AP European History. The hardest and most beneficial class review is finally here. This review will include everything that I think a freshman is going to need to know for this class as well as my emotions and encounters in case anyone took the class and wanted to see I corroborate your feelings.

On the first day of this class I get handed this extremely dense book with a font size of 11. However, at the same time, I not only met my favorite teacher, but I felt a rush of confidence put on my shoulders. I was recommended for this class freshman year and I was on the fence if I was going to take it or not. I went back and forth with my opinions and my final decision obviously was to take it. This singlehandedly was probably the best decision of my life. Here’s why.

When you step into a room filled with people you know who are smarter than you, you feel self conscious. It’s inevitable because it’s human nature. It feels poorly to be worse at something than the person sitting next to you. Now, Mr. Morales-Thomason does a perfect job of dissipating that feeling. He personally believes that every single person taking his class, is supposed to be there even if they are not scoring well. That’s the difference between a regular, lackluster teacher and him. He cares, and he tries to make his lessons fun and relate to the real world. He tries to think of as many analogies as possible since history is extremely complicated. If I did not take this class, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of being taught by such an incredible teacher.

Next, the workload for this class is nothing like any tenth grade course. I currently am on the varsity volleyball team and have to be in the gym for an immense number of hours during my week in the fall season. I had to learn to manage my time, not procrastinate, and fall asleep as quickly as possible. All of these skills are crucial for life that I didn’t have before. I used to be terrible at getting work done in a short period of time, but now it’s all I’m capable of. This skill I will have for the remainder of my life. I would’ve probably gained this skill later, but it is better to master these skills earlier. Also, another skill I have developed is confidence. Before the class I thought of myself as decently smart, but having this class in my schedule puts a person’s academic confidence high.

Don’t get me wrong there is a flip side which is what brings me to my last beneficial quality from this class. I needed to learn how to accept failure. I am used to getting good grades in all my classes. However, this class was the exception. I couldn’t get my average to what I wanted and that was a problem. The first quarter was clearly the hardest. My scores were very low and I couldn’t take this constant negativity on myself. December 1st was the drop date and I had considered dropping countless times because the course was going to hurt my average. For those of you reading this who have already taken this class, you have probably gone through the same dilemma. Most kids who take this class are hardworking. Most kids who stay in the class are driven. Being the competitive and driven person I am, I decided to stay because I received a promising grade on an in class essay.

Freshmen reading this may have a different idea of what an in class essay is. I’ll clarify. A DBQ or a regular essay MUST be written in 40 minutes or less. For a DBQ, you have 10 minutes to read, annotate and come up with groupings for an essay. Then, for the next 30 minutes the essay must be written and include evidence from the majority of the documents and POV analysis which is explaining the reliability of the source of the document. All in all, it is very stressful, but it gets easier throughout the year. When I put it into words it sounds terrifying. I can imagine, however the feeling after is rewarding. To this day, I am still receiving bad grades on multiple choice quizzes. I even cried about a grade since I studied for hours and didn’t get the result every student is looking for. Since then I have realized that this is one of the hardest college level courses available to high school students. Many students in college might be doing worse than me and I am only fifteen. The emotion of failure isn’t a pleasant one for anyone, but it is crucial to learn how to deal with failure. This quality is needed for the rest of my life if I want to be successful.

Success cannot be achieved the first try; one must fail and try again. The people who try harder the next time after their failures are the people who become successful. All of these qualities, including drive, passion and diligence, are a necessity for a fulfilled education. To wrap up my thoughts,