Live and Learn by Rachel

Live and Learn by Rachel - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

My New Year’s resolution to be a better student in 2016 is to not procrastinate. Now I know what you’re thinking that everyone says that so why would you possible believe I will not procrastinate? Over the past three years, I’ve learned a lot about myself, my study habits, and self-motivation.
Transitioning from high school to college was a big adjustment. Studying the night before an exam definitely didn’t cut it anymore, and balancing five intensive classes along with making friends was not easy. I quickly learned I needed to study more than the night before, and social plans could wait. Although this was helping, my grades still weren’t where I was hoping they would be.
Then, I started to examine my study habits. Reading and re-reading my professor’s notes was not at all helpful. In science heavy classes, I found it most beneficial to do as many practice problems as I could, along with making sure I understood the notes, not just the ability to regurgitate the word’s written on the paper.
As the semester’s went on, I always had intentions of starting out well, and then it seems that everything culminates at once and I’m stuck trying to juggle all of my classes. This past semester, I was taking some really important classes that were applicable to my future career. I really wanted to do well in them, so after acing my first exam, I was over confident on the next exam. Of course, I did rather poorly and was pretty upset about it. To make up for it, I studied in the library for 12 hours straight two days in a row for the final. After doing that, I vowed I would never do that for a test ever again. I ended up doing well on the final, however, studying for that amount of time straight was definitely not a good way to help me retain the information.
As I’m writing this, I just finished my first three days of classes in 2016, and I am already motivated to not procrastinate or pull an all-nighter at all this semester. As it turns out, I have some pretty tough classes, and it appears I always have multiple tests in one week a few times this semester. My goal is to study a little each day by going over what I learned in class right after class. That way, if I’m confused on anything it’s fresh in my brain to ask for help. I have already written out to do lists for each day of the week that I hope to get done. After miraculously doing well in all of my classes this past semester, I truly have the motivation to do well again… getting good grades is actually quite addicting!