Stage 2…Complete. (Photo taken by me-while driving) It is finished. Done, finito, over. Took my last final today. Funny though, I never felt truly stressed this time around. Probably why I stayed up until midnight last night watching TV instead of studying Chemistry. To be honest, I probably studied more for Religion and Lifetime Fitness than Chemistry…which, is kinda sad, since the former two were probably my easiest finals this week.  People think that just because I’m a bit cocky (I’ll admit it), don’t study as much as them (I probably studied less than an hour for my chem final-yet still finished with time to spare), and usually get decent grades that I’m pretty smart. But really, most of it has to do with the amount of work I put in before I made it to college. In homeschool, I ended up finishing an extra year of school during one of my summers. By the time I went to highschool in my junior year, most of my junior year classes were already done. The only reason I’m not a year ahead is because I’m lazy, wanted to be in my age group, and was afraid of going to an actual highschool (I thought it would be super difficult since I had been slacking off in homeschool). Anyway, long story short, I took Chemistry because it sounded cool-even though I technically didn’t need to (I already had credit for it-though I don’t really recall doing any chemistry in homeschool). It was my only difficult class (well, besides A&P, but that was just rote memorization) that year, so I focused all my efforts into it (I actually read the book almost every night). In the end, it paid off. I had fun with it, and all that extra study actually put me a little ahead of the game (not to mention the tutoring I did the following year). Bottom line, the biggest factor in “being smart” is devoting time to it. Unlike chemistry, I didn’t get any extra help in math back in the day, and if anything, I’d say I’m a little behind the curve in math (too far away from the critical point, heh, math joke). Calculus was my hardest class and final this quarter, and I’d be lucky to have ‘B’ this time around. I devote more time to Calculus than any of my other classes, (I probably averaged more than 3 hours of study per day every Mon-Thurs this quarter) and yet it’s still my lowest grade. In a way, I’m catching up for all the math I sort of skimped over before I made it to college. Genetics do affect your learning ability to a great degree, but even more than that, hard work does a whole lot more. Some people have received a much better education in some areas, but I guarantee they’ll have a least one thing they’re not good at. If you find out that you received a bad grade in a class, just think about how much you really studied for it throughout the quarter (and not just before tests or finals); you might start to understand what happened. Slow and steady really does win the race in this case. I’m glad it’s over though. Time to get some rest.
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Stage 2…Complete. (Photo taken by me-while driving)

It is finished. Done, finito, over. Took my last final today. Funny though, I never felt truly stressed this time around. Probably why I stayed up until midnight last night watching TV instead of studying Chemistry. To be honest, I probably studied more for Religion and Lifetime Fitness than Chemistry…which, is kinda sad, since the former two were probably my easiest finals this week.  People think that just because I’m a bit cocky (I’ll admit it), don’t study as much as them (I probably studied less than an hour for my chem final-yet still finished with time to spare), and usually get decent grades that I’m pretty smart. But really, most of it has to do with the amount of work I put in before I made it to college.

In homeschool, I ended up finishing an extra year of school during one of my summers. By the time I went to highschool in my junior year, most of my junior year classes were already done. The only reason I’m not a year ahead is because I’m lazy, wanted to be in my age group, and was afraid of going to an actual highschool (I thought it would be super difficult since I had been slacking off in homeschool). Anyway, long story short, I took Chemistry because it sounded cool-even though I technically didn’t need to (I already had credit for it-though I don’t really recall doing any chemistry in homeschool). It was my only difficult class (well, besides A&P, but that was just rote memorization) that year, so I focused all my efforts into it (I actually read the book almost every night). In the end, it paid off. I had fun with it, and all that extra study actually put me a little ahead of the game (not to mention the tutoring I did the following year).

Bottom line, the biggest factor in “being smart” is devoting time to it. Unlike chemistry, I didn’t get any extra help in math back in the day, and if anything, I’d say I’m a little behind the curve in math (too far away from the critical point, heh, math joke). Calculus was my hardest class and final this quarter, and I’d be lucky to have ‘B’ this time around. I devote more time to Calculus than any of my other classes, (I probably averaged more than 3 hours of study per day every Mon-Thurs this quarter) and yet it’s still my lowest grade. In a way, I’m catching up for all the math I sort of skimped over before I made it to college.

Genetics do affect your learning ability to a great degree, but even more than that, hard work does a whole lot more. Some people have received a much better education in some areas, but I guarantee they’ll have a least one thing they’re not good at. If you find out that you received a bad grade in a class, just think about how much you really studied for it throughout the quarter (and not just before tests or finals); you might start to understand what happened. Slow and steady really does win the race in this case.

I’m glad it’s over though. Time to get some rest.

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