Self Evaluation Essay
This semester was challenging but fruitful for me because I had to work hard so far but I have managed to reach a considerable progress in my learning and I believe I have been successful so far. In this regard, my failures are as important for me as or even more important than my successes because I have learned from my failures more than I have done from my success. Therefore, the main lesson I have learned is probably the fact that I should not rejoice, when I succeed, but I should rather stay aware and focused on my progress to perform well and succeed in my learning.
On analyzing my performance during the semester, I believe that I was quite successful to a significant extent. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that I have completed seven essays during the semester and almost all of them were quite successful because I received “A” grade for the majority of my essays. I really liked my performance but I am always concerned with receiving “A” grades for my work which is the only acceptable grade for me. I am success-oriented person. This is why I just cannot afford the grade below “A”.
Such personal position urges me to do my best and to work hard to gain the possibly highest degree but, on the other hand, it is sometimes difficult and even frustrating to pursue the highest degree, especially if it is extremely difficult to receive. For example, there were cases, when I felt the task was quite challenging for me to complete it successfully. This is why I had to work really hard to obtain “A” degree for those papers. Nevertheless, I am aware that such tasks have made the most significant contribution to my progress and academic development because they encouraged not only my creativity but also stimulated the development of research skills which helped me to learn more about the subject I wrote about and to improve my writing and academic performance overall (Frosh 103).
By the way, I believe research skills became particularly important for me during the semester because, while writing my papers, I conducted some research first. I have noticed that I was not really enthusiastic about researching topics which I believed I knew well. However, when I started the research, I found out many important and noteworthy facts, which I have never known before. Such revelations encouraged me to conduct the research of any topic I was writing about because it would be just arrogant from my part just to write the paper from the scratch on the ground of what I believe I know about the topic (Elliot 135). Now I believe that too much self-confidence seems to be not the best feature of a good writer.
At the same time, there was one paper which I was not really good at and which I perceive as a sheer failure. I did not receive “A” grade for that paper because it turned out to be unbalanced, not clear and too broad that made me think of the lack of focus I had, while working on that paper. Frankly, my failure was probably the best lesson I learned from the semester. This failure made me focused on my paper and encouraged me to organize my papers better since I singled out the main point and attempted to draw back-up points to support it throughout my papers.
Thus, I made a considerable progress during the semester and I am ready to keep working hard and learn not only from my success but also from my failures.
