Physics: academically challenging or spirit crushing? by Madison

Physics: academically challenging or spirit crushing? by Madison - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

Throughout high school, I have always been a straight A, honor roll student so when I started Junior year, I expected nothing less. However, for the entirety of my Junior year, I could not make honor roll because I had not been earning an A or even a B in my Honors Physics class. I could not fathom how I could ace classwork and homework but completely bomb the tests. No matter how hard I studied or how many times I talked to my teacher I still could barely manage a C+ on a test.
I am an overachiever by nature, so this grade was eating me alive, but I didn't know how to fix it. Towards the middle of my first semester and after more low test scores I finally took my concern to my school, which is very small and the students regularly interact with teachers about grades and classes. My principal, however, had me meet with my academic counselor, who told me to see my teacher more often after school. I had been doing this and continued to do so, but there was no change in my scores no matter how hard I studied. At the end of that first semester, my academic counselor pulled me into his office and told me that I had lost my academic scholarship to my high school because I failed to make honor roll for two consecutive quarters. You can imagine how distressed I was because this one class had lead to me losing my scholarship, even when I was trying so hard to get better grades.
I went to my principal again, this time a lot more upset, and complained that i lost my scholarship because of one class and after i had asked for help and expressed my concerns to the administration and my teacher. My principal responded and proceeded to set up study sessions before school with my teacher, herself, and I to break down the lessons. After a few of these, my test scores started to improve slowly. However, it wasn't until the final exam that I had finally managed to score an A, as ironic as that sounds. This predicament was one of my biggest academic struggles that I had to overcome, but the end result has proven to me that I can achieve whatever I set my mind too and even though the reward was small, it shows my dedication and effort to succeed.