Ap World History Reflection

Mr. Lillis’s AP World History is known across my school for its brutality and time consumption, but still draws over 50 sophomores into its claws each year. Perhaps it was the excitement of taking my first AP, or the fact that I had never really felt challenged in any of my classes that convinced me to sign up, but I had definitely underestimated its workload. In a way, I was ill-prepared for the course. I had never been in a history class half as rigorous as AP World, and my strong suits lay in math and science. I soon found myself spending hours each day reading and outlining articles and textbook pages, stressing over the odd way Mr. Lillis graded even the smallest assignments. “Optimal stress” was what he called it, as he doled out thirty

Instead of doing practice problems like I did in math, I would outline and re-organize my notes to internalize historical concepts and how events intertwined with themselves and their contexts. I had to consciously take steps back from the material to grasp the overarching themes that were central to the course, which I rarely had to do in math and science. I figured that consistent, paced out work was the best way avoid overwhelming myself, and as I planned my outlining throughout the week, my time management skills increased to the point that I felt strange not maximizing my waking hours. The time consuming nature of the class convinced me that I couldn’t afford to waste a single minute, and while this has drastically improved my time management skills, it has also convinced me that I am motivated and skilled enough to conquer any of the challenges to come. I’ve built up a new skill set through AP World, one of self-discipline, consistent hard work, and adaptive learning, that I can rely on and improve upon in the coming

I ultimately decided to write about a topic that not only tapped into my interests in STEM fields, but was packed with potential for progress as well, which for me, turned out to be genetic engineering.

Later that week, as I flipped through pages of reference books about the advancements we’ve made in genetic engineering and biotechnology, I gradually became more and more fascinated by the field and its accomplishments. I marvelled at technologies like CRISPR, the potential they hold for the future health and medicine, and their inherent intimacy with human life. I became captivated by the idea of working on projects that have the power to change and save the lives of patients battling cancer or Parkinson’s, and the volume of happiness that could stem from successful biotechnological