I Can Accomplish Anything by Alexandria

I Can Accomplish Anything by Alexandria - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

This past year, I was an eager freshman at Indiana University Bloomington with the world ahead of me. I had the “I can accomplish anything” mentality, so I decided to take a 300 level statistics course my first semester. It was obvious that I was the only underclassman in my class. I attended every class and went to a couple office hour sessions a month. Though homework was not collected nor graded, I still completed every assignment to better prepare myself. Our grades consisted of 4 exams: 3 course exams and a final. I was nervous about the grade calculation, but I believed in myself. Math was always the easiest subject to me during high school.
I earned a 94% on the first exam and was ecstatic. I continued my studying habits and attending regular office hours, but I earned a 73% on the second exam. I left the class in tears after receiving my blue book with my grade on it. How could I have received such a bad grade if I continued to practice the same routine as before? I went to office hours the next day to talk to my professor about this exam. Though the mistaken were purely simple errors, I still felt defeated. That was a turning point for how I studied in college; I studied twice as long as I had before, and three times harder. I set aside at least an hour every day for this course, regardless to how tired I was or how much homework I had. I knew that the last two exams of the semester had to be A’s to balance out the C- that I earned on the second exam. My work was cut out for me. I began doing problems that were not assigned simply to get more practice in. I wrote down all of my questions I had during the lecture and brought them up during office hours. On the third exam, I received an 85% and was discouraged. Though a B is not a “bad” grade, I had set a higher standard for myself. I took it with a grain of salt, patted myself on the back, and increased the amount of time that I dedicated to the course even more. On the weekends, I dedicated at least 9 hours. I began to feel consumed by stress and pressure. An A was the goal for the course and I felt that anything less than that would be a dishonor for me. I earned a 97% on the final, but my overall grade only averaged to an 87%. I was devastated by the B+, I felt I earned a higher grade, but I learned lessons more valuable than a letter. I learned how to study for higher-level college classes and how to apply myself. I checked my email a couple days later and to my surprise, my professor wrote me to tell me that he bumped by grade to an A for all of the outside effort and work I put in!