My academic record is a mirror of myself

Do you believe your academic record (transcript information and test scores) provide an accurate representation of you as a student? Why or why not?

Student's academic record

For myself specifically my academic record does shed light how I am as a student. I took classes that I knew would facilitate me in what I'm passionate about, that being the plethora of engineering and computer science classes that gave me something exciting to look forward to on a day-to-day basis. These classes were something that I exceled at, not because they were on par with a study hall, but because I was completely in tune what was going on. The teachers along with the classes provided me with something that was truly exiting no matter what I was learning and at the same time undoubtedly introduced me into the field of engineering. Overall grades are important, but I've realized that they are not a concluding factor in how the rest of a student's life will unfold; instead the journey that the student took in receiving his or her grade is what's most important. Junior year is still a reminder of this for me. I continued taking all the AP courses that were available including Physics. Going into the class I thought it would be an easy A just as Chemistry and Biology were, but before I knew it my grade started to slip. I was stressed out and dazed at the fact that this class was as difficult as it was, leaving me with two options, drop or adapt. I went with my gut and stuck it through knowing that I would have to change my entire façade to get make it through this class. I acclimated my study habits to match the rigor of the class and took advantage of all the tools necessary to make this happen; going to after and before school tutorials, meeting with my teacher constantly, and repeatedly going over arduous material bolstered my grade from a C to a high B. These instances have proved to me that the singular grade I received after each semester doesn't represent me as well as the work I put into each grade.

Jay, you should be saying that the grades reflected in your academic record are NOT an accurate representation of you as a student. That is because, as you said, the grades do not reflect the hard work that you put into obtaining it. The use of the class that you almost dropped is the perfect example and discussion point for this response. All of the ease of study points do not reflect the hard work you put into the classes where you do not excel. Therefore, I believe that your response should focus more on the class where you struggled because that is not reflected in the high grade that you received at the end of the semester. That exemplifies the "Is not an accurate representation of you as a student" part of the prompt. I would leave the "ease of study" discussion for the concluding part of the essay. Discussing that as the realization that a grade that gives you a sense of self worth is not the grade that you got easily, but the one that you had to struggle to achieve.