not, then maybe you’re either not interested in what you’re doing, are doing it because of someone else’s pressure or you’re simply not addressing the issues that are making your life tough.
Things to Remember
There’s no particular pattern. A self-assessment needs to be able to make us understand ourselves better. Hence, here is a simple format that everyone can use:
Your goals and current status: Where you are now and where you want to be is very important to understand. It also helps us introspect whether we’ve set UNREALISTIC goals and might need to be more in touch with reality.
Your biggest successes: Our success stories are what make us realise our capability and potential. It also points us in the direction that we should be pursuing.
Your biggest challenges: Understanding the areas of our lives that we aren’t performing well in or aren’t performing at all helps us understand where we need to put in extra effort.
Strengths and weaknesses: It looks simple, but we need to be able to map out our strengths and weaknesses to our goals and also analyse if they’ve played a role in our success story, while at the same time, also be able to understand how our weakness(es) have led us to face challenges and how to avoid them from here on out.
The skill set: Skills that we already possess and understanding how they play a role in our lives will not only help us appreciate them, but will also motivate us to constantly upskill ourselves.
What else is important
Relax and start with an open mind: It’s important that we are not only aware but also accept our shortcomings. The biggest strength of an individual is to know their weakness. We either learn to cope with or tackle the issues head on when we are able to accept where we fall short. For this to happen, we need to be honest with ourselves.
Pat yourself on the back: Appreciating ourselves before we begin this exercise will help relax us, be much more open with ourselves and will motivate us to go the extra mile for our betterment.
Time and place: Hurrying up will never help us in any aspect. It’ll mostly make us either blow our own trumpets too loud or feel that we’re not worth one’s salt. Ensure that you give yourself ample time and are in a place that’s peaceful, quiet and calm.
It’s all about growth: Never lose sight of the primary reason behind this whole exercise to begin with.
After my self-evaluation, it’s become very clear to me that I’m hopelessly lacking in the area of spending time with loved ones. I’ve been trying to go above and beyond to please people who don’t just deserve me but are pretentious. Hence, my resolution is to spend quality time with those who appreciate me for who I am.
With Regards,
Adarsh Benakappa Basavaraj
‘The Coach’
