Personal Narrative: My Growth As A Learner

Words: 1173
Pages: 5

Introduction:
As a student, I have been exposed to different circumstances that have helped me grow as a learner. By nature, some subjects do not come to me as easy as others; however, the challenge has never been the material, but following a game plan that will make the material easier to master. For example being, when I was growing up I used the correct learning strategies that helped me learn English effectively. While, in my first semester of college, using flashcards to study for my Nutrition course only led to failure. Through the good and the bad, my experiences have helped me to adapt and manage different aspects of college. Both the classes I have taken and my background are factors that have contributed to my development as a learner,
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Unlike the school I came from, the majority of the students spoke English. The language barrier only served me as a motivation to learn the language myself. In a matter of months, I was accepted into advanced placement classes, which required of all of my efforts. Every semester, these classes helped me practice my English through readings, essays, and oral presentations. The work at times was not easy, but with the help of my teachers and enough perseverance, I was able to excel. To prepare for vigorous courses in college, as a high school student, I continued to challenge myself by taking Advanced Placement, AP, English classes. Despite the efforts, I still struggled. The first time I tested for the TSI, I failed the reading portion of the exam as a sophomore. A year later, after joining the journalism staff on campus and enrolling in a Dual Credit English class, I retested and passed the test without a problem. The more I read and received feedback from my writing, the better my writing structure became. Looking back, in grade school my writing skills were very minimal due to my limited English vocabulary. Seeing how far I’ve come motivates me to keep working and improving in this area. The strategies I used, reading, oral practice, and writing feedback, helped me improve my English. I’ve come to realize that consistency, and pushing yourself is the key to success. Without hard work, …show more content…
The strategies I had been using to study turned out to be ineffective for this particular course. Starting the course, I was exposed to a curriculum utterly different than what I was used to. Unlike past courses, where the content was more familiar, this course included biology. A subject I had little background on. After talking to my professor on ways to strengthen my studying skills, I found myself picking up a book, highlighting everything, and writing flashcards with all of the definitions. However this only seemed to confuse me even more. The words were either too similar or too long and the definition never seemed to make sense. Where before note cards seemed to help me study and understand the material, now they were only making my brain