My Personal Experience : My Experience Of School

At the beginning of junior year, I had a difficult time with AP Biology. Even though I completed all the practice assignments, I did not do well on the first few lab write-ups and tests. The class was so hard for me that I contemplated dropping. I convinced myself to stay in the class and worked extensively with my teacher outside of class. I tried different studying techniques and methods and found the most effective one for me: pre-reading the textbook sections before my teacher introduced the concept. As this was the first course truly had difficulties with, I recognized that failures in life are inevitable. I embrace a new mindset now that incorporates these challenges into my personal growth. I now use each new obstacle as stepping stones

In the beginning of my junior year, I had signed up for one of the most intimidating classes in my high school, AP chemistry. While I took chemistry honors, I heard rumors about the AP course and seen homework packets that overwhelmed me to the point of removing the class from next year’s schedule. However, out of impulsiveness, I decided it was time for a challenge and put the course back on my schedule. When I received my summer assignment for the course, I felt confused and regretful about the decision I had made. My commitment to not fail the class the first week back from break forced me to focus on the time-consuming homework. From my struggle, I managed to finish the packet on time. The school year began, and one of the first lessons

At times I was tense, putting myself down and doubting my capabilities. I did not think I could even compare to these kids and believed that they were better. One day, I walked in on one of the lower level classes and it was filled with minority students—I start to wonder why. I desperately want to switch out of my AP course, because I did not think I belong there. For two weeks straight, I cried while doing my AP homework. My stomach would ache because of the anxiety and self-doubt that piled up within me.

I had thoroughly enjoyed and was quite proficient at the Honors Chemistry course my sophomore year, so I was ecstatic to delve deeper into the subject. I had heard that the class was one of the most difficult classes a student could take, but I was not deterred by these warnings. The first couple of weeks, I thought I was grasping the material quite well. The first test of the year was administered, and when we received the tests back, I was utterly confounded to see that I had made the first failing grade of my entire academic career. Many students dropped out of Advanced Placement Chemistry by the first month, but I was determined to see it through to the end. I carefully and thoughtfully completed homework assignments, study guides, and any extra-credit opportunities in order to succeed. Despite many of my peers telling me dropping out was the best decision they had made, I still sought out assistance from my teacher as well as other resources to overcome obstacles that were challenging me. I embraced the rigors the class presented, and knew it was going to be the most difficult out of them all, but it was also going to be the most rewarding in the end. I finished the year with an incredibly strong semester grade, as well as an above average AP exam score. This enlightening experience instilled in me not only my grit and tenacity

When I finally got home I ignored my mom's requests of “How was your day?” and immediately stormed upstairs to my best friend, also know as my bed. As I layed there I slowly started to recover from the traumatizing events that had occurred earlier in the day. I started to realize that maybe such a challenging course was not such a bad thing. After all I would be getting a head start on my college credits. Instead of moping about how hard the class was going to be, I decided that I would accept the challenge that was being thrown at me and do my best to succeed. I wish I could say that I had completely dedicated to success in AP History, but that would be a lie, however I can proudly say that I did not quit, I accepted the

I earned a one on the AP Chemistry exam and a C in the class both semesters; I couldn’t be happier. Although I technically failed AP Chemistry according to the AP exam standards, I gained invaluable experience throughout the class. While others would be devastated to see their report card with all A’s and one C, I was content with it. My junior year I was placed in AP Chemistry-without having taken the prerequisite classes- and I failed to switch out. By not dropping the class I learned just how persistent I could be and how much effort pays off.

In my junior year of high school, I had the option of taking an elective that would be an easy A, or taking AP computer science. Even though I didn’t know the first thing about computers, I made the decision to challenge myself and took computer science. For the first trimester, I struggled to grasp the material and keep up with the rest of my class. I constantly felt out of place and behind everyone else. In the second trimester, I took responsibility for my own learning by meeting with the teacher to work on my free response skills. I set aside time almost every night to work through problems in the textbook to prepare for the AP exam. Although I didn’t get the score I was aiming for, I did a lot better than I would have at the beginning

