3 Little Mistakes by Jessie

3 Little Mistakes by Jessie - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

At my school, things were a little bit different than you’d expect when it came to grading. You would think that tests would be the biggest factor contributing towards your grade, and homework would be less significant, but at Bella Vista, it was reversed. Homework and quizzes added up to be 70% of our final grade, with Tests and Projects being 30%. I’m the type of student that ALWAYS does their homework, and if I didn't, there was a pretty good reason for it. I also happened to usually test very well. These two facts meant that I was a pretty good student in terms of my grades: A’s and B’s all through high school.

I had my strengths and weaknesses, and unfortunately, math was a tad bit of a weakness for me. I’d never gotten lower than a B in math, ever, and in high school, I worked very, very hard, and never got anything under an A in any math class. I almost always did my homework, which got me really far in terms of my grade, but I didn't test very well. I usually got low B’s or high C’s on all of my math tests once I got to algebra 2. As a Junior in Algebra 2, I was a little embarrassed. I went through tutors, online help, and stayed after class to ask my teacher’s help when I needed it. I was not going to let my grade slip, and I was successful: my first semester in Algebra 2, I received an A! I knew how hard I worked, and how surprisingly easy it had turned out to be.

After winter break, I came back to school geared up for 5 more months of Algebra. The material wasn't that much harder, but early on in the semester, I missed one homework assignment, and suddenly my grade was down to a B+. I worked harder, trying to boost that grade above a 90%. Slowly the rest of my schedule got busier and I let a couple more homework assignments slide. It wasn't a big deal, it was a B+, I could get it back up that 3% in no time. But the last month of school came around, and it was almost judgment day. I HAD to get my grade up.

I prioritized my algebra work, never missing another assignment, and studying for all of the tests. I kept getting good scores, but my grade was not going up. Finals day rolled around, and I took my exam. I surprised myself with a good score on the test, and on the last day of school, I asked my teacher about my final grade. She told me that it was a B+. “What percentage?” I exclaimed to her frantically. 89.9%. I was 0.1% away from an A. On the last day of school. I begged and pleaded with her; I would do anything for that .1%, even the biggest math project she could find for me, I swore I would do it right then and there. She pulled out my record from the semester, and we added up all of my points. That 0.1% was equivalent to 15 points. I asked her where I had lost those points, and she looks over to my homework score. Over the course of 5 months of daily homework assignments, I hadn't completed 3. Each assignment was worth 5 points. Since I had made it all the way to algebra 2, I could compute that math pretty easily. 15 points were lost. Those exact points were the 3 homework assignments that I had let slide. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I begged her one more time: “Anything. I’ll do anything. It’s just 0.1%” she looked at me sadly, and said she couldn't make any exceptions, no matter how badly she wanted to. She told me that I would learn a valuable lesson from her being hard on me. I walked out of that classroom in tears. I was fuming with rage at her, and underneath that, at myself. I had let 3 measly homework assignments ruin my straight A’s for the year. This one class threw off my perfect streak. Those 3 little assignments.

It took me a very long time to be able to accept my mistake, my failure. Most people would say that a B+ is by no means a failure, but it was to me. I had let myself down. I was devastated and angry beyond compare, and I had no one to blame but myself.

My transcript mocked me with my failure, there permanently for every college to see. It was emblazoned in my memory. My school may have been a little backwards in their grading policies to weigh homework so heavily, but now I will always know how important it is to complete every single assignment. It may be tedious, it may be hard to squeeze it into your schedule, but those scores matter. Maybe that B was the difference between me getting into UC Berkeley and a state school (I didn't get into Berkeley). Never again will I let one homework assignment ‘slide’. It’s more important than that. As brutal as it was, the lesson I learned from this teacher will be carried with me for the rest of my academic career and the rest of my life.