Personal Narrative: My First Failing Grade

When I was younger I failed myself and my family when I got held back a grade because I was not showing any progress in any of my subjects. I lost all of my friends, they began to talk bad about me because they thought I was not as Intelligent as they were. This effected me emotionally, I begged my parents not to hold me back a grade and to let me stay with my friends but my parents being tough said no, because school isn't about being close with friends, its about learning and making something of yourself. I learned a very important lesson the day I got held back a grade and that is to never give up and to strive to be the best in anything I do. I also learned that friends come and go, and that I can make more friends. I started studying every

I remember the beginning of sixth grade, just like it was yesterday. Walking through the doors I had my backpack and lunchbox in hand excited to pass all classes with no problem.Unfortanately that thought was just a thought. Over the course of the year I failed tremendously by receiving my very first unsatisfactory grade. Before I have never received anything lower than a “B”, so to see a “C” it was heartbreaking for me. I know most students would love to see a “C” on their report card, satisfied with the feeling of not failing. Every report card I kept getting that same feeling of disappointment of seeing that “C” on my report card.

I could only think of the worst and began to feel a bit sweaty. Either way I flipped over my paper and my heart sank, I was greeted by a big, red “F” that was circled on my test. Accompanying the “F” was 64% also in a red ink. “I don’t even want to to imagine how my parents are going to react to such a low grade!” At the end of the day I began to brace myself for the emotions of both my mother and father.

As I look back on my prepubescent years, I remember failing a difficult math test in the fourth grade. I was extremely disheartened. It was one of the hardest tests of the year, but I was determined to pass with flying colors. I had put my utmost effort into solving each of the problems, and I had even studied for days in advance.

I wanted to achieve this 3. I kept asking my teacher if it was possible. He said it was and that maybe I could even get a 5. I used this as more motivation. I worked even harder as the test date grew closer and closer. The day before the test, I reviewed everything I could. I walked into the test with some confidence because my teacher and my friends believed in me. However, after the test, I didn’t feel like I achieved the score I wanted to. I felt like I had let everyone down. That feeling lasted until I checked my scores in July. I woke up early to check my scores when I saw one of the biggest surprises of my life. I had not only achieved, but I exceeded my goal- I ended up getting a 5. All of the struggles and failure I went through led me to this moment. Everything was now worth it. This failure I experienced allowed me to accomplish something I never thought was possible. The struggle and failures I endured throughout AP World History were all worth it in the end. This situation made me realize that failure isn’t a bad thing. Failure doesn’t define me, but it does provide motivation for me to work harder and do my best to not put myself in that situation

After that moment, I no longer saw myself as an intelligent kid who was unable to fail, but one who was and could be challenged by failure and challenged to learn from my mistakes. After revising the essay, I received an “A+,” yet this was not what made me happy. The fact that I, the twelve-year-old boy who had previously rejected failure as a possibility, could accept failure (by my standards) and use it as

My grades have been better since then, the year after I passed all my classes. My mistake from sophomore year jolted my life greatly but I’ve learned from it. I believe the reason I did poorly was that I was overwhelmed, many argue that sophomore year is the hardest of all four years in high school, I’d say I can agree with that majority. Mistakes aren’t always all negative, if people didn’t make mistakes then they wouldn’t know what to do to better themselves; nobody is perfect and no one should be. We are taught about the mistakes made in history so that we can learn from them and ensure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that have already been made. The thing I learned from my failure is to have faith in yourself and believe that you will fix your mistakes. And don’t allow any negative influences to discourage you. Since then I’ve made an effort to start pushing myself to accomplish my goals for myself to do well to make myself proud because another thing I learned is that it’s not healthy to obsess over achieving your goals to please someone else who never seems to be pleased no matter how hard you

I failed AP English. I had missed the second quarter of the school year, almost completely, due to… technical difficulties. I got discharged from the hospital mid-February, and for the remainder of junior year, the majority of my waking thoughts revolved around passing 11th grade. With motivational speeches coming at me from my parents, friends, and teachers, I began to believe I had a chance of passing the year. I did my best, which apparently was not enough. My teacher had picked up on my tremendous amount of effort, and on the last day of school, bumped my grade up to a low D — just enough to pass. I was not exactly about to put my grade on display or anything, but I passed! Technically. This is not one of the underdog-who-succeeded stories. The real success for me was (look away, it’s cliché) realizing my best was enough. I sound disgusting.

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.

My earliest advice I wish to bestow on other students is never to let a low score discourage you. I recall, I sometimes felt disappointed as well as devasted after receiving a low grade. As a result, my performance in each of my classes began to decline; however, my outlook on his started to shift when I realized instead of being discouraged about each

It was the day when there was this big test and I didn’t study at all, it was for science and I had a feeling that I was going to get a bad grade. As I was looking at each of the questions I got more and more anxious because I wasn’t a fully sure if any of the questions I was answering were correct. That’s when I lost my hope or motivation. I tried my best answering each of the questions with the most detail I could. Then I crossed my fingers and tried to keep my hopes up. The test was on the computer so I checked it twice and turned it into google classroom. After two long days of waiting, the grades for the test were in. I checked it and as a result of not losing my hope, I got an A-. I knew that if I had hoped I will get through any challenge better than having no

In Sator Sanchez Elementary School I flunked 3rd grade and the event changed my life and how I see my education. The most vivid image was when I was in the gym crying after getting the news. First, I believed I learned that I was going to repeat the grade by reading the envelope they gave us, which had our last report cards in them. It didn’t hit me till I entered the gym, which also acted like a waiting area for the busses. On my way there I was thinking about what it would mean. That my childhood friend Melisa, my “cousin” Jerry and the few friends I had would proceed to the next grade while I get left behind, I ended up not seeing almost all of them ever again. While the prospect of not seeing the people I grew up with terrified me, the reason made my confidence took a great blow, I also thought that I was pretty stupid for flunking.

Similarly, in all of my summative assessments this year, I have never received a grade below meeting expectations. However, in the years past there have been a few occasions where I have been given a grade that I was not happy with. When that happened, I reflected on what I did wrong, participated in the re-assessments and was able to bring my grades up. I am now prepared to put in a lot more effort in the years to come as I know there are no re-assessments in high school. I acknowledge that the standards are much higher in high school and I am ready to work much harder to

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.

Growing up, achieving near perfect grades in school quickly became my utmost priority. I excelled in nearly every subject, particularly math, all throughout elementary, middle, and most of high school; however, this year, my senior year, I had experienced what I’ve always considered to be my absolute worst nightmare: receiving a low test grade in a math class.