Where talent goes to grow

What should you do when you fail a subject?

Failing a subject is not to anyone’s liking; failure to accomplish an objective and having to re-study for repeats is frustrating for most students. However, the drama is not as big as many may believe. The reality is that it’s normal to fail a subject, since it’s logical that there are certain topics that cause you greater difficulties, particularly when you are being examined on multiple subjects over a short time period. The important thing is how to deal with this failure, so here are some tips to overcome this minor setback.

5 important steps after failing a subject

It’s logical that the first reactions after knowing that you have failed are of impotence, anger and discouragement, but you don’t have to be carried away by these destructive feelings. To do this, you should follow these points:

1. Learn from mistakes

failing a subjectFirst of all you must practise self-criticism and try to analyse the reasons that have caused the failure. Lack of study, incomplete notes, nervousness, poor understanding of the subject… You can only recover the failed subject if you can understand why you didn’t succeed with it in the first place. To understand better the causes, we recommend that you take online quizzes to assess which sections of the exam you have more difficulties with and spend more time reviewing them.

2. No drama!

Nobody likes to fail a subject, but you don’t have to over-dramatize. The rage for the failure must be focused positively, to strive more and have a greater spirit of improvement. Therefore, you must relativize failure; everyone has subjects that are better and worse, so when you fail a subject you shouldn’t lower your spirits. Putting too much pressure on yourself can end up causing you stress and being counterproductive in your academic performance.

3. Share your doubts

It’s fundamental to request a personal meeting with the teacher of the subject that you have failed so that you can share your doubts and understand why you did not pass. This talk can help you improve as a student and, in addition, give the teacher a good impression of your initiative. You should ask any questions you have – however trivial – and go over and over again those concepts that are harder for you to understand. Through GoConqr’s study groups you can share your questions with other users who study the same subject that you; perhaps they can give you advice or new perspectives to help you.

4. Apply new study techniques

studentsThe time you spend studying is not as important as how you do it. Perhaps you fail a subject that you spent many hours studying, so it’s understandable that you feel powerless to see that all the effort has been in vain. But instead of relying on your mistakes, you have to start applying new study techniques that help you focus better. For example, you can study with music, pause every twenty minutes, create mind maps, view documentaries of the subject or highlight key points, among others.

5. Learning to avoid nerves

Nerves can cause you not to get the best of yourself during an exam. Therefore, after you fail a subject it’s advisable to research online breathing techniques to decrease the heart rate, relax the muscles and avoid anxiety; this way, you’ll be able to face calmer the repeat exams.

Once you have followed all these steps, you can assess the reasons that led you to fail a subject and successfully overcome this setback. As Henry Ford’s quote says, “failure is the opportunity to begin again with more intelligence”.