Learning to Study

Growing up and going through primary and secondary school, I never really bothered to study. I was never the best student, but I haven't struggled very often, in elementary school I never bothered to review work outside of school. But as time goes on and I moved on to middle school I had been shocked a little but it wasn't enough to force me to break my old habits.

Old Habits

When going into middle school I was told it was going to be more difficult than elementary school and that I was actually going to have to learn how to study. I never thought about it too much because people say that every year when you're going to the next grade. Upon getting there It didn't start off very difficult 6th and 7th grade went smoothly. In 8th grade, I had some troubles in my physical science class. In the beginning, I had a high C in the class, I had finally found a subject that struggled with. To raise my grade I had to change my habits, I had to stop procrastinating on homework and start studying for the test. I knew what I needed to do but old habits die hard. The procrastination didn't stop and instead of actually studying I would cram for test in the class period before. Luckily I managed to finish the class with an 82, after that, I knew I shouldn't let that happen again.

My freshman year came easy for me and it served to reinforce my old habits and made me complacent. I slipped up Sophmore year but It was due more to attendance than actual school work. In my Junior year, I got a rude awakening. 11th grade American Lit was particularly difficult for not just me but everyone else who took the class as well. My American Lit teacher taught 3 classes and most of the students in all 3 classes were failing. It got to the point that some of the students created a petition to get a new teacher or have he change her methods. The petition received about 40 signatures so nearly 2 classes worth of people agreed with the sentiment.

Revitalization

At the beginning of my American Lit class, I got off to a rough start, it was so bad that my grade had dropped to a 55 at one point. I had never failed a class before and I had never had a grade drop below a 74 up until that point. That 55 was the shock that I needed, I would show up to after school tutorials and try to do my homework on time. For the first time in my life, I was actually addressing my procrastination problem I had improved a bit.

In an effort to salvage my grade even further I started studying for the upcoming tests and reviewing the source material more often. Slowly but surely my grade began rising and I ended up finishing the class with an 83. It may not have been the highest grade but I was proud of it because I knew the context behind that grade I knew the struggle and sleepless nights it took just to raise my grade by only less than a whole number. By comparison, my other classes were a breeze because I took my heightened work ethnic from American Lit and applied it to those classes as well. At the end of my junior year, my 83 in American Lit was my lowest grade in every other class I had an A.

I'm grateful for the experience I had in that class because it helped me in my other classes and in the ones that followed in my senior year. If I hadn't received that shock I wouldn't have been as successful as I was in the twilight years of my high school career.