Bad Grades? What should you do? (When you worked SUPER. HARD.)
So, you worked super hard, but still got a bad grade? That sucks - I’m sorry. There’s not exactly anything I can say to reverse it.
Thankfully, no matter how awful it feels, bad grades aren’t a life sentence to eternal failure, though. Your life can, and will continue…and I promise, over time, all of this will become less significant.
That being said, what do you DO to get over it, get through it, and move onwards and upwards?
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The first step to getting over a bad grade is to go ahead and let yourself be sad and disappointed.
It’s ok to be sad - sad means that you care.
Let yourself feel all those feels and be ok with it. Because if you don’t let yourself feel it, you’ll just bottle it all up and explode later…and that doesn’t help anyone.
So, have a lazy night, eat all the ice cream, chips and pizza you need, and go through a box of Kleenex - whatever feels right is right, and don’t try to hold anything in.
Just for today, though. The trick is to let yourself get all your sads out now so you CAN move on with more purpose afterward.
After a bit of grieving time, you should have a bit more energy to focus on the positives and really examine how things went for you.
Yes, marks are the way the school system judges you, but they aren’t an accurate representation of the amount of work you put into something.
It’s not fair to fully judge yourself for something that’s out of your control. Tests aren’t necessarily always a good judge of whether or not you know the material well. Sometimes it’s just luck, or the way they asked the questions that lead you to succeed or not.
So how do you deal with that?
Be proud of what you did. If you know you dedicated a solid amount of time to learning the material, and you’re ahead of where you started, you’re winning. You might not have won the test, but you’re winning at life, and that’s what really matters.
The life skills you honed just by convincing yourself to sit down and study something hard are priceless.
If you worked hard, be proud of it. Nobody can take your hard work away from you.
If you have the opportunity to repeat something because of this, think of it as that: it’s an opportunity.
As much as “moving on” sounds like an accomplishment, it’s not the only way to BE accomplished. Once you’ve gotten through something once, you’ll know a bit more about the subject to start with, and you’ll most likely find it easier the second time. This means you’ll have a chance to understand it way better, and will be much more prepared for the next level of whatever you’re learning.
There’s no point in moving forward on an unsteady base.
If you don’t get the chance to repeat something, and are just stuck with an ugly number on a piece of paper, that’s ok, too. It just might take a little bit of work to find out what you need to do differently next time.
Should you study in a different way? Should you focus on different things? Should you find some extra help to make sure you don’t move ahead too quickly?
If high marks are something you care about (which I’m assuming they are since you’re here), and as long as you did put in an honest study effort, this may be the time to get help.
Don’t judge your methods and your brain. Not everything comes naturally to everyone, and you never know how simple or complex of an issue you have until you ask for help.
Very often it’s just a matter of the material not being presented in a way your brain loves, and it has no indication of whether or not you CAN learn something.
Sometimes low grades are just a matter of life, though, and that’s ok, too.
What do you need those marks for anyways? Can you do that without the highest marks in your class? In almost every instance, the answer to this is: probably. Marks don’t often count for much when you’re out in the real world after you finish school.
Really and truly, grades are just a stupid number that the education system has created so they can quantify how much you successfully covered. They do this because it is the simplest way to measure progression and general learning outcomes for groups of students. Though it often feels like a competition (and many post-secondary schools and scholarships are very competitive in that aspect), the competition isn’t really the point.
The goal in school isn’t to get 100% - the goal is to learn.
10 years from now, unless you go into this specific subject as a career choice, half of what you are learning right now will be lost from your brain forever.
It’s not useless, though, because you were learning how to learn in the process. Learning how to learn is kind of the point of school, and not necessarily always just the specific skills they teach you. While some of these things will obviously be necessary, other things are just exposure to other aspects of the world, and learning practice so you can become a well-rounded human being.
Well-rounded human beings don’t need 100% - they need an understanding of the world around them, and the capacity to continue to learn new things as they need.
If this bad grade legitimately means the end of the road for something in your life, accept it as just being another bend in the road.
I can guarantee you this will not be the only bend in your road, and the thing is, you really don’t know what brilliance could be waiting on the other side. The road you thought you wanted may have actually been someone else’s, not yours.
I get it, though…it’s easier to see the roadmap to success when looking at other peoples lives.
What worked for them is never the only way to succeed, though, and maybe this is just life’s way of telling you you were born for something different - maybe even greater.
Want more tips on making sure bad grades don’t keep happening? Check out:
The Secret to Stress-Free Exams
This book was made for you if you want to:
~Speed up the studying process
~Study smarter, not harder
~Learn how to abolish studying burnout
~To take notes like a boss
~Study less, absorb more
~Find motivation within the abyss
So, what are you waiting for?
Who is Nadya Corscadden?
Nadya holds an MA in Musical Theatre and is no stranger to the home learning scene. Having spent a good chunk of her younger years in distance education (and opting for some correspondence electives at university), she has accumulated many tricks to help maintain focus and inspiration. She has a passion for independent learning and wants to help anyone and everyone find their stride in this atmosphere whether it’s homeschooling or simply studying for that next big test!
She is also a triple threat singer, dancer and actress….and can’t wait until stages are alive again!