Passing P Chem by Karla

Karlaof Austin's entry into Varsity Tutor's June 2016 scholarship contest

  • Rank:
  • 0 Votes
Karla of Austin, TX
Vote for my essay with a tweet!
Embed

Passing P Chem by Karla - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

Physical Chemistry. We called it P Chem. Just hearing the name of that dreaded course causes me to quiver and quake with anxiety. There I was, in a class of one hundred or so chemistry, physics and engineering students, awaiting the start of another difficult pre-requisite, a known “weed-out course,” a class intended to cut the wheat from the chaff, the weak from the strong, the future scientists and engineers from the future “other” majors. Those who had gone before us had described this physical chemistry course as being somewhere between “very tough” and “impossible,” it all depended on one thing—the professor. And we were stuck with an unknown quantity.
The door to the classroom opened slowly, tentatively. A hush fell over the group. I looked around at my fellow students, motionless, eyes peeled at the door. He entered. He was a small man, our new professor, the master of our collective fate. By small, I mean small in stature, for his girth was something to admire and astound. The man was round, rotund, with a bald head perched atop a torso shaped like a beach ball, a belly that strained the buttons of his crimson vest to their utmost. I wanted to grin. I dared not.
He mounted a step placed behind the podium, a much-needed step, and began to speak. His voice was odd, high-pitched, and his accent was not American, yet his native language was English. He was a New Zealander. We knew that from his biography, tacked up in the hall in the science department. I had never met a New Zealander. And I had never heard one.
Our new professor jumped right into the topic, I presume, because he began pointing excitedly at charts, waving his hands and spoke on, in that funny language which I knew was English, but could not make out. The professor stepped down and heaved a heavy tome from his worn, leather briefcase and plopped it with a thud on the podium. We looked down at the matching book in front of us, and there was a collective sigh, a grown, a shaking of heads. We were doomed!
The life of a chemical engineering student is studded with obstacles, filled with pitfalls. This new challenge—a professor who I could barely see over the podium and who I could not understand when he spoke, teaching the most difficult subject I had taken so far--seemed almost too much to handle. Was there a solution?
The syllabus which the little man had just passed around, brought my salvation. Half the grade, a full 50% of the exams, was to be on outside readings! I looked up at the scribblings on the board. They were impossible to comprehend. I listened as the drone of the New Zealand accent washed over me, and yet, I knew there was hope.
If you are an engineering student you know, while and A or a B is highly sought after, the humble C, is enough to do the trick! If I could squeak by on the outside readings, that passing grade would be possible. As soon as class was over, I looked up the assignments. Although there was a lot to read, they were straight-forward readings on materials.
Instead of giving up on what seemed like an impossible situation, I put all effort into the outside readings. I attended lectures, in the hope of gleaning enough information to pass the lecture portion of the exam, and then applied all my energy to ace the part based on outside readings. It worked—and I learned that even the most daunting situations often have a way out. If you look at ways to overcome challenges, and are willing to work hard, you can get to your goal. Now I have a degree in chemical engineering, and best of all, there are no more physical chemistry courses for me--I am working on a master’s of liberal arts!

Votes