Building a Future for Work Ethic by Zachary

Building a Future for Work Ethic by Zachary - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

If there was one thing that I could pass down to younger students, it would be to try to gain a great work ethic early on in high school or even middle school. Sadly, I have to speak from experience when I say this, but starting out early in school to gain motivation for school is one of the best things any student could do to better their future in education. Whether it be through not procrastinating on assignments, perfecting study habits, or pushing through the hard work, younger students should put their futures first with a better work ethic.
Once again, personal experience gives me the opportunity to advise younger students on not procrastinating. Throughout high school, one of my worst qualities was tending to procrastinate on assignments like homework or papers. Not only did this lead to stress on my part trying to get the assignment done the night before it was due, but it also led to worse effort and poor quality on the assignments I had to turn in the next day. Procrastination is one of the biggest problems many teens face throughout their time in high school, and it simply is just a form of being lazy. Students should at least try to not put work off until a later date, as it will save them time and stress throughout high school, and even on into college.
As a runner-up to my personal problem of procrastination in high school, bad study habits takes a close second. In elementary and middle school, I never really had the need to develop efficient and effective study habits to help my performance on tests and quizzes; however, once I got through the first two years of high school, I realized what a mistake it was not to have created a good baseline for studying. As my grades began to drop on some of my tests, quizzes, and classes in general, I understood that the problem was not my intelligence failing me, but rather my failing to study well for my examinations. I would recommend also taking the time out for multiple nights before the test or quiz to study for hour-long increments rather than to try to cram all of the necessary knowledge in the night before the test or quiz. This falls in sync with my advice on procrastination, and is just as important.
Finally, the last piece of advice that I have to offer younger students is to push through the hardest of the work. One of the hardest classes that I took in high school is Dual Enrollment Calculus. This class was the highest level of math they offered, and I was recommended for it, yet it was always hard on me throughout the school year. I realized very quickly that it was not going to be a lazy class for me, and that I was going to have to take the time and effort necessary to do well in Calculus. There were also several other classes similar to this during my senior year, and I made sure that I was going to get through all of the tough work and make it to college in the best state I could. I managed to pull through these classes, even though I got some less-than-desirable grades now and again, but was happy with how it all turned out for me.
I wish I had known any of the advice I just gave before I entered into high school, but luckily for me, I realized it before the end of my high school career. I was able to build on my educational work ethic and prepare myself for college by getting rid of my procrastination, building better study habits, and pushing myself to get through the tough work required to get through some tough classes. Overall, I would recommend any student hoping to do better in school to put their mind to whatever they hope to accomplish, and with it will come the work ethic necessary to get it done.