My Life And Education

I used to excel in math, making over a 95 on all my report cards, passing every test, and understanding everything so clearly, while others struggled. In my junior year of high school, I started to burn out, and I couldn’t keep up in any classes, especially math. In fact, my junior year was the year I took Pre-AP Pre-Calculus. If I had only gotten the hang of it then, I wouldn’t be writing to you today. My senior year I tried my hand at AP BC Calculus. Because I did not completely understand Pre-calculus, I failed miserably in AP BC Calculus, and only barely passed for the year.

My educational past has had its good and bad days. In early grades school was easy and school was enjoyable. Somewhere along the line I lost my talent and things went south quickly. For some reason I kept telling myself studying wasn’t necessary because of how well I did in the past. In the sixth grade we had our first math test. I figured why study, I’m smart, all the answers will come right to me. I start the test and immediately start struggling. I couldn’t remember anything and of course when I got it back, it was an F. After receiving that F, I realized things have changed and I must put forth much more effort. Math for me was never the same after that moment. I started struggling with memorizing the equations and my grade suffered. One thing I needed to realize was I didn’t have all the knowledge. In the past, my education has been a little rocky.

Before the 6th grade, I really enjoyed math and I believed I was even good at it. Then to add to my excitement about math, I made a perfect score on my 6th grade Taks test. However, the next year (my 7th grade year) my teacher was a new teacher and you could tell she was struggling. She was a very nice teacher, and I loved her so much, I just struggled to understand what she was teaching. The next year, I transferred to a new school. Here, the teachers were not certified but they tried to help with everything they possibly could; however, their ability to help us was pretty limited. At my new school, we did all of our work on computers for half of the day and attended college classes at Panola and TSTC the rest of day. While I truly loved this

In 2014 when I decided to go back to my local community college I was told that I would have to retake my math class. My goal was to pass this class and to be able to move forward in my studies. This is something that was very hard for me to complete when it was placed in front of me because it was by far my weakest subject in high school without a doubt and that was back in 2008 when it was somewhat fresh on my mind. This was now six years later and to be honest I really had no idea how I was going to complete this class. Which made me feel very defeated I felt as if there was no one for me to move forward because of the roadblock.

I believe in fighting for your goals and aspirations, and not waiting for things to be given to you. Beginning from day one, the expectations for me have always been straight A’s. This expectation had been fulfilled all throughout elementary school, and junior high without a problem, but as high school rolled around, I noticed I began to struggle with a certain subject. Math had always been my favorite subject, and usually came easy to me. My eighth grade math teacher was very organized and provided us with thorough and descriptive notes daily. I seldom struggled, and if I did, I simply reread the notes and raised my hand. However, my new algebra teacher had a different method of teaching that I wasn’t accustomed to. We rarely took notes, our ‘notes’ were primarily examples, and she was very disorganized. Realizing that math was going to be slightly more difficult this

During my second semester at Southwest Mississippi Community College, I had finally gotten comfortable at the school: I had made friends, and I was doing well in all of my classes. Well, all except for college algebra. I have never been good at algebra; this class was no exception. I tried my very best to understand the material, but my mind just could not comprehend much of the material that we covered in class. Because of my own inability to understand the material, I never finished any of my homework, and I did not do well on any of the tests that I had taken. I had later come to realize that my inability to understand the material was not the fault of anyone but myself.

My struggles with math reach back as long as I can remember, but they all really materialized for the first time in fifth grade. In spite of being an otherwise strong student, I was really having a tough time keeping pace in math class. It was at this time my parents and teachers intervened in my education and I was issued an Individual Educational Plan. I was moved to a math class in the special education department, and received one-on-one tutoring. While from an adult point of view this may seem like a beneficial change, for a student closing in on middle school and trying to fit in with friends, it was a huge bow to my confidence. I feared being

Math is a subject that I have struggled with for a very long time; it is something that I always set aside. Math is something that I never saw myself using in my future and I thought if I put it off it would just disappear. When I came to the University I had to take Math 100 and Math SAX, which, unfortunately set me back on finishing math quite a bit because I did not put in the effort as much as I should have, and the amount of work they gave, was quite an overload. I took those courses twice and was still not put into a Math course at the University. That is when I started to push math away, but I have realized I cannot put it off and math is definitely important and we do need to know the subject no matter where we go in life or regardless

