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How to deal with failing an exam and staying motivated?

It can be a nightmare for any student to fail an exam. It can bring out or solidify the “fear of failure” in a person making things complicated for his future exams. The reasons for failing exams can vary from not having prepared enough for the exam to not having the right information about the syllabus. In some cases, there can be failure despite having addressed the first two reasons, coming from just not performing well enough.

Anyone going through this dilemma will most likely have to deal with feelings of inadequacy, shame, embarrassment and guilt in specific cases where the education is being financially sponsored by parents. It can also dampen the dreams of a student and make him feel that his re-attempts may have the same result. It’s important to feel the grief and sadness first, get help from friends and family and gradually move on to a more logical assessment of the situation. Figure out for yourself why you couldn’t do well. Was it due to lack of preparation or a lack of interest in the field?

In order to stay motivated, it’s helpful to stay focused on the future. Avoid being overly self-critical and judgemental. Try to remember the times when you had better results in exams and recall your approach of studying at that time. Make a plan to appear in the exam with full preparation. You can also consider changing subjects and majors if the difficulty level in the exam was too high. Replace all self-defeating thoughts in your mind such as ‘I will always be a failure’ to ‘I’m going to give it my best try next time’. Just remember that failure teaches you a lot about yourself and if you manage to learn from the failure it becomes a victory for you.

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