Struggle And Failure In Algebra

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.

During my time at Union County College I have been faced with a lot of difficulties. I’ve struggled along the way but one thing I do believe is that I have the power to do better. My GPA has been affected by my personal mistakes. In my past semesters I have let my job take over my life rather than let school be most important. I have also let my personal family problems affect my work ethic. But through my fall 2014, it was most difficult because of March 2014 I lost my father through an unexpected heart attack. Throughout my fall semester I did struggle and cope with my father not being here anymore. I believed that I wasn’t focused enough because I used fall semester as a time to occupy myself rather that time out to deal with my father’s

A time that I experienced failure was when i failed my Algebra II class for first semester. My biggest error was that I didn’t retake my quizzes that i failed when i had the chance too. The first 3 months i didnt really tried, I would tell myself that I had a lot of time for the semester to end. However, i regretted it when i found out that i only had a few weeks for the semester to end. I stressed out the last weeks, I couldn’t go to sleep in the night. I would keep thinking of my grade and how i was going to fail the class. I knew that colleges were gonna see my grades for this year, my junior year. I really want to go to college, I want to make my parents proud. The last weeks, i did everything that i could. I did all the missing homework, and I tried to

One of the unusual circumstances which have affected my personal achievement in school was during my freshman year. During my first year of high school, I missed the first two and half weeks of school and my grades were greatly affected. I started out with really low grades, but I worked my way up to receiving five A’s, one B, and one C. I was still very disappointed in myself because I ended up receiving a C in math. I didn’t really get the chance to go get help after school because I didn’t have a ride after school. Before school the teacher wasn’t available. That was the only time during high school when I received such a low grade and I wish I could have the chance to fix this.

Major changes in my life have affected my high school career, but a large impact came from the death of my father in eighth grade. Before his passing, I was an average A/B student in middle school and even elementary school, which quickly changed in 8th grade when my classes became too hard for me to handle. I decided the best thing for my mental health was to drop out of my higher level classes. This lead to being in standard classes throughout my first year of high school with minimal effort from my part. After constantly missing school, I failed my second quarter. Instead of bouncing back from this, it pushed me down, making me believe I would never be able to recover. Without any motivation, I ended my ninth grade year with a grade point average of 1.4.

After all, math was one of my best subjects. I had never really had an experience where I just couldn't understand the concept of a math problem, of how it was solved and why. Our teachers has warned us back in elementary school, that one day we would hit an invisible wall and not ease through classes. That one day we would struggle with understanding a problem, a concept or even a subject. I had never believed them, thinking this would never happen to me, that I could somehow avoid this wall of confusion and just walk right through. But there I was, utterly confused and frustrated at a simple problem that everyone else could solve. Why was I not seeing it? Why couldn't I understand the solution? I asked myself. For the first time in my life I really struggled to get an A in a class. I had my sister tutor me almost every day, preparing for a quiz and then the next, and the next. I came in to my teacher for lunch and he helped me step by step. I studied for tests, and worked hard. And my work payed off. I got a high A in the course, and a lot of experience from it. It taught me how to work hard for something, to earn a good grade when you deserve it, and it gave me the skills I needed to get As in the high school classes I am taking this

I admit, I had a very challenging time last semester, and as a result my grades suffered. I don’t mean to make excuses for my poor performance in school but I would like to explain my circumstance. During my second semester of college I treated my classes like I did in high school thinking I could coast by and pass my classes, but when I noticed how poorly I was doing in class everything was already headed downhill. I started the second

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 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.

Last year, I took AP Calculus BC, and it was one of the most difficult subjects I’ve ever taken. In the past, I never had to work so hard to understand math. I never really had to do homework in my math classes, because math was second nature, and I thought that Calculus would be the same. I was extremely wrong. I was positive I aced that first test, but it was a near fail. I was devastated; sure, I’ve bombed tests before, but never in math, and I considered dropping the class. I kept putting off going to see my counselor, and finally, after a couple more failed tests, my teacher pulled me aside and asked me what was going on. I told him that I wasn’t getting the materials, that I was floundering in all of information, and that I was

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.

When I was younger, I was in love with the thought of school. I thought it was fascinating how teachers dedicate their time and effort to bettering kids' future. But of course, when I was younger, I didn’t know the definition of those words. I had attended a school in the Dayton Public system. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a different school. Once I got to this new school I realize I was severely behind all the other students. All the stress of trying to catch up got into my head. At this point everyone in my class and grade had mastered the art of multiplying. So, one day I came home and could not focus on my homework because it was too difficult. I had asked my dad for help on the multiplication

My Freshmen year I was not used to waking up at 5:30 in the morning and taking care of my sister, her dog, and my cat. By time I got to algebra which was second period I was tired and sleep everyday. Mrs. Hempy who was my teacher tried to keep me up but it was no help. I almost failed algebra and that hurt me throughout all of my high school career. My sophomore year I started to take AP courses. My teacher Mrs. Hershey said that it is important to read the book and take notes. I had no intentions to read that book or take the notes and my grade showed that. It always hovered around a sixty and seventy, my directors were furious because I wasn't reliable because of my grade’s, and Each grading period I needed an academic waiver just to take part in marching band or choir. Each year I would tell myself that I'm going to do better this year, but I knew that was a lie as soon as I said it. My junior year

I grew up in an emotionally torn-apart family. Over the years, I depended greatly on my mom to get me to and from school on time, as well as to support me throughout each and every challenge that I would come to encounter. However in this situation, she could no longer be there for me. Since the day of her passing, my life as well as my education have been put at a disadvantage. Towards the end of my Sophomore year, I missed a lot of school due to the loss of my mother. With it being so hard to bear, I decided to go on independent study for a few weeks to spend some time away from school. After returning to school it was a bit difficult for me to maintain my good grades, because I was still struggling with the thought of losing my mom. I earned

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