Personal Narrative

Faith Factor
CIS WRIT 1201
10/11/17

Choosing Classes Wisely

         Have you ever struggled trying to decide which classes to take in high school, or even college? What classes will the be the best choice for you personally? There is a lot to think about when deciding what classes you are ready for and what you want to challenge yourself with. I have had these struggles throughout my high school years. I am currently a senior and taking college classes. That was a big decision and a lot of thought was put into it.
         Starting out my sophomore year, I took the regular level english class. As I went through the class throughout the year, I noticed it really was not challenging me at all. So at the end of the year, when I was deciding which english class to take for my junior year, I had two options. I talked to my guidence counselor. She said, "You could take the regular next step in the classes and take the English 11 course; which is what most students in your class will be doing. But if you are not feeling challenged enough and think you could make the big jump to PC English11/12, that could be a good challenge for you to take on". I looked over my options and thought that I would challenge myself by moving up to the PC level class. This ended up being a large jump and in the beginning I felt slightly behind but I took on the challenge and did well in the class.
After doing well in the PC class I needed to decide which class would be a good option for me to take senior year. I knew I definitely wanted to take one that I would receive college credits for, yet try to not stress myself out too much being I would be taking other college-in-schools classes. "There are a lot of different options as a senior," my counselor told me. I began doing my research into all the different classes, college and noncollege classes. I first decided that I would for sure be taking a course that I would receive college credits along with high school credits. Then I narrowed it down to the main courses students take such as CIS Literature and CIS Composition, and some of the other courses that looked like classes that would be beneficial for me to get ready for college. I knew that I needed work on my writing skills so I immediately took out CIS Literature as an option, since that was a reading and discussion based course. I noticed that CIS Writing Studio was exactly the kind of thing I knew I personally needed to work on to better prepare myself for college. CIS Writing Studio introduces you to basic writing strategies you will need for college-level courses. I am now currently taking the class and I am very happy with my choice. At the end of the semester I will have written papers where I describe my personal experience, analyze the experiences of others, critique the ideas in reading, argue for or against a topic, and report on research I will conduct. With all of this, I know that this will be a very beneficial class for me.
Since CIS Writing Studio is only a semester class I wanted to take another english course for my second semester. You are not required to take another english course if one of your courses is a college course because they earn you more high school credits also. But I figured I might as well get some more college credits for free right? So, I decided to take another writing based course, CIS Composition. This class is very similar to writing studio as far as the kind of papers we write. It might be a slightly more challenging class for me but after taking CIS Writing Studio, I am hoping I will be well prepared for it.
Choosing classes can be a very difficult thing especially if you are unsure of what you need to work on to improve yourself; whether it be in english, math, science, or history. There are usually a range of classes you are forced to choose from as a high school or college student. You should really always put thought into what classes are best for you because sometimes taking the most advanced classes will not benefit you in a good way at all. You need to sit down and look at your strengths and weaknesses and what would be the best option for you to move forward in your education. Choose wisely and you won't regret your decisions.