A Class That Actually Helped Me Study For Other Classes by Macie

A Class That Actually Helped Me Study For Other Classes by Macie - May 2016 Scholarship Essay

Nobody, especially myself wants to re-read notes that we have already wrote down and learned for a good part of the six-weeks term divided up through the school year. I have learned a method in my AVID class that makes studying for me a lot easier.
I joined the AVID program back in the eighth grade at my old middle school, Highland, and I didn’t think I wanted to really be in it, but all my friends said it was “cool” and “fun” which was everything back then. I didn’t feel like I had a worth in that class so when Cornell Notes were brought into term with us for an assignment that was weekly due, I didn’t put much effort into them. Even though only four were due every thursday, I wrote down the questions and summary the minute before they had to be turned in for a grade.
When I enrolled into ninth grade Avid 1, I still didn’t like the effort I had to put into making readable C-notes (Cornell Notes). I went through the next two years, leading into and finishing off Avid 2 as a sophomore and the amount of C-notes due kept adding up which I constantly dreaded until I became a junior and I listened to everyone coming out of this grade saying, “This is the most stressful school year I have ever had to live through”, “I’m so stressed out, I haven’t been able to sleep because I’m studying 24/7!” and I put school as my number one priority. I took C-notes so much, I never stressed out about missing even one. I took them as my teacher spoke 20 miles per hour and I wrote down questions along the side that I could ask out loud or after class was over to better understand the concept, and a summary at the bottom to mark what I just wrote about. The summary was easy to look back on, because it helped me find the material I was looking for easier, and it also summarized the important detail and facts that I was about to test on.
This method might not seem too big, because I’m not staying up all night, buried in textbooks or old tests, but this really helps me. I don’t enjoy staying up all night or spending my evenings trying to relearn everything I did three months ago so this is a huge advantage if you don’t have much time to spare after finishing homework or spending your spare time with your family, friends and team. Using this method turned the saying “This year was so hard to get through” to “I barely broke a sweat after studying for my AP tests and preparing my exams, because I planned my study sheet ahead of time.”