Friday, April 13, 2018
26A - Celebrating Failure
1) This semester, I dropped my first class. I've always been pretty good at math, so when I realized stats was NOT clicking with my brain, for the first time I panicked and had no idea what to do. Studying, having my friend tutor me, and relentlessly watching Khan Academy videos usually work for me but didn't in this case.
2) What I learned from it is that when I retake stats I should focus on building the foundation. The reason I struggled so much was because I didn't understand the basic concepts of stats, which the rest of the class builds on. So what I think I would do differently next time is definitely focus from the get-go and make sure I never miss a lecture.
3) This particular failure was devastating to me because when you drop a class you have to pay for it. I have the top tier of Bright Futures, which covers 100% of my tuition for classes. However, when I dropped stats, I had to agree to pay back Bright Futures for that coverage. SO, I had to call my parents, admit to them I was dropping a class (my dad is an immigrant, and if you have parents who are immigrants you'll understand that this does NOT go over well. Failure is not an option). This was not only embarrassing but I felt back because of the money. Now I'll have to get a job to save up and pay off that debt because my parents said that since it was my failure, I'm the one who has to pay for it. I don't think I'm more likely to take a risk because of this- I think I'm less likely to. This experience has made me more hesitant to take on a lot of demanding classes at once, which may be a good or a bad thing. I guess if anything this experience has made me realize that not every class will be a cakewalk and I have to take them more seriously from the start before realizing it's actually a really tough class.
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Hi Kyleigh,
ReplyDeleteDon’t beat yourself up too much over it. I know what you mean about the immigrant parents. As soon as I started to get straight As in high school consistently, my parents came to expect those grades and anything below that seemed like failure. I also felt the need to prove to my parents and other parties that I deserved to be in the US.
Quantitative classes in general tend to be harder than other classes because they require significantly more time to do practice problems. This semester, many of my friends have told me that they dropped Business Finance. Because of this, I’ll really have to prepare for the class and think about the massive time commitment that it will require when I take it.
What really matters is that you’ve learned how to adapt and devised a plan on how to do things differently. If you can come back stronger and pass the class with the grade you want, everything will be fine and you’ll feel like you overcame a challenge. Good luck!
Hi Kyleigh. Dropping a class can feel like a really big black cloud. I can relate whole heartedly. I had Florida Pre-paid Tuition for many years and dropping a class made me feel as though I had physically thrown my father’s money away. It made me sick with guilt and disappointment. However, flash forward a few years and I don’t even think about it. In order to complete any great accomplishment, like graduating from a university such as UF, there must be some failure along the way in order to learn from. This class has helped me to embrace that philosophy and let go of some of the guilt. As more time passes I’m sure it will become even easier.
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