An Accidental Math Class by Megan

An Accidental Math Class by Megan - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

In my Junior year I was placed in AP Calculus BC: the hardest math class at our school containing twelve people. I was one of the twelve; but what set me apart was the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be there. I hadn’t taken Calculus AB or even Pre-Calculus but was still placed in this class which was full of soon-to-be engineers and mathematicians. There was no way to take another class but even if I could I saw this as a new challenge and decided to stay.

The class proved harder than initially thought. Everyone around me had the experience and knew all of the rules and equations while I was left scrambling to catch up. Every night I did hours of homework hoping to finally understand. I went in to class during lunch to get help. I got a tutor. Still every test I was not doing as I hoped.

Despite this, I kept doing everything I could to study with the hopes of passing the AP exam at the end of the year. I had pages of notes memorized and could do more math than ever before in my life. I was as ready for the exam as I was going to be, and I was proud of how far I had come. This was the hardest I had worked for a class in my life.

Once the exam results came, I did not meet the cutoff to pass the BC portion of the exam, but I did pass the AB portion! Furthermore, I was only a few points from passing the BC part. This was not my goal but I learned something better. I learned how to study, how to learn, how to work hard to do what you have to. On top of that, I had learned so much in just one year in a subject I was not the best at. I held my own against the mathletes.

While this class was not expected I am still happy I stuck with it and learned to persevere.