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Success and failure essay
Define success and failure
Define success and failure
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The other day I reading a book about American education allowing people to pass, though they had no knowledge of the material. The book displayed that America feared one word, failure.When I was younger, I never encountered failure as I did now. I remember feeling pessimistic because I didn’t know how to overcome this situation. This situation occurred when I was in high school, my Spanish grade had dropped dramatically, from 94% to 63%. I failed two exams, even though I studied hard for both of them.This really discouraged me because I felt my efforts had gone to waste. In the past, I worked hard in order to gain acceptance and approval from my parents, especially my dad because he believed I can succeed in life. Ever since my parents’ divorce, …show more content…
I didn’t want my grades to represent my future and myself. The grade discouraged me from wanting to improve it. I thought of all of the possible outcomes of not doing my work and they all made me feel dreadful. I needed to get my act together and get my grades back up. I decided to try harder in the class. Later that week, the teacher announced that there was going to be an exam on the chapter. I told myself that this was the chance to redeem myself and improved my grades. I decided to listen carefully, took extensive notes during class, more than usual. At home I study for 1 hour every day, reviewing the spelling and concepts of Spanish. I also asked the teacher/ friends for help, I would often stay after school for tutoring. On the day of the exam, everything on it looked really familiar and I was able to finish all of the questions without hesitation. A week later, I received my test results and I ended up getting an A which brought up my grade. Watching my grade go up was exciting and changed me as a person. By the end of the semester, I was able to raise my grade back to an A and pass the class. I felt like I redeemed myself. By the end of the school year, I used the same tactic and mindset to get through my other classes and pass. Overcoming my failure made me feel powerful, this accomplishment showed me that hard work can overcome any
The children see failure as not being as smart as everyone tells them they are or simply stating the wrong answer to a question the teacher asks (Lahey). From creating this fear of failing comes the hatred of learning. Kids are beginning to learn that “mistakes are something to avoid” and as a result you have students who “are afraid to take risks, to be creative, [and] to be wrong” because they associate being wrong as being a failure (Tugend). Kids understand that mistakes will happen, and from these mistakes you should learn, but are being taught to try to avoid mistakes because it is too big of a risk for their grades and also other students and parent’s views of them. For example, in high-school students have the choice to take general, honors, or advanced placement classes. In the past, more and more students would take the advanced placement classes, which were a lot harder than honors and general and could possibly make lower grades than they would make in the other classes, but would be constantly challenged and learning more than they would in the honors and general classes. In today’s society, more students are being encouraged by their parents and peers to settle for the honors and even general classes, so they can guarantee acceptable grades and not have to try too hard to make those grades. Even though the students in the advanced placement classes may not be viewed as smart
At one point I came to the conclusion that I’m either going to fail, go to summer school, or go to a school that I didn't want to attend. I felt so disappointed in myself because I knew that I could've done better. So then one day I told myself, “I can do this”. I then started to study more than I usually did, I turned in all of my missing work and my present work, and I also took an after school tutoring class
I was taking AP World History, my first AP class. Keeping up my grades in the class was one of my biggest concerns, but surprisingly, it turned out to be a relatively laid-back class without much homework. Throughout the year, the class was mainly notes and document analysis. The only difficult part of the class was the tests. They were long and arduous with several vague questions based on specific parts of the curriculum that we had only gone over lightly. The course became more vigorous as the exam date drew closer; we began writing more essays, the tests we took grew longer, there were after school study sessions, and even a mock
All of my classes in high school I passed with no struggle. I would cram all the knowledge that I needed for a test the night before, so I thought college would not be any different. A week or two before my first ever college exam the professor announced that if we had not already been study, then we should start to right away. Being a young naive freshmen, I kind of blew the teacher off. Telling myself that I did not need to waste the next few weeks studying for one exam. So I waited until the last day to study. You might have an idea of what happened next. I failed the exam. Failing so bad that it would be nearly impossible for me to still get a C in the course. I could not even look at myself. The thought of disappointing my parents was making my stomach turn. This fear of failing the class was tearing me apart. The only chance at passing this class was if I turned myself into the perfect student. This meant turning things in on time, studying days in advance for exams, and going to my professor’s office hours. And that is exactly what I did. By some seriously hard work, long nights, and over a hundred red bulls, I was able to achieve a passing grade with a
The words of my mentor echoed inside my head ever since that day and completely changed my outlook on school. In the next weeks to the end of the school year that followed I applied and transformed those words into a state of pure focus.As a result passed all of my remaining classes,I blew through those assignments like a jet soaring across the open
This year I tried out Spanish and even though I didn't do so well and it wasn't my favorite thing I managed to pass with a B which I'm pretty proud of myself for. In Math I've learned and refreshed on skills that I either didn't know or already knew but learned more. My Test scores stayed the same which is pretty good considering the tests are harder. Last year I never really had to be serious about studying and pretty much did okay on all tests.
