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<li> Tell us about a time when your expectations and outcomes differed. How did you grow from this experience?</li>
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<p>Reflecting back on my entire life, I feel like I experienced more failure than I had experienced success; especially academically. I have never been the student who receive straight A’s or report cards with less B’s than A’s. I mean, my grades weren’t terrible and horrific, but they just weren’t grades that would be put up on the refrigerator with a magnet for everyone to see. However, being a daughter of a professor and computer scientist, my grades are downright unacceptable.
One summer day, I decided to enroll myself in courses that were outside my comfort-zone to see how far my potentials could reach. I went to school with a high expectation of grades. Then in a flash, first quarter report cards were passed out and I had received my first failing grade on my report card. I had never even fathomed failing a class. I had only imagined, yet Algebra II GT had made it a reality. The reason why I had received such a bad grade might have been because I had studied the same way I had for my regular level classes, which is obviously a recipe for disaster. At the end, my grades came out clearly opposite of what I had expected them to be. Junior year was better than 10th grade, but I could have performed much better. I feel like it was because I was trying so hard not to fail the most important year of high school rather than to absorb the material or try to actively engage with the lesson. I consider the purpose of school to be about learning a new thing every day and applying it to real life situations, promoting students to view the world with maturity. Regrettably, my mind was merely focused on avoiding the failure I had experienced in sophomore year that I had missed the entire basis for school. However, I am ironically glad that I experienced this two-year debacle because I believe I yielded two positive things from this experience: maturity and motivation. Not only did I completely mature as a person, but I matured as a student. I began to take full responsibility of my grades and to grow a stronger motivation and eagerness to face new and foreign challenges as well. These characteristics are evident in the upward trend of my GPA; all though not a significant trend, it is still progressing which shows that every year, I was becoming progressively responsible and mature. Then last, but definitely not least, senior year was when everything started to come together. When my grades began to finally see the sun since middle school. The year that proved that I am actually capable of becoming an “A” student as well as aspiring academically like my parents have. After the three years of tribulation, I finally found peace and stability with academics, as well as myself. The student who was fearful of hindrances is now a confident student who is ready to become a successful student in college.</p>