Undergraduate /
my first two years of high school - Another UF Essay [2]
Describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your family, your school or community activities, or your involvement in areas outside of school.If there was one thing that I could redo again, it would be my first two years of high school. I did not take my first two years of high school very seriously and I received a number of bad grades. One seemingly trite event managed to create a paradigm shift that has affected my academic life ever since. I was doing some SAT preparation in the summer after 10th grade, and I received a decent but mediocre score on my diagnostic test. Not feeling too good about this score, I decided to do more work on this subject because I didn't have much else to do.
I spent the following week spending much of my time learning from a few test-preparation booklets in order to maximize my score and within a week I increased by score by almost 200 points. This was the beginning of a paradigm shift that changed my way of thinking about school and working in general. Before then, I would not care much about school, and my everyday schedule was not very effective if I wanted good grades. I did not put my schooling in a high priority. After that, I became more interested in school and I worked harder and used my time wisely to reach my full potential.
This small event will greatly affect my college experience and my contribution to the UF community. Before this, I do not think I would have had the qualifications to be part of the UF community, and even if I were admitted, I do not think I would have done very well in college. Now that I know how to plan my time wisely, and work hard, my college experience would be greatly improved because I will have the right attitude to excel in my classes. Because I have revised the way in which I spend my time, I will also contribute to the UF campus community by joining and being actively involved in several UF student organizations.
The past year has been a good reflection of change that has occurred since that event in the study room where I calculated my second SAT practice test. I have gotten straight A's, passed three AP exams with 5s and an AP exam with a 4, became a National Merit semifinalist, and joined the church youth worship band. If I keep things up at this pace, my college experience will bring a number of accomplishments and I will also contribute to the UF community.