Reviving my Confidence by Brooke

Reviving my Confidence by Brooke - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

Throughout high school classes that I have taken have been challenging, but one class that was especially challenging to me was my Algebra 2 class. Both quarters I managed to get a B, but when the final grade came out I had a C. This grade is something that I am unfamiliar with and came to a shock to me. Grades in school are important to me because I want to get into college and continue my learning career. Receiving a good grade in the class, however, has a certain significance for me. This good grade causes me to feel accomplished and have confidence in myself.
In the class, receiving test grades back and other graded assignments were hard because I knew I was trying, but my effort didn’t seem to be good enough. My confidence went down significantly. I knew I had to do something to change my grades in the class, I had to work extra hard.
During the class, I worked very efficiently and tried my best on every assignment. By working and studying in class, I did not have enough time with the material. Therefore, I started to come to the teacher during the free period in the day, every day. She worked with me one on one or with other students. By doing this, I learned that it helped me understand the material better.
After going home from school each day, I set a certain amount of time to work on homework and understanding what this class was teaching. This helped me to get a better grade each quarter than I would have if I didn’t set this time specifically for math.
Something I learned from this harder course was how to work with myself and other people. I had to find what my learning style was so that I could learn efficiently and effectively. This is a very important aspect when trying to tackle a hard course. You need to know how your brain works and which ways of learning different material are easier for you. Sometimes the teacher would not be able to provide this type of learning environment for me, so I had to teach it to myself after school again. My teacher was a different type of teacher than any other teacher I have had before. This taught me how to work with different people and get along with other types of people, like my teacher.
Overall, my experience with this harder course has taught me how to deal with a challenging class, how to work with myself and my different learning style, and how to work well with different people. These skills are skills that I will have throughout the rest of my school and working careers. My confidence in myself has also been gained back and I know that whether it is a hard course, task, or job for me, I can find a way to do it expeditiously and accurately.