Mathematics was my worst subject since kindergarten. My parents and teachers had high expectation to me, and given the competitive environment in China, I had to do well for all subjects. However, mathematics was always the one pulling down my overall performance. I tried many different methods to improve it, I spent extra one hour a day to practice mathematical questions, and went for tuition every weekends, however, these efforts turned in vain eventually. I did not know why I could only score 80% for mathematics while the the average score for the rest subjects was around 90%. I did try very hard to understand the concepts and practice questions. Those who did well in mathematics seemed effortless. “Was that because of my IQ?”, I wondered.
I disliked my mathematics teacher and mathematics class and things got worse. The concepts were getting increasingly difficult, and they were even harder for me to understand with a poor understanding in the previous knowledge. The more I disliked mathematics, the worse results I got. It was a vicious cycle. Aiming for a academically well performing student, mathematics never failed to give me a headache.
One day, I was chatting with a classmate who was good at mathematics, “look at you, just listen to the teacher and do the homework then get full marks easily, because you are smart.” I said enviously. His reply changed my view. He told me that he was not born to be so, but he was very interested in finding out mysterious mathematical concepts since young. He also told me not to put so much pressure on the examination results, focus on the learning process instead. “try to like mathematics, and always do mathematics homework at first.” he gave me suggestions. Since primary school, I have a habit, that is, always do mathematics homework at last. It was because I did not want the frustration generated by doing mathematics homework to spoil my mood in doing the following homework. However, I would like to have a try since this suggestion was given by him.
Changing a habit was really a tough thing, especially when I suffered a lot in thinking and configuring the mathematical problem. In fact, I encountered several times when I do not have enough time to complete homework from other subjects in the first month. Gradually, I gained a sense of achievement every time I solved all the problems for the day. sadly, my mark in the next examination did not improved at all. Then, my mathematical teacher asked me to go to her office and talked to me. I was a bit panic because I had been called to go to her office for countless times in the past, and the theme never changed, which is, asking me to put more efforts. Unexpectedly, she was extremely gentle this time, she said that she could see my progress from recent homework, and she encouraged me to hang on for a longer time and not be discouraged by the examination result. For the first time, I found my mathematics teacher not that annoying.
I kept practicing the new habit, and I finally went out of the vicious cycle. I realise that many people may not be good at doing something inborn, but we can acquire a specific skill with continuous efforts and consistent practice.
Mengxi: Appreciate the very personal insight into your struggle with Mathematics! I think you can certainly expand much more on the turning point of your narrative: how your friend's advice affected you. As a reader, I'm interested to know why and how he "changed your view", and how you grappled with the new direction. That would certainly make the episode much more captivating and compelling.
ReplyDeleteMengxi: I am impressed by the episode you once fought your weak subject in reading your passage. To be a Chinese student once like you, I know you must have encountered a great deal of problems and difficulties. Adding more content in your struggle overcoming setbacks may make your story more attractive and fascinating!
ReplyDeleteIt is a quite detailed and lively reflective writing. It is enjoyable to read your essay. And i can see some personal understanding of life. i like this writing.
ReplyDeleteMengxi,
ReplyDeleteContent and organisation: Thank you for sharing your very honest evaluation of your weaknesses in learning Maths and speaking in English. Please do not be afraid of speaking and making mistakes because you feel other people will laugh at you when you speak. You will find that many people have the same experience as you.
Overall, you described your experiences well. However, you must pay attention to the organisation of a reflection. You began by talking about the more recent past (making friends which is relevant to now), and then talked about learning Maths (which was from longer in the past and not relevant to now). Make sure you talk about the past, present and future plans on what you would like to do to improve.
Language—Pay attention to:
1. Use of tenses: Can you see you used both present and past tenses in the same sentence that you described an event and experience in the past in these sentences?
-I used to be an outgoing and vocal girl in my home country, however, I found it is difficult to make new friends living in the hall due to the language barrier.
-During orientation week, everyone is chatting happily together except me.
-I disliked my mathematics teacher and mathematics class and things got worse. The concepts were getting increasingly difficult, and they were even harder for me to understand with a poor understanding in the previous knowledge.
2. Use of tenses: you referred to an event/experience in the past, so you should use past tense.
During orientation week, everyone is chatting happily together except me.
Since primary school, I have a habit, that is, always domathematics homework at last. It was because I did not want the frustration generated by doing mathematics homework to spoil my mood in doing the following homework. However, I would like to have a try since this suggestion was given by him.
In fact, I encountered several times when I do not have enough time to complete homework from other subjects in the first month. Gradually, I gained a sense of achievement every time I solved all the problems for the day.
3. Connection ideas together in a sentence: These are examples of comma splice sentences.
-Things got worse after orientation. Hallmates like to eat, play, study together, without proper english proficiency, I often found myself, as a reticent person, neglected by the others.
-I tried many different methods to improve it, I spent extra one hour a day to practice mathematical questions, and went for tuition every weekends, however, these efforts turned in vain eventually.
4. Use of preposition ‘expectation’ + of
My parents and teachers had high expectation to me,
5. Vocabulary: One does not ‘understand’ knowledge. One understands ‘concepts’. You either have or don’t have the knowledge.
6. Use of article (a/an): Aiming for a academically well performing student, mathematics never failed to give me a headache.