Unlike many people, I actually enjoy math and don’t mind doing the homework. I was always very good at math and always understood it better than most of my classmates. I also had never tested high enough to be in the honors program. For example, in the summer between 7th and 8th grade, I took a test and got 89th percentile. I needed to get 90th percentile to be accepted into the honors program in school. In my 8th grade math class, which was Intro To Algebra, I got a 98%. My teacher noticed that I had excelled and he brought up a test that I can take to be accepted into the Algebra 1 with Geometry course, which wasn’t the honors course in high school, but it would put me on the same path as the honors students for the next few years. I took the test, and I had gotten accepted to take the class. Obviously, I took the class and actually really enjoyed it. I liked my teacher, my classmates, and even the homework was pleasant. After the first semester, I had received a 95% and obviously understood the topics. I really enjoyed doing math and I still had a love for it. During the second semester, I also received a 95%. I really enjoyed doing math and I wanted and needed a challenge so I talked to my Alg/Geo teacher about taking Honors Algebra 2. Honors Algebra 2 had a reputation of being one of the hardest math classes in the school, which made it even more intriguing for me to take. My math teacher said that I can definitely do it, but I should know it’s a lot of work and it is much harder than Alg/Geo. I talked to my parents and we came to the decision to take the class and challenge myself.
I remember the first day of sophomore year, I was excited, but at the same time nervous about my Honors Algebra 2 class. When I first walked in, I was quiet and shy because I didn’t know any of the kids in my class, and knowing that there were freshman in my class, made me feel bad about myself because they were a year younger than me doing the same math as me. A few weeks into the class, we started reviewing and getting ready to start new lessons. Our teacher had given us problems and homework to work on and get us back in the school groove. When I went into class the next few mornings, I had gotten all of the problems wrong and didn’t understand any of it. I thought to myself, “Maybe no one understands it and it’s just because we’re in the beginning of school, coming off of a long summer.” Well, everyone else understood it and was doing really well on the worksheets and homework.
I will never forget the time when I came home with a lot of homework, not including about 2 hours of math homework and I was upset, and not motivated at all. I remember sitting at my kitchen table and doing my homework while sitting there and talking and yelling at my mom saying that I wanted to drop out of Honors Algebra 2. She kept saying that I’m not dropping it and that I can do it. I kept refusing that she was wrong. She also brought up that I never study so I shouldn’t expect to do well. By the end of the discussion I remember both of us being very mad and frustrated with each other and she offered to get me a tutor. I did’t want a tutor, especially because I would’ve felt like a failure.
Towards the end of the semester, I still decided not to study and change that much. During the time of finals, I had a C- and I knew it wasn’t gonna change after the final, especially because I didn’t study at all for it. I ended up getting a 53% on my final and finished the semester with a D+. Luckily, my teacher rounded my grade up to a C- because I had a borderline D+/C-. I will never forget the horrible feeling of seeing a C- on my transcript and it made me feel even worse knowing that it should’ve really been a D+. I knew something needed to change so I decided to change my mentality.
Next semester I decided that I have to study before every test no matter how much I didn’t feel like it or didn’t want to do it. Before the first test, I had a hockey practice that ended at around 7. I started studying at around 7:30 P.M. and I finished at about 11:30 P.M. I was beyond exhausted, but it was totally worth it because I completely understood the topic and I felt really good going into the test. During the test, I was flying through it. I thought it was so easy and I was one of the first ones to finish. After class, people were talking about how hard the test was, but I felt the complete opposite. Nothing felt better than knowing that I did really well on a test and I worked really hard for it. I ended up getting a 93% on the test and other kids in my class had failed. The hours that I spent on studying was all worth it after I saw my grade and motivated me to do this for every test that I take.
Throughout the whole semester, I had studied for an average of five hours for each test and I was getting much better grades than the first semester. Working hard and staying up late and studying didn’t feel good, trust me, but when I saw the end result it ended up being one of the best things for me. I finished the semester with a B- and if I don’t include the final, I would’ve finished with a B. Taking that class taught me how to work hard and taught me what I need to do to succeed in not only school, but in life. In the beginning of the year, I was insisting that I couldn’t do the class and that I needed to drop out immediately. Now that I look back on it, I’m so glad that I didn’t because of what it taught me. Even though I didn’t do well the first semester, I would do the whole thing again if I ever got the chance.