Why is critical thinking an important part of your college learning experience?

'Critical thinking' is an important part of your college experience. It is defined as a thinking process that questions assumptions. Many statements nowadays rely on an assumption of certain details. Critical thinking breaks down these assumptions and therefore whether the statement or question is true or false, and to what extent.

• How critical thinking pertains to college

In college, it is a highly-publicized form of learning. How can you expect to get ahead in life, if you are not able to look deeper into situations, and understand what people really mean? This means that you need to be able to think beyond what you learn. You are not taught everything in class, so you need to be able to take what you've learned and use it to think further.

• Why critical thinking is key to college

The whole process of critical thinking is based around the idea of self-improvement. To think well, one would need to start imposing certain restrictions to thinking, to keep the process of thought logical, within reason. In your college experience, critical thinking teaches students how to assess situations and questions from a different viewpoint, and hence learn more than originally thought. If you are not able to do this, it will be very difficult to find hidden details in some questions or meanings in text, and therefore fully answer a question. Inferences, for example, are a mode of critical thinking. For example, if one thing happens that affects something else, then the overall effect will be this.

The key part of going to college as opposed to secondary-tier learning is the ability to make inferences, and look deeper into a question or situation. This is key to opening up hidden meanings, sarcasm, and hidden details.