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Factors affecting student motivation
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Factors affecting student motivation
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I Screwed Up!
High school is a strange time. After three years of trying to develop identity and friends in middle school, students are expected to mature immediately on the first day of ninth grade, but I never did this. I never fully realized in the earlier grades how important high school success, as measured by GPA, would be to my future life, and as a result I am applying to college with seemingly contradictory measures of my ability to perform college-level work. If I had worked and studied hard rather than hanging out with friends and viewing high school as an opportunity to socialize, I would not have to apply to school with a 1300 SAT and a 2.7 GPA. Had I taken my grades in my earlier years seriously, I could have been a college's dream candidate.
This year I have made an earnest effort to improve my work ethic. My grade point average is rising and my study habits are improving. However, after performing poorly for three years, my GPA cannot reflect the transformation I underwent at the start of this year. Dedicated to making something of myself, I finally matured and am now trying to lessen the consequences of my past actions. Armed with my new attitude and my understanding of the extreme importance of earning good grades to signal my capacity to work responsibly, I assure you that I will never revert to the student I once was.
In retrospect, I believe that it was my inability to choose my classes that resulted in my lack of enthusiasm on the ride to school each morning. I enjoy the freedom to pursue my own interests and anxiously anticipate the ability to choose my own class schedule in college. While I understand that college will be significantly more challenging than high school, I have always found it easier to study for a class that interests me. I am also willing to accept the fact that as long as I am in school, I will be forced to take required courses that I might be less than enthusiastic about. However, with my new goal-oriented nature, I realize that I am working towards my college degree and my future success, and I have regained the drive to excel. Moreover, I now realize the emptiness in the lives of people who can only do one thing well.
Sweat dripping down my face and butterflies fluttering around my stomach as if it was the Garden of Eden, I took in a deep breathe and asked myself: "Why am I so nervous? After all, it is just the most exciting day of my life." When the judges announced for the Parsippany Hills High School Marching Band to commence its show, my mind blanked out and I was on the verge of losing sanity. Giant's Stadium engulfed me, and as I pointed my instrument up to the judges' stand, I gathered my thoughts and placed my mouth into the ice-cold mouthpiece of the contrabass. "Ready or not," I beamed, "here comes the best show you will ever behold." There is no word to describe the feeling I obtain through music. However, there is no word to describe the pain I suffer through in order to be the best in the band either. When I switched my instrument to tuba from flute in seventh grade, little did I know the difference it would make in the four years of high school I was soon to experience. I joined marching band in ninth grade as my ongoing love for music waxed. When my instructor placed the 30 lb. sousaphone on my shoulder on the first day, I lost my balance and would have fallen had my friends not made the effort to catch me. During practices, I always attempted to ease the discomfort as the sousaphone cut through my collar bone, but eventually my shoulder started to agonize and bleed under the pressure. My endurance and my effort to play the best show without complaining about the weight paid off when I received the award for "Rookie of the Year." For the next three seasons of band practice, the ache and toil continued. Whenever the band had practice, followed by a football game and then a competition, my brain would blur from fatigue and my body would scream in agony. Nevertheless, I pointed my toes high in the air as I marched on, passionate about the activity. As a result, my band instructor saw my drive toward music and I was named Quartermaster for my junior year, being trusted with organizing, distributing, and collecting uniforms for all seventy-five members of the band. The responsibility was tremendous. It took a bulk of my time, but the sentiment of knowing that I was an important part of band made it all worthwhile.
As many people have told me before, it is a very different ballgame than middle school’s easy going years. There is much more work, the classes are harder, and the environment is completely different. Many people’s grades may slip and they may cower in fear at the barrage of assignments they receive class after class. Unlike other people, I am confident in my ability to excel at all classes and to sustain exemplary grades. Therefore, while many are trembling in fear at the prodigious assignments and work is bombarding them from all angles, I will be at ease, knowing that whatever obstacle is thrown my way, I will conquer it and be its own
I am going to carry out an experiment to measure the change in mass of
Writing a self-reflective tirade is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to perform. I have found myself pondering this topic for an unusually long time; no one has ever asked me to write about my culture-- the one thing about myself which I understand the least. This question which is so easy for others to answer often leads me into a series of convoluted explanations, "I was born in the U.S., but lived in Pakistan since I was six. My brothers moved to the US when I was thirteen" I am now nearly twenty, which means I have spent half my life being Pakistani, the other half trying to be American, or is the other way around?
