My Calculus Nightmare by Ysabelle

My Calculus Nightmare by Ysabelle - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

During the spring semester of my junior year of high school, I took three college classes - Child Development, Public Speaking, and Calculus I. I expected the semester to go smoothly having one of the three classes be online and knowing that I don’t struggle much with math. The first week of that Calculus was not difficult at all, especially since it was mostly a review from Precalculus. As soon as the first exam rolled around, I was confident about doing well, but not as confident as I usually am when I have math exams. When I received the test back, I earned the minimum grade that I wanted, but I still was not satisfied with it.
As the semester went on, the lectures quickly began to become more and more dense, and the material started to get more and more unfamiliar. I started to worry more about my grade each week, since I was on standing to be one of the valedictorians of my class. If I didn’t receive an A in the class, it would wreak havoc in my world. Each quiz and test was very stressful, knowing that I either understood the concepts perfectly or I didn’t have a clue of what was going on in class.
By the time of the final, my overall grade as just below an A, so this was my last chance to get my solid B up. I’ve never been through such a stressful time - my whole life, I’ve aspired to have straight A’s throughout high school. In order to pass the class with an A, I decided to start studying for the final a few days before. Everyday I would look over my notes from part of each chapter leading up to the exam, but the night before it, my best friend came over so we could study together. We ended up studying until 4:30 a.m., and my best friend had no choice but to sleep over. After a three-hour nap, we got up again at 7 a.m. to cram in some last minute studying before leaving for class at 9.
During the final, there were several problems that I was uncertain about, but I just had to keep going. After an hour and a half of testing, I was so happy knowing I was finally free from Calculus and that I never had to walk back into that classroom ever again.
Two weeks after that, I finally received the results. My overall grade stood at an 89.7%, but it was rounded up to a 90%. That sleepless night was totally worth it.