There's a couple of weeks remaining in the school year.  At the time, I'm a sophomore reviewing for a Biology test and I'm called up by my teacher.  He informs me that the science course I signed up for (AP Physics I) would not be taught the following year, so the school decided to place me in the next best course...AP Chemistry.  At this point, I've only taken physics and biology classes, so the idea of going into an Advanced Placement version of Chemistry without any prior knowledge of the subject had me terrified.  However, I decided to keep the class in my schedule for two main reasons.  For one, there's a part in me that believed AP Chemistry would involve may exhilarating and extraordinary experiments (it did).  But also, with the junior

During my junior year I felt that I had the perfect opportunity to take an AP class that was a subject I relatively enjoyed, but as someone who was never experienced the intensity and workload of an AP class before, I found myself caught rather off guard.

It was my junior year of high school. This was the first year that they employed dual credit courses to allow students to get a head start for college. Being an athlete, I didn’t know if I was ready to take college courses. Going to college wasn’t even on my mind at the time. I decided to take these courses because not only did I want to get ahead, but I also wanted to see if college was right for me. Even though I was first generation, the goal was to achieve A’s in each of the classes. For each of these classes, I expected them to be just like my other high school classes. It turned out that was never the case. I had so many outside resources to help me study for tests. I developed new technique for taking notes since the professors only

My junior year, I decided to take my first Advanced Placement class, AP Chemistry. In the beginning, it required no effort since it only reviewed the material of the general chemistry class I had taken the previous year. Then, it started to become complicated. Through all of high school, I had drifted by and I never needed to study before. Suddenly, I needed to study for hours every night. The stress began to take a toll on me and my will to try diminished during the third quarter. During fourth quarter, the teacher gave us class time to review and ask him questions. On top of refreshing myself on what I learned first semester, I needed to learn all the material I had missed out on during the third quarter.

I had always thought of myself as a pretty exceptional student throughout my schooling. I showed up with my work done and I got good grades, but of course, there was always that one exception. Math was the subject that consistently kept my GPA from becoming a 4.0. Even with my frustrations I never gave up… until my senior year of high school. Precalculus was the most confusing class I had ever come across. After two weeks, I found myself breaking into tears trying to do the homework. I dropped precalculus with a sick feeling in my stomach. I spent the rest of the day in a slump, dreading the thought of telling my mother what I had done.

Have you ever taken a class that is so confusing, you never know what is going on? This is how I felt in my sophomore chemistry class. I went in for study nearly every day of the week, but that just wasn’t enough. I was nearing the end of second semester and that is when the panic set in. I demonstrated a characteristic, determination, necessary to achieve the American Dream when I spent many hours studying for the test that would decide if I passed or failed chemistry.

I went to a highly competitive public high school, where I realized the quality of education that countries like the US posses. Even though I was one of the best students of my school in Mexico, I was behind everyone in the US, so I decided to improve my math, science, and English skills. Life was a challenge during this time, but my mom and I were doing our best; I felt that my dreams were just a step from me, until things started to change. My mom’s bipolarity started to come back, and my dad started to think that she was cheating on him again. With this in mind, my dad started investigating and eventually found out that she was cheating on him. I wanted to stay in the US and challenge myself, I was ready to take AP and advanced classes during my junior year; however, that was not an option anymore. Moving back to Mexico I fell into depression; my family was devastated and my dreams were over. I only thought about my future and didn’t find an answer, I didn’t see an American university as an option anymore. Time passed and I remembered how we overcame my mother’s bipolarity: by seeing negative things as a motivation. I saw my return to Mexico and my parents’ divorce as a bigger challenge than just an AP class. I bought AP books for Calculus, Biology, and Physics, as well as preparation books for the SAT and other tests. I started self-studying for most of these subjects and tests while at

During Elemtarty and Jr High School I always exceeded in classes such as science and math. When I got to high school it wasn’t any different, I still did well in both science and math classes. First semester of my junior year I took high school Chemistry with Mr. Johnston. Before entering the class, I was nervous because of all the things I had heard about his class. At the same time, I was excited because I love a challenge. Mr. Johnston’s class was nothing like the other high school chemistry classes around the county. There were multiple quizzes every week and test every two weeks. We learned things that other chemistry classes did not and his hand made test ended up being harder than the North Carolina State Exam for Chemistry. The class