Fun with Flashcards by Yaerin
Yaerinof Alhambra's entry into Varsity Tutor's May 2016 scholarship contest
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Fun with Flashcards by Yaerin - May 2016 Scholarship Essay
Every high school student knows what it means to approach the end of the school year. They look upon their last month of the school year, every year, with not happiness but with dread. This is because they are faced with the inevitable: finals.
As a current senior in high school, I've dealt with three consecutive years of finals, with my last one approaching with rapid speed. While tumbling throughout my high school years, I realized what method of studying seemed to allow me to achieve the best scores. Flashcards.
As I struggled with AP exam reviews during the last month, I found that I had less and less time to actually study for the exam on my own. Before I knew it, I only had two days before I had to take my first AP exam and I realized my crushing reality a little too late--my only choice was to cram for the exam.
However, I knew how pointless it would be to skim through my disturbingly thick textbooks and after attempting to take online practice tests for AP Calculus BC and AP United States Government, I realized that I had retained very little knowledge of the subjects as the months went by. I found that I had to search up definitions and formulas for every other question I answered on the practice tests while studying and, in the end, I felt extremely stressed out and frustrated by my method of studying. When I was ready to give up on studying, however, a light bulb switched on inside of my head and I thought, "what if I made flashcards?"
Vocabulary is a key element in any exam or test. A student must be able to understand the material at hand, whether it be a word or phrase or math formula and flashcards are fast paced learning tools that can allow a student to achieve just that. Flashcards can easily facilitate repetition and help to improve memory performance. This quick yet simple method allowed me to achieve good grades on my finals, as well as AP exams, throughout my years in high school. Don't belittle the power of flashcards!
