By Nick Maker
The very first day of school I thought to myself, “This semester is going to be a long one.” Now the end of first semester is over and I’m relieved I can finally relax.
Although it wasn’t too bad of a semester; nor it was the most stressful, but the new environment change really does make someone feel out of the pond and into the ocean. I had a wild ride with new rules, new responsibility, and new adjustments. I had fun with my new semester, went to different school events which were fun – like the Halloween party which was interesting. In fact, some people even go so far as to dress up in their costumes during class which was humorous. Then there are school events like joining clubs, job fairs, transfer fairs for schools, and I honestly would recommend joining these events. I did find interesting information in finding a good transfer school to go to; not a 100% final decision, but I got decent info on the different choices.
At the end of first semester when finals were starting, I knew that I needed to prepare myself. Thankfully my last math two tests were pretty good so far, since I changed my study habits into a better one. The other subjects I didn’t have much problem, in fact I’m so happy my final paper on English turned out to be great and even received a B+ on my final semester grade. The most worrisome was math because I wanted to get a B to join the honors roll. My score was around C bar, and the final test was at the right corner, I finished all my homework to study earlier, and thought the professor would give us a prep test earlier since something like this is very important, right? Sadly, she gave us a 65 question prep test for only four days and I was feeling overwhelmed thinking that this test must be huge. I studied hard and unfortunately due to the expectation and stress, the final test wasn’t what I expected and the result was not what I hoped for; I thought I would flunk out of College Algebra. Thankfully a week passed and I got a C but didn’t join honors, which it isn’t important as of this semester; it was only a bonus reward if I did a real fantastic job. I was still proud of passing all my grades and ready to move onto the next classes, but there is still an important lesson I learned and I want to share this experience with you.
College can be at times unfair depending on the type of professor, but what the final tests show is that the college itself can be unfair. It’s not the excuse of “oh that’s college for you, people must climb to the top to be the best.” That is not the point, the point is to be fair with your students and work together; not try to “expect” someone to know and just free fall. That is not the right way to go, especially if someone has to repeat a whole semester worth of class all because of test anxiety, especially with the short amount of time and the questions they gave us. It feels like my end of first semester experience is sort of like a big fish eats little fish scenario, that no matter how prepared you are, during the all important test the college decides what questions they pick that are suited for them and it’s up for us to figure it out. I don’t know if you guys can relate to this? But to be sure, be on guard and expect the unexpected, which is the biggest tip to learn.
That is about all I have to say on my end of first semester experience. Besides that sweet-sour moment everything turned out okay. My first semester was like a rollercoaster, yet at the end it mostly went well and I had a good experience. It made me feel more prepared than ever, and I hope I will succeed more in the second semester. It will bring in new challenges, but I know I will come through it at the end, because I have family and friends to count on to support me in this time of need.