In the past, I rarely studied outside of class and relied almost entirely on what I absorbed during lectures. This "strategy" served me well—until I met my academic match: Calculus. Suddenly, I had no idea what was going on, and my first C in high school made me seriously reconsider my approach to studying. I started taking notes during class, and that worked for a while—until it didn’t. Next, I turned to watching videos after class to reinforce the material, but even that began to fall short. Eventually, I discovered that teaching the material to someone else helped me retain information far better than any method I had tried before. Explaining concepts out loud, often with animated gestures, became my new go-to strategy. This experience perfectly aligns with the results of the VARK learning style assessment I recently completed, which confirmed what I had already begun to suspect—I’m very much a kinesthetic learner.
One of my strengths is test-taking. I usually do well on exams when I stay organized. But I struggle more with essays and English as a subject in general. Sometimes I find it hard to structure my thoughts clearly or explain things in writing. Apart from academics, I'm not very social and get nervous easily. My entire life, I've had trouble talking to people even when I've known them for a long time. I'd rather just listen, get my work done, and go home than socialize and attempt to make friends.
This semester, I learned to deal with that by being honest with myself and getting help early. I asked questions when I didn't understand something whether it was to my teacher or the people around me. Thanks to the small size of the class, I adapted pretty quickly and felt less uncomfortable with speaking day by day.