Race to the Right Answer by Ashley

Race to the Right Answer by Ashley - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

As a freshman in college it was suggested to me that I join a study group filled with people of the same major as myself. This would allow the group an opportunity to study for several classes with the same people. At first I was hesitant to join in the group. I knew my strengths, weaknesses, and study habits. I believed my weaknesses could be overcome by tutoring services.

Tutoring services are great; I would never suggest to a fellow student to opt out of tutoring. However, I quickly learned that the study group of fellow engineering students would be a perfect addition to my personal study hours. While some of my struggles were overcome through sitting an additional couple hours in a classroom with a tutor outside of the school system, there was something in the study group a tutor couldn’t replace.

Studying in a group was exceptionally fun without being disruptive to my end goal. In my personal study group we would work together solving problems. For example, if I had started to struggle on a multi-step calculus problem one of my group members would assist as minimally as possible so that I would still be able to really work for the answer. Once the entire group could make it through a multi-step problem without struggles, we began making up problems for one another.

After these problems could be solved relatively easily, we started to race each other with new problems. The requirements were that all steps had to be shown as well having the correct answer. There was no real prize but bragging rights for the day.

This allowed us to not only learn, but learn in a fun environment. Silly competitions between friends always resulted in us having great grades. The few times we didn’t get together to study, it showed. If there is any piece of advice I could give to a fellow student, it is to find a group of people within your major that are taking several of the same classes. Not only can you compete with each other for fun, you can quickly switch between subjects instead of waiting for a new tutoring session.