AP Music Theory Reflection

In the 9th grade, my grades dropped significantly. Practices with the academy was 45 minutes away. I had to carpool with other team mates, leaving school 30 minutes after it was done, and not coming home until aroun 9:00pm. This schedule repeated itself Monday through Thursday. Since being diagnoised with Osgood-Schlatters, I began to be extremely passionate about pursuing a career as an orthopedic surgeon. After the season ended, I did not return to the Railhawks Academy. I instead played for my schools varsity team and have been ever since. Although my grades took a massive hit, I am determined to raise my grades. I am entering my senior year more determined then ever to get all “A’s”. While most of my colleagues chose an “easy class schedule, I will be taking AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Psychology in order to be ahead in college. I no longer see failure as a set back. In fact, I love to fail. I love it, because without failure, how can I

Foremost, I work extremely hard in class maintaining a solid GPA of 4.0. My high school courses consist of advanced placement courses and courses that are geared towards my interests. While I believe in achieving the most and being challenged, I also want to learn things that genuinely interest me. Learning to me comes easier if I am intrigued by the information.

John Tierney a teacher and contributor for The Atlantic argues that, “AP courses are not, in fact, remotely equivalent to the college-level courses they are said to approximate. Before teaching in a high school, I taught for almost 25 years at the college level, and almost every one of those years my responsibilities included some equivalent of an introductory American government course. The high-school AP course didn 't begin to hold a candle to any of my college courses. My colleagues said the same was true in their subjects.” Students are constantly told that they are receiving college-like work when they take AP classes but the truth is that they receive almost the same work as an honors class. The main difference is that the honors students are guaranteed credit for the class, but an AP student may not receive a credit at all because they do not pass the final exam. Tierney also states “The courses cover too much material and do so too quickly and superficially. In short, AP courses are a forced march through a preordained subject, leaving no time for a high-school teacher to take her or his students down some path of mutual interest. The AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.” By taking a different course such as an honors class students are able to gain more learning and go into depth with the

At the beginning of the junior year, I struggled with finding a manageable balance between all my activities.My GPA dropped due to my struggles in the beginning of the year. However, towards the end of the year, I managed to find the balance point and finish the year

Throughout middle school and my first 2 years in high school, I’ve gotten mainly As in my classes with an occasional B here and there. So in my junior year of high school, when I heard that I can take more than 1 AP course, I immediately wanted to challenge myself. I registered for 4 AP courses along with orchestra, and spanish on top of my extracurriculars. “Are you trying to kill yourself?” is what all my friends asked when I told them about my plan. Their worries only fueled my urge to continue with this difficult challenge. So I ambitiously went on to starting the year with 4 AP courses. However, things did not go as expected.

Most people of academic achievement ought to be able to readily cite a vast number of supportive mentors. John Donne recognized this through one of his works, stating that “no man is an island”. I am no outlier to this trend, for I have an immensely helpful family, superb educators, and friends that share similar interests in the world of science. However, I would like to concentrate on a rather unsuspecting part of my schooling as having the highest impact: my junior high music teacher. Amidst my life fixated on textbook education, she forced me to never be complacent, to hold high behavioral standards, and to passionately pursue the flighty sparks of inspiration.

I want to be in AP Literature and Composition because I think it will prepare me for college. I heard that students who take AP classes in high school graduate college at a much better rate than those who do not take AP courses in high school. This is probably because they are better prepared for the level of work they get in college. I want to be ready for college. So I thought just being in an AP will let know what to expect in my future college, if I go to one. I’m not entirely certain which college i 'm going to, if i’m going to one at all, but I definitely feel capable of doing so. I want to keep all of my opportunities open. I believe taking this class will perhaps make a college want to take my money over the next guy’s.

As I traveled through each grade of the Croton-Harmon High School, my personal and academic goals helped to me to really flourish. These goals may have varied from year to year because a freshman is a little different from a senior, but they basically had all the same concept: I wanted to strive in school to be the best all-around student I could be, constantly stay focused and immerse myself in the Croton community. By setting my expectations and goals very high, I could flourish academically and really work to my full potential.

