Critical thinking is a fundamental aspect of your studies. It allows you to consider new information or an issue, break it down, understand what is going on, evaluate the strengths and limitations of it and ultimately form a judgement about whether you think it is useful. Being able to think critically helps us to learn and assimilate new information and also to identify the less than valid or credible sources too.

As such, it is a big part of your assessments. We just need to take a look at the generic assessment criteria and we can see how many times and ways critical thinking is required to achieve good grades.

If you aren’t familiar with the Generic Assessment Criteria, explore it in the link below.

Beyond analysing and evaluating information, being able to think critically enables us to solve problems and think creatively. This is important in everyday life and at university. 

Imagine for a moment, if we just accepted everything that we heard as fact. What might happen? We might accept misinformation as truth. We would be susceptible to manipulation. We would probably make a lot of poor decisions and we would likely never come up with new or novel ways of doing things. 

Thus, critical thinking helps us to make decisions, form our own judgement about things we see, hear and also to be innovative. 

By being critical you can demonstrate that you understand a particular topic in great detail. 

See the document below to support you further with your critical skills. 

Common critical thinking errors include letting your own biases influence judgement. It is important to put these aside while reading and ensuring that evidence is gathered and conclusions are justified. It is also important to be aware that you may be being persuaded by the author to read the text or to agree with them. Ensure that you ask questions and compare evidence to clarify information. 

It is important to not be overconfident when discussing ideas. Even if you have evidence it should be presented in a clear, unbiased way. This may include using tentative language such as 'evidence may suggest' rather than 'this is definitely the case' as you need to be realistic about what you have read and the limitations of your reading and research.

It is important to think about what you have read, ask questions about sources and make comparisons. You may have been set the same assignment question as others but may read different sources and as a result come to a different conclusion.

Test your knowledge about the importance of critical thinking by completing the quiz below. 

Critical thinking skills not only help you to make decisions about your career choices, but they are sought after by employers too. 

Choosing a career involves:

• reflecting on yourself, your motivation, skills and experience.
• researching and identifying potential career options.
• evaluating information and weighing up different options in order to draw conclusions about the best route for you.

Finding suitable job opportunities also involves:

• Identifying vacancies.
• analysing requirements.
• applying your skills and experience to the role and its requirements.
• gathering evidence of your suitability in order to present a clear, reasoned argument in your application.

Your critical thinking skills will help you with all of these tasks. Equally, employers often seek graduates with excellent critical thinking skills as they will help you to succeed in your graduate career. However, be mindful that sometimes employers use a variety of terms to express these requirements, such as 'strategic thinking', 'analysis and decision making', 'collecting, collating and analysing information', etc.