Studying Grade 12 At Home
When I was in grade 12, there was only one high school for girls in Mecca and that school had only one class for students in the arts track. I was in the science track. So I had to study at home and had to sit for the final exam at the end of the academic year.

During grade 12, I was fully responsible for my own studying as my father was always out at work, my mother could not read or write, my older brother was in the States and I was the oldest child at home. In addition, I was a proud student and had great self-confidence. Studying at home was a new experience for me. I considered more as an adventure than as a burden or obstacle, and I enjoyed the challenge very much. I decided to succeed in my endeavor no matter how much it cost me, as grade 12 was a critical year in my life. I felt that I was my own master.

At the beginning of the school year, my father got me all the books. I went through the books one by one and examined the number of chapters in each. I divided each book by the number of months in the academic year, then by number of weeks and found out how many pages I needed to cover each week. Those, in turn, were broken into two, three and four study sessions per week. Weekly allotments differed from one subject to another.

Second, I sat to build my own study schedule. I built two schedules: A morning schedule and an afternoon schedule. My morning schedule was similar to a school schedule and my afternoon schedule was for reviewing, doing homework and solving problems and preparing for the next day. In my morning schedule I had 5-7 classes per day. Each class lasted for 45, 60 or 90 minutes depending on the length and difficulty level of the subject. I also had breaks in between, a lunch hour and naptime. During the study periods, I used to read the assigned pages, as a teacher would do in class.

In my afternoon schedule, I also had several study periods, breaks, and time for dinner. In the afternoon, I reviewed what I studied in the morning, and did all the exercises and solved the math and science problems in my textbooks. In addition to that, I had 4 tutors who taught me four subjects: math, Arabic grammar and rhetoric, physics and English. I studied the rest of the subjects on my own without the help of tutors. My tutors never explained the lesson in full to me. Rather, they explained the parts that I did not understand and helped solve the math and science problems that I found difficult. Each tutor came twice or three times a week. Tutoring sessions were part of my afternoon schedule as well.

I always started my morning sessions at the same time and stopped studying at the same time, took lunch and a nap and then resumed my afternoon schedule at the same time. I always tried to stick to the time allotted to each subject whether I finished the part I was supposed to study for that day or not. If I finished a subject in less than the designated time, I would use the remaining time to finish what was unfinished. This happened occasionally.

I always started my day and moved from one subject to another with a surge of enthusiasm. I enjoyed every word I read and every problem I solved. The more I covered of each subject, the greater my sense of achievement became.

Two months before the final exams, I had covered all the material in my textbooks and had started my review of all the subjects. I reviewed every textbook, solved all the math problems and did all the exercises 3 times. I had a special schedule for that as well.

By the time the final exams started, I had mastered all the subjects. I had one final exam per day. During the test session, I had no problem recalling the information and answering the questions, although I did not have in-term tests during the academic year like students in a regular school. In my case, each final exam was graded out of 100. When the final exam results were published in the newspaper, I found out that I had passed with good grades. My parents, especially my father, were very proud of me.

Passing the high school exam had a special value to me as it culminated a year full of hard work and the highest level of self-discipline and determination. It gave me more self-confidence, and strengthened my belief in my ability to achieve anything I aspire for.

Studying French in Grade 10
Between the ages of 5-15, I lived in Jordan where I went to school. In the middle of grade 10 I moved back to Saudi Arabia. My father registered me in Al-Zahra'a School. On my first day, I found out that my classmates were taking French and had covered half of the textbook. I did not know a single word. I did not panic at all because I loved to learn languages and thought learning French would be exciting. When I got home, I told my father about it and he took me to a tutor: an old teacher from Lebanon. In the first class we started with Unit One which consisted with a set of pictures and the names of the objects underneath (4 rows of pictures with 4 pictures in each row). He read them once for me and asked me to read. I started laughing because I could not pick up the pronunciation of those words. I was the first time I hear French words. I started to read and the tutor prompted me. Next, the tutor asked me to look at the first row of pictures, close the book and spell them without looking at the book. I found that task challenging and could only spell those that were similar to English like "auto, tente" but misspelled the rest. The teacher said that was O.K. because it was the first class and that I was supposed to memorize all the words at home and had to spell them the following day. He told me he wanted me to have a good foundation in French. I went home excited and thought the first class was fun. Every time I went to the tutor's, I took several lessons, had to read, had to spell and most importantly had to write down the verb conjugation. I found French grammar a bit difficult because there is feminine and masculine gender and the definite and indefinite articles have to agree with the noun in number and gender. I had to remember the gender of each noun and I found nouns whose gender is different from Arabic difficult and confusing. But those required more memorization, more review. I always studied and memorized everything the teacher taught me. Everyday I had to spell and recite the conjugation of verb "etre" and "avoir". The tutor was a good language teacher but very strict. If I made a single mistake or forgot a form that goes with a single pronoun, or forgot the gender of a noun, he would tell my father that I was not studying properly. He would also tell me that I was negligent. He expected me to know every single word perfectly well. My father was very understanding and never yelled at me or punished me. Everyday, I studied the words (meaning, spelling, conjugation, singular and plural forms), answered the comprehension questions. At the end of the week, I'd review the whole weeks work. I would spend extra time studying and reviewing those words that I found difficult or confusing. When I was a student, I always liked to go beyond the book for extra practice. I used my brother's French-Arabic dictionary to learn extra words and read more about French grammar. The dictionary had an appendix that covered everything a student needs to know about French pronunciation and French grammar. Very accurate and detailed descriptions and explanations were given in Arabic. I used to read the instructions and apply what is there. In just few weeks, I could catch up with my classmates and I became very good in French. I even surpassed my classmates who were struggling with the French language. Our French teacher at school was a lady from Lebanese and she had difficulty managing the class and making things clear, i.e. she was a poor language teacher and the students did not know much French. So I started to teach my classmates everything my tutor taught me.

My First Day in School
When I was five years old, my parents sent me to Jordan to start school. I got there at night and the following morning my aunt took me to school. I still remember 2 unusual, but interesting incidents that happened that day which I will never forget for the rest of my life. The first one is the candy boxes that my grandfather had bought and had my aunt take to school as a gift for my teachers and classmates. Before I went to my classroom, my aunt took me to the principal's office and had me hold one box and offer it to the school principal. I did that with my arms up (I was too short and the principal was too tall then), my head down and my eyes looking at the floor. I was so shy as all the teachers were looking at me and smiling. Next, we went to my classroom and I had to carry the second box, go around and give candy to every child in my class. Once again I was shy as I was never among so many children in one room. The reason I had to take candy with me to school was that when I was born, I was the first baby girl in the family. My grandfather was so happy. He made a promise that if he lived to see me go to school, he would send my teachers and classmates chocolate. I still remember how the boxes looked like. The second incident is that I tried to go home on my own and I got lost. I was walking in the street and crying. My aunt was a high school student. Although she asked me to wait for her to pick me up, I found the school gate open and decided to wander around. Thinking that I could walk home on my own, I was walking in circles and did not know where to go. So I cried and cried and cried. But finally, my aunt was able to find me and take me home safely.