The pain and agony due to the fact that I might not be prepared for college class was on my shoulders. Since day one of highschool, my biggest desire throughout school was to be engaged in learning while being well prepared for the next step in life: college. What class was the answer to this class desired? It was in a meeting with my guidance counselor in eighth grade that struck me and sparked the interest in my heart to do well. All of my highschool career I have never known what it actually meant to do well and be ¨successful.¨ The abstract idea occurred to me, in room 201, in the front row of Dual Enrollment English 111; this idea regarded what it means to be successful and obtain a good work ethic while producing a high quality essay.

During the course of English 102, I took this year of the spring semester. I have accomplished a variety of goals I once thought were impossible. I have not only grown as a writer and a student but as an individual as well. I feel that through my experience of this English course, I have achieved knowledge and self-confidence to step out into the real world. In putting together my portfolio, I could definitely see that I have made an incredible progress from the foundation of this class. My practice of grammar, words and the general structure of my papers has improved massively. Reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, as well as things I have learned in my own writing process is a big accomplishment.

AP Music Theory was taught by one of my favorite teachers. I’ve had him for three years, and he always pushes students every year to sign up for the class. Even if it didn’t fit into your schedule, he just needed enough people to show interest in the class.

I feel that my time at Beckman High School has been very productive. I have become more responsible and competent since my freshman and sophomore year. My first day of sophomore year, Ms. Thomas gave us a writing assignment. We had to write her a letter about our favorite book; I was so excited to write this letter. However, when I got my grade on my letter, I realized that I had used all lower case letters throughout my paper. After that embarrassing moment, I double check my capitalization always. In addition, I took my first advanced placement course during sophomore year: world history. World history had a notorious reputation on campus; everyone was afraid of the massive amounts of coursework. I decided to take world history, and I am so thankful that I did. I loved that class. I spent every weekend doing world history homework to prepare for the coming week. I unlocked a hard-working spirit inside of myself that encouraged me to achieve.

As a student of Bronx Community College, I was so excited when I first entered campus. At the same time, I was frightened since the school system in the United States was different from my country Ghana. The term began and I started classes. There the problems started, I did not hear what both the lectures and the students were saying. Everything was like a foreign language to me, and neither do they understand me when I speak. Because of this, I could not speak out and read in class. I was always a spectator. I have to record every class lessons and play them over and over. I always try to pay critical attention to follow and understand what is been thought in class. Though, I could not speak or read in class, but I was performing well in the written exercises and examinations. After the first semester, then I started picking up with speech and asset but was not that much. I started taking the science class from the second semester. Some of the topics were okay to go with and some were hard and difficult.

There was no doubt in my mind that I tried my hardest in the classes; I just did not have as much faith in myself when it came to the test day. In AP U.S. History, I did my homework religiously every weekend on Sunday afternoons by delving into each chapter as much as possible and enjoying what I was reading. For AP Language and Composition by creating a word wall in my room in order to improve my vocabulary. All the weekends spent doing homework and more for these classes paid off in a way I never would have imagined. I finally was able to believe my hard work towards achieving a goal could actually be rewarded. Not only was I proud of what I learned in those classes, but I was recognized and rewarded for it as well. My goal could be achieved; my hard work could be rewarded. This realization gave me more confidence in my academics. I now feel driven by the fact what I set my mind to can be achieved when I give it my best effort, and believe in ability more

This scholarship is a wonderful opportunity for students of GVSU, and I am honored to be considered for this scholarship. I believe that I am a great applicant for this scholarship, and that I deserve this scholarship. One reason I deserve this scholarship is because of my strong academic courses. Throughout my high school career, I pushed myself academically by taking a total of 10 AP classes and 7 honors classes. These classes were all challenging, yet I pushed through with determination to complete the classes to the best of my ability. My high school is highly competitive and I’m grateful that I was surrounded by such wonderful peers and teachers. Completing high school, I received 12th place out of almost 450 students, with a weighted GPA of 4.244. Despite my hard course load,