In my sophomore year, I took AP Language.

The teacher introduced timed writes.

You will write a rhetorical analysis tomorrow.

This year is going to be so hard!

I read the entire passage, I was confused and stared blankly at it.

The clock was ticking fast and I still had not written anything. So I started writing down anything as fast as I can.

8:43

2/5

This timed write was just the start of my realization that English class in not suited for me.

Throughout my year in AP Language class I learned that I am a slow reader, can not annotate, and have poor writing skills.

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Even though I struggled with English in high school, I always knew that English wasn't my strongest subject.

I am way to slow at reading. Everyone always finishes before me

I don't understand how to annotate.

My writing doesn't make any sense.

I didn't appreciate how I was not good in my English classes. So I thought to myself why am I not good at English

I try so hard but I still don't understand how to do good in English class.

Then I realized, that all my life I have been surrounded by math. I have always had a strong focus on math.

My dad’s degree is in finance and statistics, my mom has excelled in math throughout school, and my sister and I excel in math and easily understand it; we are two years ahead in math.

This realization told me that with my math mindset, I will always try to find one direct answer and not find an open-ended answer like English encourages.

X

Now that I know why I struggle, I will focus on creating more open-ended answers.