When I decided I wanted to get my Associates and Bachelors Degree in Business Management in high school, I realized I would have to overcome an obstacle in college. Having so many math classes ever since I was in elementary school, I knew I would have trouble in math. But majoring in business would involve a lot of math. My first semester of college, I ranked the lowest in college math. I knew I had to do something about it then before I had to approach more difficult standards in math. I got a tutor and I am developing habits on how to do certain equations. I know I have to keep working on it, but I have done everything I

Growing up parents expect the most out of their children, but in some situations I felt like my highest standards were my own. Never had I experienced such distress and isolation as I did in my 8th grade algebra 2 class. I knew myself, and I had always been the type of student to adapt quickly and learn information easily, but when the time came for graphing these impossible functions or solving inequalities with irrational numbers I felt the start of a heavy journey. Not only did I have to worry about myself and how well I could do on the tests that would be fundamental for my gpa, but I also had to overcome feeling like a burden to the rest of my class who seemed as if they were strolling down the park with no worry. Thankfully, one of my math teachers noticed my struggle and offered extra help leading me to spend time after school for tutoring. During those tutoring sessions all I thought about was moving forward with each math standard that came along the way.

I received a C in my first semester of Algebra 2 freshman year and was mortified, too ashamed to speak of it. When I opened my mail-home transcript, I felt as if I were watching my college dreams wither away. It was my first year of high school, a scary indicator of how my math career would pan out the next few years. After my meltdown, I relaxed and wondered, why did this happen? I had five As. What exactly was I doing wrong? After some self-evaluation, I realized I had an issue with math as a subject. In middle school, I only received a B in geometry, which should have given me the idea that I might not be ready for the next level. This is the cliché “denial” phase, where I was making excuses instead of accepting what had

I practically taught my 9th grade algebra class. Then came sophomore year and well, that's when math started to become hard. My A’s quickly turned into B’s and C’s, and on occasion some D’s. That was a very drastic change for me. The difficulty had been increased and I gave up because the math became harder. I was unsuccessful. I was seeking constant validation and when it wasn't received I fell deeper and deeper into my fixed mindset. I depended solely on my basic qualities, and when that didn't amount to what I wanted, I told myself that I was dumbest one in the class and that I was horrible at math. I dreaded having to go to math class. After all the time and all the effort I had put into the class I would still receive failing grades. Being closed minded really held me back. If only I treated it the way I did with

Ever since I was fifteen I wanted to attend college. I wanted to do something with my life and peruse a dream. I knew a college education was an important aspect and I wanted to experience it. I had goals that I wanted to achieve, and I knew it was not going to easy. I need to find a way to support the cost, the illness my mother was going through, and the negative comments I received because, I wanted something better.

This is my story. I have always loved learning and am quick to encode trivial bit of information and seemingly useless skills. For some reason, mathematics was the subject that resonated within me the strongest. During elementary school, I was lectured on the importance of an education from parents who never attended college, one who dropped out of high school. I was told to be better than those around me and was put on a pedestal of high expectations. I excelled in all of my subjects not through hard work but because of an innate curiosity of what I did not know. This set me apart from most of my peers and in middle school I was bullied for my straight “As.” I quickly exhausted all that my parents knew academic wise and my success eventually developed into a bragging right. Excelling in my classes narrowed my vision, and I never once paused to actually think about a future career or even what college I would attend. As the “As” kept coming in, my parents’ bragging continued, and I slowly realized

In junior High School, things started to turn around for me. Although I was still placed in lower level classes, I developed a love for learning. In the years to come from Junior High to High School, I had a strong urge to make up for lost time. One class I started to excel in was the one I used to have the most trouble with, Mathematics. It seemed as though the once boring and complex equations now seemed meaningful and simple. As I progressed into 8th grade, I was able to advance to normal classes. I felt that the hard work I put in was finally paying of. At this point, I felt that I could handle a higher level. At the end of 8th grade, I took the necessary procedures and tests to try and get into honor - level courses in 9th grade. After taking a summer course of Algebra 1 and several tests I was able to succeed and take the classes. The experience was great. I felt that I was finally going the right direction