Putting in the Time by Kandyce

Putting in the Time by Kandyce - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

With a smile on my face I entered the halls of my high school for what seemed like the first time but actually was just the start of my sophomore year. As a freshman I took the classes that were required and breezed through the year. I knew that to increase my knowledge I needed to take classes that were going to challenge my thinking, so I signed up for a math class that would do just that.

Rumors of failing scores flew threw the halls and left me wondering if I had a good chance at even understanding what was going to be taught. The first class period gave me hope that the year wouldn't be so hard but boy was I wrong. We started learning crazy equations and suddenly I became lost. So everyday after school I would go to my teacher and receive help so that my perfect GPA didn't suffer any damage. Once I started understanding the basics I became more confident in what I was doing. When the end of the semester was approaching we all knew that we would have to take a giant final that would count toward 30% of our grade which meant tons of studying on my part. The teacher gave us one review and told us if we felt we needed any additional reviews they were posted on his web page. I for one knew that I needed to prepare myself so I printed every review out and practiced problem after problem so that I would ace the final test.

The night before the exam I was freaking out with thoughts of me failing and having to retake the class, but before bed I calmed myself down and knew that I had put in the work to do well on the test.

The day after the test I heard lots of people complaining about the grade they had gotten instantly I became nervous and didn't want to see what I had gotten. When I entered the teacher’s room and asked to see my results I started to shake. With my fingers crossed I looked down at the sheet and a 95% stood out on the paper. At the moment I couldn't believe that for once my hard work truly paid off. From then on I promised myself I would put in the effort to get the grade I wanted because in the end it would be worth it.