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 โAโ
grade for the majority of my essays. I really liked my performance but I am always concerned with
receiving โAโ 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 โAโ.
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 โAโ 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 โAโ 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.
