The Math Class that Haunts Me by Gwen

The Math Class that Haunts Me by Gwen - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

Junior year can easily be the toughest year of high school for most students. With the SAT's around the corner, early senioritis kicking in, and starting to look at the future more seriously, many people crumble under the pressure. This is how junior year was for me. On top of my extensive list of high school stressors, I was also taking some of my hardest classes so far. Included in these classes was an honors algebra two trig class.
School came fairly easy for me. I never had a problem with taking tests or remembering what was taught. I wasn't the student who had to go home and study for hours to finally understand what we were supposed to know and I took that for granted. It wasn't until my algebra two math class that I came to understand that not everything comes so easy to me.
I struggled daily trying to remember which equation goes with which problem set. Sin, cos, and tan still haunt me in my sleep. Again, I was never one that had to study at home so it never crossed my mind that maybe it is something I should start doing. Getting my tests back and not seeing near perfect scores frustrated me to no end and it wasn't something I was used to. After the first few tests went by and getting back multiple below average scores, I realized it was time to switch things up.
I did not want to end my year with my first bad grade in a math class so I decided to do something about it. First I reached out to friends, asking them to explain concepts in order for me to fully understand what was happening. Even just doing this helped immensely. I didn't stop with asking friends, I went to my teacher after hours as well. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher that honestly cared about my success and he was happy to help check my work and correct mistakes. I even got extra time to take important tests so I wouldn't get stressed out and rush through problems.
Between getting help from friends and teachers, I immediately saw results. Seeing that I was improving in class with extra help made me strive to be better. I worked even harder on my class work to get my grade up. Junior year was different for me in being it was the first year I had to put serious effort into my grades. It may have been harder but I am glad for the experience now because it taught me that not everything is handed to you and it is important to work for the things you want. This is a lesson I have carried with me, and will continue to carry with me in my future.