Personal Control Over Cognitive Functioning When the time comes for a person to go to college, they enter a completely new world. No longer do they have their parents to make sure they are doing their homework, studying, getting sleep, and making responsible decisions. When a person turns 18 years old and suddenly is thrown into a new world on their own, it takes time to adjust. For those students who stay in college, they become better at time management and having control over their success in school. There is a huge difference between a freshmen college student and a senior in college. The way they think, the things they do, and how they handle the stress of school work are completely different. When discussing control strategies, and relating them to the different mind sets of seniors and freshmen, it becomes very clear that the two age groups have many differences but share some similarities As a current senior in college reflecting on my college career, I am shocked by the changes I have gone through during the process. As a freshmen, I had a completely contrasting view concerning my studies than I do now. When I first entered college, my expectations and mind set of my school work were skewed. I did not realize the amount of effort needed to be successful in class. Freshmen classes are much easier and don’t require as much attention and effort as upper level classes do. I worked very hard and always received good grades, but as the years progressed, so did the extra amount of effort I had to put in to remain successful. One thing I have noticed after this reflection is the use of my assimilative activities remained the same throughout my career. The book, “Adult Development and Aging”, defines assimilative activities as “activities that people engage in that prevent or alleviate losses in domains that are personally relevant for self-esteem and identity”(305). The assimilative activities that I maintained throughout my career are how I use memory aids. I pride myself on my ability to memorize material, which helped me tremendously throughout college. Studying always comes first for me in college because I receive good grades through how I memorize material. This boosts my self-esteem, which is why I have maintained my strong study ethic. While I have maintained assimilative activities throughout college, a control strategy that I noticed changed drastically throughout my career is accommodations. Accommodations is defined as a control strategy that “people make to readjust their goals and aspirations as a way to lessen or neutralize the effects of negative self-evaluations in key domains”(305). During my freshmen year, I was able to make straight A’s on a constant basis. I knew that if I studied and put in a good effort, I would be guaranteed a good grade. This changed quickly when I started taking upper-level classes. The classes were of higher difficulty than freshmen year, which changed my mind-set on how to obtain good grades. No longer did I automatically expect a grade of an A just because I put in a reasonable effort. I started setting my goals and expectations lower, a grade of a B began to become acceptable to me. I adjusted my goals in order