My First 'C' by Sarah

My First 'C' by Sarah - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

Well, believe it or not, one of my greatest academic achievements occurred last semester when I earned my first 'C' letter grade. Throughout my high school and college career, I've been a stellar student, with mostly A's and a few B's here and there. I was accustomed to doing well. I was always one of the students stressing about making an A on the test, as opposed to the students stressing about just passing the test. All of this was true, until the day I enrolled in genetics 2450.

I am a biology major so I was accustomed to a wide variety of science and math classes, which I'll admit were always challenging, but I always managed to do well. It wasn't that the actual material of this genetics class was foreign or difficult, but the extent to which the professor delivered it was the challenge. He was a big advocate of self exploration, and that meant self taught. The tests were over seven chapters roughly, and each question would be pulled from the practice questions in the back of each chapter. This sounds like it might be relatively easy until you flip to the end of the chapter and there are 100 practice questions at best. There was no other form of guidance he would lend us; he just threw the book at us, and told us to get studying.

So there I was frantically tapping my foot and biting my fingernails, waiting for the first test to be passed out. "Don't worry" I hear my professor say, "You've seen every question on this test." Of course, he was referring to the 700 questions of which he chose 20 to be on the test. Now I should tell you that in order to pass this class and move on to the other upper level courses after it, I needed a 'C' which meant a 70 or higher as my overall course grade. We finally got the first test back and I landed a 65. I tried not to panic, and reassured myself that I could do better on future tests. I studied even harder for test two and did worse. This pattern continued for tests three and four, and I couldn't manage to lift myself out of that 50 to 70 range. At this point I began to panic, because I knew I couldn't continue to take the other classes I needed if I didn't pass this one, which would throw off my entire graduation plan. Not to mention, to retake that class it would have cost about 1,500 dollars that I didn't have.

My last hope for passing the class was the final that we would take at the end of the semester, because it was worth a large percentage of your course grade, and it would also replace your lowest test grade. The final was to be comprehensive and cover the span of the entire book. The pressure was on. I studied for several weeks like a mad scientist in her lab. I couldn't stop, because I knew if I didn't pass this class there would be no one to blame but myself.

As you've probably guessed by the title of this essay, I passed the class with the 'C' that I needed. In any other situation I'm positive I would have been dissatisfied with a grade like that, but not this time. I was absolutely ecstatic to see that 'C' on my transcript. I've never had to work so hard to pass a class, and that is the reason I chose this instance as one of my greatest academic achievements. For awhile during that semester I began to doubt the academic abilities I was sure I possessed. After passing that class, I was sure I could handle anything that came my way. I gained confidence in my abilities. I now know that even when things become truly challenging, I can overcome.