In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” by Mary Sherry, elaborates on how a healthy fear of failure can help students in the long run. Motivation is the key to success in any academic career and one of the strongest, natural motivators is fear. Sherry explains that the “fear of failure, weather economic or academic, can motivate both,” (2) showing that fear will provide the incentive for the students to pass on their own. The fear of failing a class can motivate students to complete their work at a responsible rate. Sherry explains that “most kids don’t put school first . . .
The next morning, I performed horribly and filled my previous “A” grade with disappointment. The daunting experience left a bad taste in my mouth for exams during the upcoming summer. The brutal
But, in this day and age students act as if it's impossible. DPS fail to inform their students that failing is a real thing and it can happen to anyone. Students assume that if they put in little effort, and come to class they’ll pass. They don’t consider their actions, assignments, and homework. Students are oblivious to the fact that failing could make or break them. If DPS schools wanted to see a drastic increase in their students academics and a decrease in summer school attendees, they would threaten their students with failing. It sounds cruel, but it works. Failure motivates us to push ourselves until we are at where we want to be. I know first hand, I received my first “D” during my sophomore in my geometry class. I refused to let that get me down, and worked until I brought my grade up to an “A”. I didn’t let anything stand in my way, looking at that horrendous grade only made me want to try harder. If DPS were open about failing and how to prevent failing, their students would be very
Failure is apart of life, it can make or break a person. When a person experiences a type of failure it is now up to them to see how they respond. They can choose the high road, and become a stronger person for it. Then they can choose the low road, the easy way out. The easy way out is never a good choice. It can lead only to destruction. The high road is the right choice to take when responding to failure. It will lead down a path of success. Jessica Lahey’s article, “When Success Leads to Failure” is an article that shows how kids are experiencing failure. Lahey says that, “these kids have a fear for failure, and that they have given up natural loves for learning. They are scared of not being successful”(Lahey). The truth is life is hard there will be failure. There is nothing in this world that comes easy to anyone.
I wanted to succeed and make my parents proud but I was blinded by my own pride and anxiety which lead me to not handle stress in the right way. I fully take responsibility for my failure in school and accept the consequences, but I also know
At first, failure was none of my business: I did not really care how high or low my grades were. But when I suddenly experienced what failure was like, I did not like it one bit. In fact, a fear started to grow within me. It was like a hideous, chupacabra-like alien had landed on my territory and I felt I had to do everything to get rid of it. I studied mathematics very hard: harder than I ever had before. I studied how to divide 9 by 3 and 8 by 4, even if I so despised numbers to my very core. I did not like them because they made things abstract to me. Things which I knew became unknown w...
At first, good grades were just the keys to passing on to the next year, which may seem like an easy goal to achieve, but I was new to these expectations, and it actually took a while to get the hang of it all and adjust to a strategy that worked perfectly for me. I needed a functional
A recent failure that has changed how I go about my daily life is one that many college freshman experience in their first year. In high school I was a very good student, but I did not have to put in a lot of effort to get the grades that I wanted. I would joke with my friends and say that high school taught me how to put in the least amount of effort, and still get the maximum result. All of my teachers told me, as they did every student, that college was going to be different and if you do not put in more effort it would be very difficult. I knew this coming into school, but I am not sure if part of me wanted to prove people wrong, or if I actually was just adjusting to college life. I did not study as much as I should of, and as a result my grades suffered. Luckily I did not completely ruin my grade point average, but since first semester I have completely changed my study habits. This has taught a much needed lesson about hard work, and I am determined to never again fail at my studies. I am the kind of person that learns a lot from failures. My dad has always told me it is ok to make a mistake, but never make the same mistake twice. This I a motto that I live by.
I said I didn't fail and that this grade is higher than the average of the class. My parent said don't strive to be average but to be the best you can be. They put it like this, if I were to drive you to school and I went 89% of the way and I we just make a U-turn and come back home, did we go to school or not? Of course, I said no, so that instilled in me to go 100% in everything I do and put in that extra effort.