Arriving on campus freshman year, I believed I had the academic perspicacity and habits to excel through college–I could not have been more wrong. Throughout my first semester, I had minor setbacks and learning moments, but adapted quickly. That was until my first final season or “reading period”. Like most freshmen, I was unprepared and unaware of what was to come during my finals week. Going into it, I ended up taking the steps I did when the final season came around in high school, which was essentially relaxing and not preparing until a couple of nights before my exams; with final projects and presentations, I took the same approach.
If I remember correctly, I had two finals and one final research paper; in retrospect, not that difficult. However, as aforementioned, by the time my first final came around, I had barely prepared and ended up bombing a government final. Walking out of the exam, I realized how potentially screwed I was for my econ and stats exams, which were subsequently coming up in two and three days. Adapting, I went from the exam hall to the library and began studying for my economics exam immediately. Although I basically had no time to study, I spent almost every waking hour up until the hours before my economics exam studying; I ended up acing it.
After I finished my econ exam, I realized I had one night to prepare for my statistics exam the next morning at 9 am. Now, under normal circumstances, I could’ve just winged it and probably ended up passing; however, throughout the semester, I had skipped every class because attendance was optional. Instead, I ended up staying up all night teaching myself all of the material, and ended up also acing that exam. So all in all, although time management isn’t my academic strength, my sheer indefatigable ability when faced with a Herculean task proved to be useful.
