- Campus:
- IU Southeast
Focus of the story: Brief synopsis of your struggle
I didn't know how to study.
Describe your learning story and how you developed, grew and/or overcame the problem.
I have always struggled with studying. I thought I had better things to do than to study for a test so I took the short route and went in unprepared. In my junior year of high school, I realized that my slacking was not going to cut it anymore. I started a math class using my normal strategy of 'winging it' – but this time it didn't work out like I had hoped. I got an "F" on the first test. I had only scored a 46% - all because I thought I could do it without studying. I felt disappointed in myself because I knew I was smarter than that. I wasn't using my time wisely and needed to learn how to study. I decided to go to my teacher after class and talk to him about the test. I admitted to him that I didn't know how to begin studying. We decided to meet after every class so he could help me prepare for the tests.
I put everything else aside to meet with my teacher. He would have me sit and do practice sheets similar to the tests. Each time I finished a sheet of problems, he would hand me another one. Pretty soon, I was flying through them. When I took the next test, my score jumped to a 92%! All my life I lacked proper study habits, and now I found out that it was so simple – I just needed to put a little more effort in. I could never thank my teacher enough for opening my eyes and showing me how to study.
Describe the impact that this experience had on you.
Since that day, I always think about that awful feeling of being handed that terrible test score. It was really embarrassing and really motivated me to become better at studying. I even use this process outside of the classroom. I put in more time in after basketball practice to up my shots, and it worked. Failing that test ended up being good for me, because it pushed me to succeed in every aspect of my life.