How to Deal with Academic Failure

How you react to Academic failure determines your future success. Are you moving toward future success?

Let’s start things off and get honest, OK? Earning a college degree means facing academic failure. Failure means not meeting expectations and at some point, you aren’t going to meet the expectations of an assessment, or maybe even your own expectations. But, if I take an exam and don’t pass, does that mean I am a failure?

No way!

Look at your progress in the context of the big picture. What is your real goal? Is it to excel at everything you do, or is it to earn a degree and build a career?

The most important skill we can master in life is to be resilient in the face of failure. How you deal with academic failure ultimately determines the next step you take, which determines the next result. It’s really important!

How will you face Academic Failure?

Imagine you have been studying for an important exam. You have been doing your best work to fit in study time as much as possible and reviewing in the best way you know. You’re giving it all you got!

Scores come in and you score 71% on the exam; the passing score was 72%.

It does not feel great. I’ve been there.

Now, most people are going to say “I failed the exam”. This is traditionally what we coin as an academic failure. There are a hundred ways to approach this type of setback, and I want to examine two different approaches.

Scenario A

You decide you are a terrible student and will never be able to earn an A. That thought makes you feel really discouraged, and when discouraged you don’t put forth your best effort for the next exam. You don’t study as much as you have been. You stop taking notes. You just don’t feel like working hard when it really didn’t help you last time. The result of this will most likely be that you don’t earn an A on the next exam.

The very first thought is crucial because it determines how you feel about yourself as a student and the course you are working on. And you’ll get the proof you were looking for based on the initial thought. That thought, by the way, is a decision and a choice to think, it is not a fact. Case in point…

Scenario B

You decide that this sucks, but you’ll learn how to do better and earn an A next time. You’re feeling disappointed, but also hopeful and determined to do better. You go over the exam and identify where you went wrong and devise strategies to focus on the material in a different way.

You might not earn an A on the next exam, but you eventually will.

In both of these scenarios, the exam score is the same, but how you decide to think about it determines the actions you take next, and ultimately the final results.

Doesn’t your brain feel powerful right now? It is literally shaping your future!

The way you think about academic failure is by deciding what happens next!

I have not only been a college student for seven long years, but I also work with hundreds of students after they take and do not pass an exam. With each academic failure, mindset is the biggest factor in how well they do on their next exam. Students who do not believe they can do better usually do not reattempt the exam. It makes sense. If you don’t think you can do it, why try?

Students who decided to think differently have radically different outcomes. These students still struggle with the material but are determined to keep trying and believe they can do this. And they do. Every single time.

It can feel like your thoughts are out of your control. Like they just happen to you. But they don’t.

We all have thoughts flutter into our consciousness and we can’t control that they pop up. But we can control whether or not we continue thinking about them. This is a skillset. You can manage your mind and chose what thoughts you think on purpose.

The more you practice identifying your thoughts and shaping them to serve you, the better you will get at it. Then you can finally stop sabotaging yourself and start reaching your goals.

Decide how to feel ahead of time

Let’s take this one step further by planning ahead for how you want to feel.

If you were to take an exam next week and earn 96%, how do you want to feel about it? Do you want to feel proud, excited, or confused? What thought would you be thinking when you felt that way?

Now think about the other end of the spectrum. If you were to take an exam next week and earn 64%, how do you want to feel about it? Do you want to feel ashamed, determined, or confused? What thought would you be thinking when you felt that way?

It is a lot easier to think about this ahead of time when you aren’t facing the real crisis and feeling the real emotions.

When you have a plan for how you want to feel, figure out how to stop feeling overwhelmed, and get motivated for college. Since we’re making the most out of exams, take a look at these two test-taking tips for better grades and how to crush exam fear.