Its On You by Shereen

Its On You by Shereen - May 2015 Scholarship Essay

I was always good at math. In elementary school, I would get close to or advanced proficient on the state exams for math. At a young age, I was better in math than in English, making math my favorite subject. I was skilled in numbers, it was facile to me, I just love counting and arranging numbers; it just flowed in my head. When I got to high school though, things changed. When I had Algebra 1, it was a problem for me. I was not used to my teacher's method of instruction, so therefore I did not do well in her class. She would teach too fast for me to comprehend and if a student wanted to ask a question to the math problem, she would say there was no time or she would tell you to let her finish all the problems first. I wouldn't do well on quizzes or tests, but I still managed to pass with a B- with the help of my classmates. We would help each other out since she wasn't available for after school tutoring. We would call each other at night and try to understand the material. That was a hard year, but I manage to get my final grade not below a C.

Junior year, I was required to take Algebra 2. I did not have a good foundation of math from my previous algebra teacher, so I was honestly scared of not doing well that year. The material was surprisingly not hard at first; I was doing pretty decent. Then the next semester got ten times harder for me. I started not doing well on quizzes, She wouldn't give tests as that much, but I wouldn't do well on those either. She was like my freshman year teacher, would shoot through the problems and when you would ask her to explain the problem more, she would say, "What part did you not get? come after school." I would then go after school, but the teacher would not be understanding and argue that I should have understood already. So I tried what the previous year, discussing the problems with people in my class and even calling each other to help one another out. I continuously strived to do better, and in the end, I passed the class! My peers made me realized that sometimes it's on me. I just need to not just rely on the teacher for help, but me, myself, need to take the initiative to learn the material on my spare time.

This really opened my eyes, I had never realized how good of a teacher I am to myself! How much you decide to achieve is on you.