New Year, New Me by Teresia

New Year, New Me by Teresia - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Teresia Muturi
Describe one New Year's resolution that will help you become a better student in 2016.
The attitude most people enter the new year with is; they will do something this year that is unlike anything they have done before. This includes quitting a bad habit, taking on a challenge, and not limited to trying something new. Any of these choices or resolutions are chosen in an attempt at bettering oneself. What I personally want to attempt to improve myself in the area of education is taking better notes.
The art of being able to write down important ideas that are spoken by the professor and at a later date interpreting them has become something which I have not yet mastered. This has led to hardship in the area of understanding concepts in my homework. Since these concepts are the foundation of the class, as a result, I have found myself sitting in the class just wondering what the teacher is illustrating on the board, and what language he or she is speaking.
Failure in taking adequate notes has not only affected my learning in the classroom, but consequently my performance on exams. For example in Chemistry 150, I would look down at the test in front of me and try to conjure up any small amount of information retained in order to formulate an answer. I would leave the room feeling highly unsatisfactory with my performance and hoping that I did not fail. In college, a time where your grades determine the quality of life you will live as an adult, I realized I could not afford to “slide by”.
As an attempt to improve in this area, I have made a New Year’s resolution to take notes of a higher quality than before. Steps that have already been placed are: making sure I have no 8 a.m. classes, or night classes, this will prevent falling asleep in class. The other initiative I have planned on taking is reading the material before class, and taking notes so that I can have an understanding of what topics the teacher will speak about. The last step is to cross-reference with friend’s notes if I feel my notes were insufficient and ask them to explain the notes to me. This will help me to get a richer set of notes, and not only that but an understanding of the notes.
In conclusion, this year I will do something that I have never done before, not skydiving, nor is it traveling to Italy, but becoming a more improved student in regard to proper note taking.