The Most Constructive Academic Setback That I Have Experienced

I dealt with a significant academic failure in seventh grade pre-algebra, when my first test of the year was passed back and I found that I had gotten a far-less-than-ideal score. I had always enjoyed math and it had come easily to me, and until that point studying for math tests had seemed unnecessary and counterintuitive; if I knew the concept, I would be able to do it right on a test. My first seventh-grade test quickly debunked this idea- as it turned out, I really didn’t know the concepts as well as I had thought. While I was disappointed, I wanted to make sure I fared better in the future, so I talked to my teacher, who recommended reviewing all of a unit’s homework before each test. I took her advice, and doing extra review drastically increased my overall understanding of what we were learning and helped me to do much better on our other exams. Since then, I’ve used this same study tactic on most of my math tests, and it’s helped me to test my understanding of each concept and work out any issues I have understanding the material before each exam. Now, when I think of this event, I don't feel upset- I'm relieved that I had the learning experience early enough that it didn't negatively effect my overall year in math but it did help me build stronger study skills which I used throughout middle school and can now use in high school math.