In this blog post, I’ll summarize my study methods, school activities, and volunteer experiences from high school, along with my motivation for applying and my career plans.
Academic Experience and Reflections
Starting in my freshman year of high school, I created my own study guide to prepare for school exams and followed it consistently. Unlike mock exams, every single detail in school exams directly affects your grade, so I needed a system to minimize even the smallest mistakes. To achieve this, I organized a “morning wake-up study group” a month in advance, where my classmates and I used KakaoTalk Voice Calls to encourage each other to wake up and start studying in the morning.
After arriving at school, I started my day by reading my textbooks repeatedly at a leisurely pace. In the morning, rather than tackling complex problems, I would wake up my mind by reading my familiar Korean language textbook. Then, when my friends arrived, we’d have a 30-minute study session to check our progress and discuss key questions in Korean, math, and English. Afterward, I utilized class time, breaks, and self-study periods to apply a three-step method for reading textbooks: first, skimming the entire text; second, reading while comparing it to my notes; and third, reading while highlighting sections likely to appear on exams.
In math, since skills improve more through problem-solving than by simply reading the textbook, I made sure to solve at least one additional challenging problem during breaks, and I resolved any parts I didn’t understand by discussing them with my study group members. For memorization-based subjects, I combined reciting aloud at home—more so than at school—with using Post-it notes to repeatedly review sections I had trouble remembering. A week before exams, I worked through past exam question books to conduct a final review in a simulated test environment.
Major School Activities and Reflections
Starting in my freshman year of high school, I participated in the chemistry lab club, where I gained experience in systematic experiment design and repeated hands-on practice. Our club was a place where we could freely plan and carry out various chemistry-related activities—not just experiments, but also reading and discussions—and I frequently visited the club room to read relevant books and review reports written by upperclassmen to come up with ideas for experiments.
In the club, we typically formed teams of three to design experiments, and if we didn’t get the desired results, we repeated the experiment until we did. We called this persistent approach “the ‘go-all-the-way’ experiment,” and we never stopped the process of formulating hypotheses, adjusting conditions, and identifying problems. For example, during a concentration experiment, the results did not follow our hypothesis for two weeks, and I even felt tempted to tamper with the experiment. However, under our teacher’s guidance, we modified the experimental conditions, identified the problem, and ultimately succeeded after three weeks.
We also placed great importance on the habit of documenting the experimental process. We organized the experimental procedures and results in our “Chemistry Lab Notebook,” which covered topics such as changes in the state of matter, solubility and solutions, batteries and electrolysis, acid-base reactions, chemical changes and energy, and organic chemistry, along with our observations. At first, we struggled because we didn’t know how to write reports, but by consulting various resources and receiving feedback from our teacher, we learned how to take accurate notes. Our teacher would read through our reports line by line, pointing out errors and praising the parts we did well; through this feedback, our report-writing skills and ability to present logical arguments improved significantly.
I also had the opportunity to conduct experiments at an off-campus camp. After experiencing microbial culture and enzyme experiments, I wrote a paper in the style of a scientific research paper and submitted it to a research competition, where it received high marks. Unlike a simple report, a research paper requires a table of contents and logical progression, so it took a lot of time; however, the process of collaborating with my teammates to achieve the best possible results was a valuable learning experience in itself.
Examples of Compassion, Sharing, and Collaboration, and My Reflections
During my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I participated in rural volunteer activities on two separate occasions. This program, held regularly in a farming village near my school, aimed to provide nature experiences while offering practical assistance with farm operations. Typically, I stayed for seven nights and eight days with about twenty friends, helping to cultivate crops every morning and maintaining the fields and greenhouses.
The daily routine of working bent over under the scorching sun and sweating profusely was not easy. Realizing that the elderly villagers carried out this work every day made me feel an even greater sense of responsibility. We helped with post-harvest management as well—packing the harvested crops into baskets and transporting them to the community center, drying chili peppers and bracken for storage, and refrigerating tomatoes. Personally, I particularly remember the experience of spreading chili peppers out on a large mat to dry, handling the storage and processing entirely on my own.
During the volunteer work I participated in during my sophomore year, the greenhouses had been further upgraded, so I performed more detailed tasks inside the facilities, such as pruning and leaf maintenance for mini watermelons, checking the growth status of pineapples, and applying fertilizers and maintaining hygiene in the citrus greenhouses. Through farm work that required many people to collaborate and work together, I deeply felt the importance of cooperation, and seeing the farms improve year after year gave me a sense of pride that my contributions had made a tangible difference.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
A major trait of my personality is my strong curiosity and spirit of inquiry. Whenever a topic piques my curiosity, I tend to look up related books and try conducting experiments on my own. My habit of reading textbooks in advance at the beginning of the semester stems from this inclination, and I was particularly interested in the field of scientific inquiry. Drawn to chemistry, I participated in various experimental activities and club events, and through small study groups, I gained experience researching science-related essay topics and organizing my thoughts in writing.
Throughout high school, I conducted various experiments accessible to high school students. For example, I was particularly fascinated by experiments related to the human body, such as extracting DNA from oral epithelial cells, and I delved deeper into the subject by collecting articles on biotechnology, such as those about the Human Genome Project. Through this process, I developed a strong interest in research topics related to the brain and was drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience, which connects fields such as biotechnology, medicine, psychology, and computer science.
After entering college, I plan to enroll in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) with the goal of pursuing graduate studies, allowing me to immerse myself deeply in a specific field. During my undergraduate studies, I hope to join a research lab to establish a solid foundation in experimentation and academic writing. Specifically, I would like to participate in research that measures and visualizes how the brain’s state during dreaming differs from its normal state. I believe that by visualizing brain waves and neural activity and combining them with technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), we can create new applications that bring brain activity to life.
Although this field is still in its early stages of research, my dream is to grow into a pioneering researcher who can visualize brain waves and develop new interfaces or applied technologies based on them. I hope to build my experimental skills as an undergraduate and, after acquiring interdisciplinary research capabilities through in-depth graduate studies, lead research that integrates neuroscience and engineering.
