In this blog post, I’ll summarize my academic efforts and school activities during high school, examples of my consideration and cooperation, and my preparations for college.
Academic Experiences and Reflections
While preparing for the TOEIC during my freshman year of high school, I happened to come across TEPS practice questions and realized that the TEPS exam format was a better fit for my study habits and English proficiency than the TOEIC. This was because TEPS places greater emphasis on speed, and the ability to quickly and accurately answer short questions is key. When preparing for the TOEIC, I found it most challenging to read long passages and answer multiple grammar questions mixed within a single passage; in contrast, TEPS passages and questions are generally shorter, which suited my learning style better.
With a large number of questions and a short time limit, it was not easy to maintain both speed and accuracy. I believed that the key to solving problems quickly in every section was to practice a large volume of questions, so I made consistent practice my guiding principle. When I took the TEPS for the first time without any preparation, I scored around 500, but I didn’t give up because I saw potential.
I started every morning by listening to listening comprehension questions, and I especially saved the files for questions that played long conversations twice and listened to them repeatedly on my MP3 player every day. For grammar, I created a notebook to track my mistakes—a “grammar notebook”—and organized and reviewed it repeatedly, focusing on my weak areas such as tenses, word conjugations, gerunds, participles, and articles. As I repeatedly solved problems, I realized that certain question types appeared frequently, and I used this insight to address my weaknesses.
For reading comprehension, I relied on my school’s after-school program. In a class focused specifically on TEPS reading, the teacher timed us as we worked through past exam questions within the allotted time, which helped me develop a sense of what the actual test would be like. As a result of studying listening, grammar, and reading comprehension in a balanced manner, I surpassed my target score of 750 after about a year of preparation, which gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
Description of Major School Activities and Reflections
I served as vice-class president starting in my freshman year of high school and continued in the same role during my sophomore year. In my freshman year, I volunteered for the position and was primarily responsible for maintaining order in the classroom, establishing rules, and managing the class log and record book. At the time, the role of vice-class president was to assist the class president, and because of the few perks granted to student officers, I sometimes heard comments like, “The perks outweigh the work.”
In my second year, I became vice-class president again at the recommendation of my friends. From that point on, I changed my mindset and established a principle of not just doing the tasks assigned to me, but actively seeking out and taking on responsibilities on my own. While the class president often received tasks through communication with the homeroom teacher, the vice-class president rarely received assignments unless they took the initiative. So, I began to proactively identify and carry out tasks that neither the class president nor the homeroom teacher had assigned—tasks that no one else was handling.
For example, managing leave slips was originally the homeroom teacher’s responsibility, but many students would go to the faculty office during breaks only to find the teacher wasn’t there. To solve this problem, I offered to take full charge of managing the leave slips. I made sure to accurately record the reasons for each request and strictly adhered to rules I set myself—such as not issuing a slip to the same student more than once a week—to prevent overuse. Once this system proved effective, my homeroom teacher also entrusted me with managing the study hall exemption passes.
Managing these passes required even more careful attention because the process involved collecting and storing parental confirmation forms later on. I strictly enforced the rule that students who failed to bring their confirmation forms would not be issued another exemption pass, and by making the rules clear from the start, my classmates naturally came to understand and cooperate with them.
In addition, I helped distribute and collect survey responses for the school trip, took meeting minutes, and took charge of the class’s financial affairs—including collecting the school trip fees and preparing the cash in advance. Through these experiences, I was recognized within the class as a diligent officer and a responsible person, and I felt a deep sense of pride as I sensed my own sense of responsibility growing.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections
During our high school senior year’s first-semester field trip to Gapyeong, I realized once again that class members must cooperate with one another to ensure safe and smooth activities. I understood that if we didn’t assign roles during a class meeting before the trip, some classmates might lose their sense of responsibility and drop out along the way, so we divided into teams—such as cleaning, cooking, entertainment, student council, and snacks—to clearly define everyone’s responsibilities.
I took on the role of cooking team leader and held preliminary meetings to plan what dishes to prepare and how to purchase and transport the ingredients. Although it was a short two-day, one-night trip, the large class size made purchasing ingredients and checking equipment essential. We decided on a menu of pork belly, rice, and soybean paste soup—dishes that are widely popular among students. After confirming that a traditional earthenware pot was available on-site, we prepared and packed ingredients suitable for that pot, and we requested same-day delivery for the meat to ensure freshness.
Once we arrived, I worked with my team members starting in the afternoon to prep ingredients and prepare for cooking. As the team leader, I divided the team into smaller groups: a team for washing the vegetables for wraps, a team for preparing the ingredients for the soybean paste soup, and a team for preparing the rice in the traditional earthenware pot. In particular, I assigned many people to prepare the freshwater snails and the ingredients for the soybean paste soup, such as potatoes, mushrooms, chili peppers, perilla leaves, chives, minced garlic, and tofu. While overseeing the entire cooking process, I also experimented with making rice in a traditional earthenware pot using peas and kelp.
Seeing my friends enjoy the food we made—by dividing up our responsibilities and helping one another—made me feel the true reward of cooperation. The combination of role assignment, advance preparation, and mutual support played a major role in creating a safe and enjoyable field trip.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
During my school years, I was often described as someone who values customs, principles, and rules, which naturally led me to participate extensively in student leadership roles. These experiences sparked my interest in administrative work and led me to choose a major in Public Administration. My experience as a class vice-president, where I took on responsibilities and fulfilled my duties, allowed me to internalize the mindset required for a managerial position well in advance.
Once I enter college, I intend not only to diligently study the curriculum in the Department of Public Administration but also to continue participating in leadership roles, such as the student council, to develop the foundational skills required of an administrator. My goal after graduation is to work in the university’s administrative office, and to that end, I plan to grow into a diligent professional by acquiring the necessary language skills and administrative work experience in advance.
