Making the Grade by Cole

Making the Grade by Cole - May 2016 Scholarship Essay

Early years in school taught me that exposure to several different topics through visualization, physically handling or tasting items and hearing stories allowed me to expand my knowledge of very broad topics and was an important part of that early learning.

Entering middle school, the focus for learning seemed to be driven by repetition and also memorization. I found that during this time the memorization was more short term and allowed me to pass the exams but not necessarily understand all of the concepts.

In High School, I have used both techniques of learning described above in a hybrid approach that has allowed me to excel in my courses and being prepared for final exams. I start early in the classes to understand which learning approach will be required in order to achieve my goals for the topic. If it is an area such as math or programming then I focus on performing problem solving through repetition through various problem scenarios until I understand how to get to consistently correct answers. In classes such as Art, I try to get exposure to many different mediums working with each and also watching videos on techniques used by other artists to expand my knowledge and depth of the subject.

Through the use of these techniques, I have found that the final exams are much less stressful and I am not spending my time cramming and memorizing for the exam. I have used the time during the courses to understand the information and this has meant that I have learned versus taking a test to only pass on not retaining the information. Before an exam, I spend time reviewing notes from the classes and any quizzes and I have found that this has been sufficient to not only make the grade a passing one but an A!