Personal Narrative: My Failure In College

It was the end of 7th grade year, and by that time I knew I failed classes, it was going to be the exact thing as last year. Except, this year my mom did not allow me to go to summer school, she told me that if I wasn’t going to at least try to my fullest potential, she wasn’t either. Being that I failed a class without going to summer school, I was kicked out of the Academy and sent to my base school. I wasn’t sad because at that point I just did not care.

In my 7th-grade history class, I was having trouble with my assignments. At the start of the year, it was all easy for me, but over time, it became difficult. The reason was that I couldn’t understand what’s happening when reading the passage in the textbook. Therefore, I felt that I couldn’t overcome understanding what the tests are saying. I would have just stared at the passages like a hawk during my tests. Eventually, I stopped doing my homework and studying for tests as a result of thinking it was useless to try. At the end of that semester, my grade was a D since I was slacking off. I was truly shocked when I saw my grade because I believed I was going to fail everything.

My first failure discouraged me to the point where, I felt like I would never reach an advanced math level again. The lack of self-confidence that resulted from my sub-par math scores soon began to negatively affect some of my other classes. I quickly realized that the trend had to stop. I worked diligently to achieve what, at the time, seemed unattainable. My change in the outlook of my repeated failures helped me to finally succeed. Throughout the course of the last two years, I have grown more self-aware in my study habits. I push myself even harder when I think I have done the best I can.

A recent event where I felt that I failed was on my A.P. Calculus test. I got a B-. While this may not be a horrible grade it was the first grade below a 95% that I had received all term. I had spent all of my summer at a rigorous Summer Academy called Noonan Scholars. There I dedicated my whole summer to learning calculus and taking a college English class. Math had always been an obstacle for me and I was determined to of better. I tried hard to understood all the topics and sought the Professor after hours. Receiving that B- was a drastic blow to my confidence. I responded to this failure by studying more and making sure that my grade never slipped again. In college I imagine myself being faced with difficult classes and I plan on working

I still remember that day I was disappointed in myself because I didn't put a lot of effort in all the classes or study enough to get a passing grade on the finals. I came home with tears in my eyes I couldn't believe that next semester I was not continuing with my classmates and I wasn't going to receive my certificate. I knew I had to go back next fall to retake the radiology class all over again, but just for the lecture part. The whole winter break I was in shock because I wanted to continue with my classmates and I wanted to graduate at 19 because that was my goal. My mom told me it is okay to fail, many college students fail in some of their classes but they don't give up the continue and learn from their mistakes.

My Freshman year of college, I was a mechanical engineering student at the George Washington University. It was there that I learned how difficult school could really be. My past schooling experience had not prepared me for this extremely rigorous program. As one of my requirements for the program was a social science, I had registered for a history course my first semester. Unknowingly, I had registered for a third-year history class, clearly not the correct class for a freshman engineering student. I went on to struggle with the amount of work that was assigned for the course including an 18 page research paper. This course, on top of the difficult engineering curricula was extremely challenging. At this point, I also realized that although

Response: I remember struggling when it came to knowing anything about college and the whole process. So during summer, I join a college prep camp, it was a week-long camp. I learned a lot more about college and how easy it was to apply. They taught me about financial aid and about scholarships. How to spend your money wisely. Another educational challenge I faced was the SAT, I knew I needed help with that test. I knew nothing about it, I didn't know any strategies to help me. So I went to a month-long tutoring session, for three days out of the week. During the tutoring session, the tutors were showing us stuff like eliminating the wrong answers to get the right answers. At first, I kept scoring 500s on practice tests but when I took the

Failure to me is something that can sometimes lower your self-confidence. An example of failure in my mind is when I make lower than an 80 on a test or assignment. I do not believe I was as prepared for the Early College as I thought I was, and this has been very overwhelming and difficult. My grades throughout school have always been A’s and B’s so when I started at the Early College juggling high school and college classes made things more complicated. I have never experienced this before so my initial thoughts were to give up and return to East Montgomery. Testing has never been my strong point but I have always been able to study and make the grades I knew I could do.

