Last year in AP literature we read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and

were given a prompt to write about a character viewed as morally ambiguous

and their significance to the book as a whole. I wrote about the creature, and
although I don’t remember the grade I got on the essay, I am still proud of the
connections I made and my explanations. In writing it’s easy to be biased, so
giving both sides whilst still making yours the more convincing shows the
strength of a writer, which I think I accomplished in this essay. I talked about
the varying views of the creature and his character, but established my
opinion as well. Another thing that I’m proud of with this piece of writing is
how I did not veer off the prompt. Rather, I met both parts of what the prompt
was asking for, which was a morally ambiguous character and why that
character is significant.
Reflecting on my high school transcript, I think the categories of
learning that I’ve had the most growth in are Spanish and English. Each year
in Spanish, my grade in the second semester would go up as I bettered my
skills and found the correct work and study habits. I had the same teacher my
sophomore and junior year, and hearing her tell me at the end of the year how
much my accent had improved solidified my thoughts So although I’m not
taking Spanish this year, I still feel like a lot of my academic growth in high
school took place in those three years of language. The second subject that I
believe I’ve seen growth in over the past four years is english. My freshman
and sophomore year I felt like a fish out of water in english because it was
always so easy for me. Jumping into the AP program was a big change, and I
had to grow accustomed to struggling. However, junior year in AP literature
was one of my favorite classes I took in high school. We read tons of poems
like “Sticks”, and “Birthday Party” and classic books like The Great Gatsby
and The Importance of Being Earnest.Through the course of that class I feel
like my writing skills improved a lot, and I even got a 3 on the exam, which I
was very proud of considering the difficulty of the AP literature exam.
A big chunk of my learning that has a lot of potential for improvement
is mathematics. It’s a big trend in my transcript for the grades in math to be
relatively lower then my other classes, as math has always been a bump in the
road for me. The positive thing about this is I can only better my math skills
from here. After graduation I’m going to be working on these skills a lot,
especially as a biology major. I plan to work really hard to get the concepts
down, attend tutoring and using up a lot of office hours to get extra help.
Another thing I’m going to be working on in regards to this category of my
education is my mindset. When it comes to math I give up a little bit before I
even give myself a chance, so I’m definitely going to be working on a more
positive outlook in preparation for college next year.
GOHS has prepared me for college, but mostly with the AP classes I’ve
taken. Since they are college level courses, I don’t feel like I will be as
stunned by the work load and difficult when I get to university. Throughout
my experience at Great Oak High School I’ve participated in many group
assignments and collaborative projects, bettering my communicative and
listening skills. Also, as a student at Great Oak it’s common to partake in
various extracurricular activities. For me those included piano, cross
country/track, and robotics club, so I’ve definitely learned how to juggle a
busy schedule, hopefully preparing me to manage my time in college. Lastly,
at university there are many different class atmospheres, teaching styles, and
professors so experiencing a variety of high school classes and teachers with
different backgrounds and techniques will prepare me for what’s to come on a
college campus.