Resolutions by Sydney

Resolutions by Sydney - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

A major part of every high school student’s career is the need to study. The problem for most students, including myself, is finding the time to study for all of their classes and more noticeably is finding the drive to actually crack open up a text book. As a New Year resolution, actually studying (not only the night before an exam) will help me not only achieve better grades and prepare me better for life after high school.

As a fairly well rounded high school student I feel as though I have done a lot to prepare myself for the next chapter in my life; college. This next step in my life comes with some rather drastic changes including a need to change from my “scarf and barf” study method. This is studying the night before an exam and soon after forgetting all of the material because it is no longer needed. Although this rather distasteful method has gotten me above average grades for the last four years of school it is coming into view as unnecessary. As I accept my acceptance to the University of Nevada, Reno with a potential major of nursing I see that this method will no longer work for me, because I no longer will be able to forget the information for this career. This allowed me to create a resolution of creating new study methods that will help me store new information for as long as I need.

This resolution will need to begin in my final semester of high school as to set in new habits to replace the old. It began over my winter break where I designed new study methods that I will test in my second semester of school. It begins with a basic understanding of concepts and vocabulary for each section of learning, all added onto the old sections of curriculum so as to ensure I do not forget old sections. These will will help to move to a working understanding of the vocabulary by using these words in sentences that fit with the major concepts of the curriculum. Playing games with these words on websites like Quizlet help to teach word meanings and see how well you know their definitions. This will be a good tool to helping me learn. Flashcard websites also allow for added changed to definitions easily and the ability to add onto definitions as you further understand the word.

This basic study plan allows me to further memorize concepts that will help me in the future. This resolution makes me a better student not only because I believe it will help me achieve higher grades, but it will also better help me prepare myself for not only college, but a career. The ultimate goal of a student is not to get good grades but to create a life and a career and my resolution of better study tactics will help me achieve this goal and create the life that every hard working student deserves.