Tutor profile: Kristina C.

How do I identify my professional strengths and weaknesses?

Self-reflection is an important skill to develop, not just for the workplace, but also in general. To start identifying your strengths and weaknesses, try making a list of the things you are good at, the things you wish you were better at, and then things you most enjoy doing at work. Once you have your three lists, start thinking about the skills you have developed for the things you are good at and how you went about developing those skills. For the things you wish you were better at, try to identify what skills you might need to acquire to get better at these things. For the things you most enjoy doing at work, see what overlaps with the other two lists. This process can help you identify how you became good at certain things and how you can use that same process to become good at the things you wish you were better at doing.

How do I develop good study skills?

Developing good study skills is often very dependant on how you learn. Notetaking, for example, is a useful study skill to have but you need to figure out the best way for you to take notes. Options may include: typing on a computer, taking notes by hand, recording the lecture and taking notes later at your own pace, listening to the lecture and writing down questions as you go.

How do Boolean search operators work?

Boolean search operators are the little words AND, OR, and NOT that you will sometimes see embedded into search engines and databases. You can also use them in simple searches, like Google. You will get different filtered search results depending on which operator you use. If you use AND to connect two keywords you will get search results that contain both keywords (i.e. online AND bullying -- all results will contain both keywords). AND is the narrowest search. If you use OR, you will get search results that contain either keyword in your search string (i.e. online OR bullying -- all results will contain either term or perhaps both). OR is the broadest search. If you use NOT, you will exclude whatever keyword comes after the operator from your search results (i.e. online NOT bullying -- the results will only contain the keyword "online" and exclude any results that also have the keyword "bullying"). NOT is an exclusionary search.