No matter how good students we are, once in college it is normal for us to find that we have failed a subject. What do we do? Adaptation to the environment
It may be that in the year we enter college we experience so many changes that we feel overwhelmed. Even more so when, in addition to everything, we have left the place where we lived to embark on the adventure of studying in a different city and surrounded by new people. It is also usually the year in which we reach our legal age and in which we leave behind many study habits and schedules that have accompanied us in previous stages. College is the big leagues and, like everything important, we may need a period of adaptation. It is not the same to be in a class with 30 students as in one with 150, the treatment of teachers is not always personal (in fact, they usually don't even recognize our faces even if they try to hide it), the syllabus is very extensive, and the classroom atmosphere is different. Due to these reasons, it should not surprise us to find one or two failed exams; but there is no need to despair, despite what our parents say and what our conscience tells us, failing a subject (no matter what our parents say and no matter what our conscience says) is not the end of the world. Luckily, there are recovery exams. There is no need to beat ourselves up or cut our veins, what we have to do is adapt to the university rhythm and get the hang of it. A "regular" semester is not going to ruin our career, but if we don't do something to improve, or if we are not able to
manage our frustration, then it will be a tough few years and getting the
eTítulo university degree will be an uphill battle.
Embracing the dramatic side of life for a while
Not everything is going to be happiness and good vibes and yes, the truth is that we have failed an exam (or three). For a while, if we need it, we can cry, scream, or repeat over and over again "I should have studied more", "what will my family think", "maybe I'm not cut out for this", etc., etc., etc. But after that self-flagellation time, it's time to be coherent: failing an exam is a foolish thing. It won't affect us in any way. In a few months, we may even have forgotten about it. Our transcript is not going to be destroyed because of that, our teachers (who don't even know us) are not going to label us as complete failures, and our parents... Well, they will do what they have to do because that's their job, but no matter how much they bother us with our grades, surely deep down they know it's not that big of a deal. So, come on, let's face it and design a good study strategy that will help us with the recovery.
Don't make failing a habit
As we say, failing a subject is not a big deal, but doing it systematically is; therefore, let this experience serve us to learn and improve and not to throw everything away. To learn from our mistakes, we have to ask ourselves where we went wrong and be honest with ourselves. If it's because we studied too little, we already know what the solution is; if we didn't organize ourselves properly, we will have to impose more appropriate schedules; if there are personal problems, we will have to find a solution for them or try to put them aside when we start studying; if we don't know how to take good notes, make
good outlines or underline properly, we just have to learn. If we are in love, heartbroken, or anything like that, which makes it difficult for us to
concentrate, let's use techniques that help us connect; if the problem is that we don't have a good place to settle down so that our study hours are productive, let's go to the
library; if we get very nervous, let's learn to
manage stress; if the teacher has been unfair, let's
make a complaint; and if it's a bit of everything together, then let's put together solutions and change our routines.
New course, new life
The good thing about college is that we can start fresh every time an evaluation ends. We have new professors (all or almost all of them) and different subjects every six months. In school or high school, once a teacher labeled you (smart, studious, lazy, absent, talkative, brilliant), you couldn't get rid of it, for better or for worse, until the freezing of hell. But college removes these labels and gives us a fresh start every time, isn't that fantastic? Now we just need to learn to adapt and know that if we make a mistake, we just have to reinvent ourselves a little and keep going. An exam is just that. And we're going to have so many of them that they're going to come out of our ears, so... let's get down to work and prepare for the next one! Good luck!
