Recovering from bad exam results

With midterm examination week over it is likely that many students will be receiving their grades within the next week or so, which is where I figured this post may come in handy for some. Bad exam results are not uncommon, especially amongst first year students as you are still learning your way around the course, and bad results certainly do not signal the end of the world. It is very easy to become down, demotivated or depressed after suffering from bad grades, especially if you believe that you should have done better, however you must instead pick yourself up and start again for the next semester. So, putting the past results behind us, how do we move forward and improve for the next time?

Look at your preparation – Did you prepare enough for the examinations? Did you leave preparing too late? When looking back it is very important to be honest with yourself, and to decide if you could have spent more time studying, rather than talking to a friend on Facebook. As the saying goes, ‘the first step to recover is admitting your mistakes’, so it is important to assess your preparation properly in order to improve next time. If you didn’t spend enough time revising, then you know you should start revising a week or two earlier for your next exams, allowing you enough time to revise.

Get feedback – Most universities will give you the opportunity to look at your marked exam paper and talk to the teacher who marked it; this is a great time to get feedback on where you could improve and where you lost marked. Understanding WHY you got things wrong is very important, otherwise you don’t know how to improve in the future.

Revise in the library – Sometimes it helps to get out of your comfort zone and force yourself to work. I find that working in the library makes me more productive as there aren’t as many distractions as at home. You are also surrounded by other students who are working hard on their own assignments which puts you under some pressure to start working.

Join a study group – Perhaps joining a study group would be beneficial if you struggle to understand parts of your lecture, as you will have a group of people who help each other learn. Chances are that one or more of the other students will know a bit more about certain parts than you, and you know more than them on other parts, so that way you can help each other. It also lowers the workload if you have a lot of notes to type up or cases to brief as you can split the work amongst the group.

Do your best – If you have put the time and effort into revising, but still don’t get the grade you wanted, don’t beat yourself up over it. At the end of the day you will know that you tried your best, and as long as you firmly believe that you gave it your all, you won’t feel too bad about receiving a lower grade than you would have liked. Many people only feel down after an examination because they know that they could have done better if they had put the work in.

Don’t judge yourself on grades - It’s only natural that some people will be more talented in some subjects than you are and hence get a higher grade. Grades are not the be all and end all of academic or professional success; there are many successful businessmen and women who have not completed a degree at all, yet are still recognised as famous and successful. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were university drop-outs and never completed a degree, so don’t worry about your GPA so much, instead just work hard on completing your studies and having a good time.

Posted in: Tips