Mike+and+Nickey

listen [|here] listening 3, page 226

Listen to the passage. On a piece of paper, take notes on the main points of the listening passage.

Hi, Mike, do you have a moment? I'd like to talk with you about something. Sure, Nicky. I have a few minutes before I have to head over to my next class. What's your question?

It's about independent study, about an independent study project with Dr. Lee. You did an independent study project last year, and you did your project with Dr. Lee, didn't you? I sure did. You have a question about that? I do. I'd like to know what it's like. I mean, how to do a good job of it. Uh ... maybe I'm not the best person to talk about this because I ...uh ... didn't do a very good job on my project, I don't think. (laughs) Well, then, maybe you can talk with me about what not to do, how not to do a project.

Now that's my area of expertise. I can tell you about what you shouldn't do ... OK.

Well first of all, and most important, you need to work on your project regularly. You'll only have meetings with Dr. Lee once a month. What I did was uh, to not do any work on my project for about three and a half weeks each month, and then I'd spend a couple of days just before meeting with Dr. Lee working on nothing but my project. That certainly doesn't sound like the best way to do a project like this. I need to work on the project throughout each month before I meet with Dr. Lee instead of putting all the work off until the last few days of each month. That makes sense ... OK, what else can you tell me to help me with the project? Or what else can you tell me not to do? Let's see ... OK, something else you should keep in mind, and I had trouble with this, too, when I was working on my project, is that it's an independent study project. So it means that you work on the project independently? It also means that determine the direction your research will take; Dr. Lee doesn't do that. What do you mean exactly? Well, I kept expecting Dr. Lee to tell me what I should do next, but he expected me to figure out what I should do and then discuss it with him. Oh, I see now. I need to take charge of figuring out the direction the project should take and not expect Dr. Lee to do that. Exactly. Think about these things if you decide to work on an independent study project with Dr. Lee. Then you should be able to do a much better job than I did.