Undergraduate / Common App Prompt #2: Failure (My experiences with competition math) [2]

Hi everyone,

This is my response to common app #2, which deals with failure and overcoming it. I talked about my experiences with competition math.

Thanks!

February 19, 2014. I vividly remember this day - the day I experienced my first major

failure. That fateful day when I felt that my dream had shattered. That day when I

surmised that someone had pulled out the rug from under my feet and made me feel

worthless.

My biggest goal of eleventh grade was to qualify for the USAMO. I had put my heart and

soul into this competition. I had spent a considerable amount of time learning math in

preparation for the AMC 12 and AIME. Eventually, I felt confident enough that I would

attain my goal. On this day, I had felt as if I were unstoppable. After all this, how could

everything have gone so horribly wrong? Of all problems, how could 8 and 12, two

exceptionally simple problems based solely on arithmetic, bring my aspirations to an end?

After extensive pondering, I arrived at two conclusions. One, I realized that I had not

prepared adequately: I did not focus as much on simple arithmetic as much as I did on the

actual problem-solving process. The other was that competitive math was simply not my

forte.

I could not bring myself to accept the latter. Studying for math competitions had taken

up a lot of my time, and now, I felt as if I had nothing worthwhile to do. I lost interest

in everything. My grades suffered as a result; yet, I paid no attention. On the day of the

AIME, I felt jealous of my friends who still had a shot at the USAMO. I could not help but

question, "what had they done to deserve this over me?" After the exam ended, I asked a

friend for a copy of the test questions. I decided to attempt them that night: I just had to

convince myself that I was worth qualifying for the USAMO.

I solved ten problems, including the elusive number fifteen, reputed to be the hardest

one on the entire exam. After this, I checked my answers. The same old mistakes -

careless mistakes - cost me three problems. However, there was a silver lining in all

this - I obtained the correct answer for number fifteen! This meant that if I focused on

eliminating my careless errors and learning more math in general, I had a fair shot at the

USAMO.

To go about preparing, however, I had to find what was wrong with my original process

and rectify it. I realized that my haphazard preparation for these competitions was the

root cause for these issues. By not studying my arithmetic as much, I had inadvertently

set myself up for failure. I also noted that my poor preparations were not restricted to

just math, and this was responsible for many smaller mishaps throughout the year. As a

result, I resolved to prepare harder for anything I took up. I experienced tangible results

from my new approach to everything; my performance in my classes and standardized

tests improved dramatically. This was perhaps the biggest lesson I learned through this

incident.

In the same vein, I chose to prepare fully for the math competitions the following year.

I maintained an error log and focused on eliminating simple errors. At the same time, I

challenged myself by solving harder problems. In doing so, I not only eliminated simple

errors but also learned problem solving skills, strategies, and more math topics through

multiple books. My new strategy seems to be working as I am seeing consistent score

improvements on practice tests. However, I still have a long way to go.

Philip Stanhope, the fourth Earl of Chesterfield proclaimed - "whatever is worth doing

at all, is worth doing well." Nothing can better summarize my new approach to my

activities, schoolwork, and math. After all, my failure arose from contradicting that

statement, and now I know better.