A time where I most struggled in a class I would say it’s when I took general chemistry 1 at Western Iowa Tech Community College. Where like most I thought that because it was community college I figured it would be easy. I had never taken a chemistry class before mainly because I was a little intimidated by it. So, I took it at my community college where I heard around campus that it was hard. Once again, I was intimidated by it but took anyways because I knew I needed it my degree and to get into med school.
On the first day of the class Mr. Manoj Patil tells us what to expect and what he expects from us. He described his class as ivy league education with a community college price, with he expected us to do better than the kids at the University of Iowa on the ACS test. His average was above universities averages and above the national average. You knew what was expected of you in that class.
I started to struggle in his class and started attending the tutor every morning to get some help and a better understanding. I really needed help understanding stoichiometry and how to work out problems, my issue was reading and understanding what I read properly. I would get to school an hour earlier to go see the tutor and get some help. I would stay after class with two of my classmates to either discuss what was taught today and ask each other questions and help one another figure out our problems. We would be there for almost an hour helping one another.
There wasn’t a day where I saw a problem that I didn’t need a little help figuring it out. This class required a lot of studying because if you didn’t get one part you wouldn’t would struggle understanding the next part. So I had cut my hours at my job in order to get more time to study and prepare for test and the ACS test. There was something about Mr.Patil where I felt like I didn’t want to let him down. He was also the only teacher I had who really showed that he was willing to do almost anything for his students. It was one of the hardest class that I work for. In the end I was proud with the grade I got and that class made me a better student for my future classes.
