Found a learning method and passed the bachelor thesis with grade A

How it was before

Situation before the studies: As a father of two, I lived almost exclusively on a disability pension because of severe health damage. In my self-employed sideline I was known locally, but over the course of the training at HOFA College and the Triagon Academy I gained more clients in the field of event technology. That way I could win more and more jobs as a FOH audio engineer. Because of neurological deficits and the after-effects of three brain operations, including a resection of the temporal lobe, the biggest challenge was to work in a focused way and to find a learning method that would accompany me during my studies. I always stayed focused and invested a lot of time in reading specialist literature. For my work as a mixing engineer I put ear training at the centre, but my by now very pronounced difficulty concentrating, attention deficits and a sleep allowance of 3 to 6 hours per night put a lot of obstacles in my way, just as they had back during my work as an automation technician. I spent many hours reading the same sentences over and over without storing the content. Although I always wanted to work very precisely and carefully and placed great value on order and structure, my state of health deteriorated as I got older. I had unlearned how to work in a structured and efficient way. It was also an enormous amount of time to write my own texts of quality.

The moment help was needed

To answer this question, it is probably best if I simply write you a small excerpt from my path. I would like to say that there was one event or one specific moment. However, it was and still is the entire professional and health situation. After I was operated on the brain three times at the age of 20 because of a very rare nerve disease, I was able to return to my job as an automation technician within 3 weeks. Everything seemed to improve, and my “pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy with microdysgenesis type 2”, which I had been fighting since the age of 15, was supposed to one day have hardly any place in my life. Year by year, however, I noticed after-effects such as memory loss, severe concentration problems, attention deficits, sleep and heart rhythm problems, and from around the age of 25 came restless legs syndrome and severe sleep insomnia. At the latest after two concussions, which I sustained once at work and once at home, it was clear to me that I had to take a different path. After the brain operations, the after-effects of the operations, strong side effects of the medication, years of neurological examinations and stays in university hospitals and a psychosis, a degree of disability of 100% was diagnosed. I now lived on a disability pension and theoretically had a lot of time, and my wife started working again at a 40% workload. Today my children are 2 and 4 years old and my wife works two days a week. When my first son was born, my motivation was the thought that, despite the hopelessness of any health improvement, there will one day be a life after the illness. Less medication and side effects, more sleep quality, more body energy and so on. As soon as I reach a lower degree of disability, I definitely want to one day work in the field of audio engineering at a television station. How long that will still take is an open question, but as much as I fell into a hole mentally a few years ago, the motivation suddenly became just as great to complete an educational qualification in a creative field. Since I had always worked as a sound engineer on the side, I wanted to pursue a new training in audio engineering and give everything to learn professional and methodological skills and to reach a certain academic degree. For that I of course needed a vocational college or a university of applied sciences with the option to study independently and take exams entirely without time pressure. I found HOFA College and later the Triagon Academy, where I was able to gain the technical training and academic education.

What we did together

Fortunately, you were already my lecturer during the first module at the Triagon Academy. The start was very hard for me, but you always motivated me throughout the whole module and were very patient. Until then, at courses and schools I had never had a lecturer who brought the understanding and the patience when I had trouble listening or suddenly had lapses while speaking. You patiently waited until I got to the point, because while talking I often digress a lot and lose the thread, and partly forget what was actually asked. At the end of the day I can claim that you enabled me a very good start into the academic modules. Through you I discovered with which learning method and structure I can study independently and efficiently during the training. Depending on the health circumstances, you doubt yourself now and then. Through you I felt, so to speak, up to the training, and through the motivation and the resulting discipline I already achieved grade A in module 1.

What changed concretely

With you as my tutor, I passed the bachelor thesis at the Triagon Academy with the grade A. How much diligence and study time I had to put in, I cannot give in numbers, because that is exactly a central topic in everyday life. When I carry out a physical activity, make a phone call, take part in a meeting, or read specialist literature for school, it can well be that I am focused and soak up the material like a sponge. From one minute to the next, I possibly drift away from the topic or my activity. I forget what the last point was, who said what, which topic is currently being discussed and so on. On my bachelor thesis I was able to work very focused and always with a clear goal in mind. Although the work, according to your statement, took on the scope of a master thesis, I wanted everything to be perfect and gave it my all. I very often remembered the time of module 1, when you patiently explained to me how to research most efficiently, where I can find quality sources, and with which method I might save time so I can concentrate on other things. My grades at the Triagon Academy: module 1: A, module 2: B, module 3: B+, module 4: A.

What would you say to someone standing where you stood?

Always dare to take the first step and don't wait for a certain day or for an event. If a topic fascinates you as much as the field of audio engineering fascinated me back then, then enrol immediately at the nearest school for a training, as soon as you trust the references. Do the training with the intention of expanding your knowledge and not making it dependent on whether you one day work professionally in this field. You should find out whether the lecturers have good references and think carefully about whether you might want to ask a coach like Lars for support. Because I personally am of the opinion that talking with people is always education. For example discussing specialist literature with a fellow student, talking with the lecturer about alternative learning methods, accepting constructive feedback from clients, getting coached and much more.