Going into college, I knew that there will be an abundance of life lessons learned, but I did not ken that I would be able to absorb so much in such a short duration. This past year in college, I gained vital skills and grew stronger mentally. College is a place where everyone learns from their failures and successes, and with that, there are numerous things to learn from that. My experiences in college edified me how to work with others, communicate with professionals efficaciously, and make perdurable relationships. In addition, being away from home and living in an unfamiliar environment without my family availed me to become independent. Surviving on my own, I learned to make my bed, cook, do laundry, clean up after myself, and more. College taught me skills beyond the classroom, and it withal a leeway to becoming independent away

I went into junior year without any fear or stress whatsoever. I started a new program at my school called the Associative Arts program in order to graduate high school with a two-year college degree. This program entailed not only taking both on site and online college classes, but also completing high school classes in order to fulfill my high school graduation requirements. Unaware of the academic rigor this year involved, I decided to take AP Chemistry along with these other classes. My older sister took, and passed, an AP class her junior year, so I expected myself to also pass this class. However, in my case, this teacher had never taught an AP class before, especially not chemistry. After completing my junior year, I now understand there is an important difference between setting high goals and pushing myself beyond my limits.

Working your way through college can be a daunting journey to say the least. There have been a myriad of challenges to overcome, both foreseen and unexpected. A year and half ago I decided to follow my dream of moving to California and obtaining a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. The decision to follow my passion for science invoked both fear and excitement within myself. I didn’t have the support of many friends and family, as I am originally from the East Coast, many of them seen my moving to California as an unrealistic and unnecessary goal. Despite my own self-doubts and the discouragement of my family I made the decision to relocate to California. That decision manifested the most significant chapter in my life to date. In an extremely short period of time I had to find an apartment, in the Bay Area, one of the most competitive and costly rental markets in the country as well as enroll in school, apply for aid and secure stable

Going into the classes, I thought I could do what I had done in my previous high school classes, but little did I know at the time, that that would not work and I eventually had to re-position myself in the midst of this trial. Being that I was not as focused from the start of one of my classes, my grade slipped, and I was unable to bring it back up by the end of the first semester. I was devastated and I attempted to put all the blame on my professor, but in reality, I was to blame. I did not properly take responsibility for my role in the problem, because I tried to convince myself that I put forth my best effort, when I truly didn’t. The feeling of defeat took me over, as in I knew the possibility of me leaving the early college program were high. Fortunately, the principal granted me and others the opportunity to prove ourselves and get better grades the following semester. I was grateful for the challenge, but was stressed from the pressure I felt from family and administrative officials at the time. Instead of

have always been the type of person to learn from my failures, and to try my absolute hardest to improve after them. One of my most memorable failures was with AP U.S. History, which I took Sophomore year. Like many of the other students, I was very laid back coming into class in the fall of 2014. I recall the lecture that our teacher, Mr. Hohenstein, gave us about keeping up with work and studying for tests. He specifically told us that you wouldn’t pass unless you gave your one-hundred percent. Despite all the important details and life lessons in his lecture, I didn’t heed most of his advice. After a few weeks had passed, our first test came around the corner. I thought that I was prepared, due to spending a couple of hours studying the

A family sitting around a dinner table, refugees being placed into healthy environments, a house full of family and friends, these are all images I conjure up when pondering my future. I wish to begin my journey to obtaining this fantasy by pursuing college. College represents an extremely important piece to my future and to get there, I must work extra hard. I see myself attending a University to attain a masters degree in global studies. To be able to get to that point I must reach out and ask for help, the reason for applying for scholarships. After college I would like to locate a job somewhere in the south, such as Tennessee. Once I've had a few years of settling into my career, I enjoy the idea of starting a family. Yes, this does involve

“How are you in this class? I’m sorry, but I’ll have to drop you from this course” the Statistics professor informed me. This was upon finding out that I was registered for another math class which was a prerequisite for the Statistics course. That was my first day of what would turn out to be a lengthy college career. Looking back the question held deeper meaning than I initially thought. My reasons for taking that course and others was due to following friends and feelings of obligation to attend college. I was enrolling in courses as if I were checking off items from a grocery list. Never meeting with advisors or forming an academic plan, I naively assumed everything would just fall into place. I had developed no goals nor aspirations,