Throughout most of my elementary and high school years, I rarely ever studied for my courses. Occasionally I would look back on my notes right before exams, but for the most part, I relied solely on what I remembered from my classes, and my ability to make up things on the fly. Despite this, I performed quite well; I was a straight-A student, albeit with the bare minimum of an A grade, and my teachers were none the wiser to my refusal to follow the terms to success they put in place. For the longest time, I thought that everything teachers said about proper studying habits was just an attempt to enforce a status quo.
This lasted until I started to take AP classes in my final year of high school. Even while taking university level courses I was still confident in my ability to wing it, but then, I received the results from my first exams. My grades were lower than anything I had ever achieved, in most I’d received a B, which was horrifying enough, but in Statistics, I had obtained my first-ever C. I was shocked, even when I really shouldn’t have been. As soon as I got my results, I wanted to drop the course, thinking that I should simply accept that I wasn’t smart enough for university. I had to remind myself that I would be going to university next year, and if I didn’t learn now how to succeed, I likely never would.
I began to force myself to complete all the homework packages I had received, with upwards of 20 pages filled with mathematical questions that I could’ve sworn hadn’t been taught in class. Eventually, after spending hours on one question, I’d finally come up with the right answer, allowing me to finally fully understand the concepts that had been brought up in class. I had relied on superficial knowledge for so long that being able to apply my knowledge in different ways made me feel like a genius. Despite how horrific the idea was, I started to ask questions in class, which helped me out far more than I could ever guess it would. My confidence shot up, and I started to perform better on the following exams.
To some, this outcome may seem incredibly obvious. In hindsight, it is to me. Yet even in higher education, I still find myself slipping into old habits, and hearing my peers stupefied at how little high school prepared them for the rigour of university. While it may seem clear to place the blame on the education system for not properly educating their students on proper studying habits, it is nigh impossible to teach someone how to learn. It is a personal process that everyone must undergo in order to reach their fullest potential. Though giving up may seem like the safest route, learning how to learn is an incredibly rewarding process that will help you better understand both the world and yourself.
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