avdravid123
Dec 22, 2018
Undergraduate / MIT Greatest Challenge Essay: Developing a passion for math [2]
Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?
I feel that my essay topic, although meaningful to me, may be lame to others. Should I pick a more substantive issue?
Darkness shrouded me from the danger of discovery. Graphite withered away on a cluttered plane of abandoned symbols and numbers. Light shined! My dad uncovered the blanket and was a little more than upset to find that I was working on a math problem at 1:05 AM. Since elementary school, I had thought that I was talented at math, so I was heartbroken when I was demolished at my first high school math team meet. Finding that my A's in math class were nothing compared to other students' years of MATHCOUNTS training was a harsh discovery. I was humbled, yet, my freshman year, I foolishly believed that this was just a transition period and success would come naturally. Once again, I was shocked when I barely scored above average on the AMC. Finally, I decided to commit myself to improving. By working on problems during car rides between home and school and grinding after midnight, I was able to go from barely solving an AMC problem to scoring in the top five hundred on the AIME! Yet, I never fully reached the level of the genius mathletes who took first place. But, I learned to cope with it. I grew to love the process of problem solving. No score or reward can match the feeling of getting lost in an elegant math problem that I take to my dreams, waiting for the next day to work on it. I may not be a IMO gold medalist, but I have the heart of one!
Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?
I feel that my essay topic, although meaningful to me, may be lame to others. Should I pick a more substantive issue?
I grew to love the process of problem solving
Darkness shrouded me from the danger of discovery. Graphite withered away on a cluttered plane of abandoned symbols and numbers. Light shined! My dad uncovered the blanket and was a little more than upset to find that I was working on a math problem at 1:05 AM. Since elementary school, I had thought that I was talented at math, so I was heartbroken when I was demolished at my first high school math team meet. Finding that my A's in math class were nothing compared to other students' years of MATHCOUNTS training was a harsh discovery. I was humbled, yet, my freshman year, I foolishly believed that this was just a transition period and success would come naturally. Once again, I was shocked when I barely scored above average on the AMC. Finally, I decided to commit myself to improving. By working on problems during car rides between home and school and grinding after midnight, I was able to go from barely solving an AMC problem to scoring in the top five hundred on the AIME! Yet, I never fully reached the level of the genius mathletes who took first place. But, I learned to cope with it. I grew to love the process of problem solving. No score or reward can match the feeling of getting lost in an elegant math problem that I take to my dreams, waiting for the next day to work on it. I may not be a IMO gold medalist, but I have the heart of one!
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