I have often wondered what it would be like to experience the freedom of choosing my own class schedule. This has to be infinitely more stimulating and enjoyable. I am also aware that college will be significantly more challenging, but I have always found it easier to study for a class that interests me. I am willing to accept the fact that as long as I am in school, there will be required courses which may not engender excitement or enthusiasm; however, success should not be as difficult to achieve due to the maturity that is developing during this last year of high school. In addition, I have gained an understanding of the benefit of being well rounded. There is value in all classes taken. It helps to know that even my least favorite subject will contribute to the ultimate goal of personal and career development.
When I wake up to the ear-splitting sound of my alarm clock, and blindly search for the snooze button, a sudden thought dawns: "What am I doing?"
Cultural Appropriation and Its Effects On Other Cultures This past Halloween I dressed up as a China Doll; in my black traditional Asian dress, white painted face, rosy pink cheeks, black eyeliner, and my hair held up in a bun with chopsticks. I originally thought that this costume would be rather attractive and fun. However, I began to question myself after a young lady approached me and asked, "Are you suppose to be an Asian person? " I immediately replied, "No, I am a beautiful China Doll".
A great deal of people in America see America as a melting pot, meaning all cultures come in and melt into one culture. Others like me, view America as more of a salad bowl. Cultures come in and mix together, but they do not merge, everyone keeps their own culture. In reality, If we all are living together we are bound to influence each other's way of life. Things like our way of speaking and religious traditions are definitely going to rub off on each other. Although that wouldn't be cultural appropriation cultural appropriation has nothing to do with how familiar you are with another culture. So when does it become cultural appropriation? It becomes cultural appropriation when the culture is exploited for money, fame, praise for creativity, or self-expression. When you take other cultures dances, style of dress, music, way of speaking, food, religious symbols and use it for your personal game that is appropriation. In her article, “To the new culture cops, everything is appropriation” from The Washington Post author Cathy Young talks about the new culture cops and how they're limiting the ways in which people can express themselves artistically. In her world you can
demographically ¡V 14 to 19 year olds as primary and 20 to 35 year olds as secondary targets;
At this moment when I am sitting down here writing this, I suddenly think of this time last year when I was fresh out of high school, hearing about Berea for the first time. I sent my application to Berea with lots of confidence and hope, and I knew I was not accepted. College to me, as much as to many others, is so important. At the time I heard the news of my being denied, I was disappointed, but soon I realized that my failure was just among the many challenges that anybody has to face during their lifetime. Further more, I happened to know, later on, about the two other Vietnamese who were accepted. Having known that hardly ever more than one student from each country is accepted to Berea, I was so proud to know that the ability of Vietnamese students has been recognized and that, despite of the fact that our country still faces many difficulties, the students have been trying to reach high goals.
As a young undergraduate, I attempted to prove myself as a hardworking student by attending my courses focused and well prepared, and conducting my assignments as required. Through my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate to participate in several student and voluntary activities. Furthermore, determinant to acquire relevant practical experience, I trained and worked at several establishments applying my theoretical ed...
The crucial importance and relevance of economics related disciplines to the modern world have led me to want to pursue the study of these social sciences at a higher level. My study of Economics has shown me the fundamental part it plays in our lives and I would like to approach it with an open mind - interested but not yet fully informed.
When you place a potato chip in a salt or sugar solution, then if the
As I entered high school the pressure to succeed and live up to my parent’s expectations increased. I joined clubs that my parents approved of, I took classes that would look good on my transcript, and I studied 24/7 to keep a good GPA. Seeing the people around me happy and proud of me was a good feeling. I stayed up all night just so I could study and get good grades that would make my family and teachers proud. Junior year I never got more than four hours of sleep a night. I was a zombie just going through the motions of life. As I began to look for colleges, the pressure to be #1 grew. My parents took me on countless college tours, thirty seven to be exact, in order to find the “right school for me.” My parents drove me around the country visiting tons of top engineering schools. Occasionally we would visit schools I wanted to visit. But every visit went the same. If my parents chose the school they smiled the whole tour and spent the car ride home talking about how great it was. If it was a school I chose