This is a little follow-up to a small discussion that I had with my classmates in computer science class.
I strongly believe that anyone can learn and achieve their fullest potential academically with the right mindset. And I certainly posit that perseverance is a quality that is much more than saying “never give up”. In fact, I think that the best people are those who truly demonstrate the fullest extent of perseverance by pushing through times when it seems like everything seems to go wrong.
Following this line of reasoning, I don’t think there’s anything bad with taking the SAT 6 or 7 times to achieve your desired score. If you’re starting at 1100 and you want a perfect score, go for it! Keep pushing because the only way to get there yourself comes down to your preparation and mindset (especially your mindset). Some of my classmates believe that it may look a little bad on college applications because of the number of times you’ve taken it and the accumulation of poor scores, but as long as you achieve that desired score, whatever that may be (1200, 1450, 1600), many bad scores followed by an exceptional performance show that you’ve pushed past the point where people typically say “go give up because you aren’t going to improve”. And even if it looks bad on college applications, it doesn’t matter. Pushing past the brink of exhaustion, especially after countless failures, is one of the lessons I had to learn the very hard way through a multitude of “bad” scores (many close to 0 or 1 right in total) in math contests. We have to accept failure not as a block on our road to success, but as an opportunity to learn.
So the number of chances that you take doesn’t matter on the long run. Because if you do eventually get that score, even if you may seem dumb or stupid doing it so many times, you still got it. And in real life, we’ll need to learn how to face adversity and push past the pain. The real test of our mettle is whether or not we are going to keep going in hard times, not when everything is going well.
But even though the number of chances doesn’t matter, it doesn’t mean that you should take those attempts halfheartedly. Sometimes, life only gives you a certain number of chances, and that means that you should try your VERY best on every single opportunity.
Senior year will be my last chance for many activities and hobbies in high school. I’ll try my best.