Celebrating Failure

1. A time I failed this semester was on my first exam in one of my Economics classes. I studied for hours on end for over two weeks. I went to every lecture, redid every assignment multiple times and even rewrote my notes so that they would stick better in my head. I did not get an actual F, but I did not feel as though my grade was equivalent to the amount of work I put in; to me, this was a failure.
2. Through this failure, I knew I needed to change something in order to not make the same mistakes as last time. I went to my professor and asked me what would be the best method. He recommended reading the textbook pages on the “harder” topics, or the material that took me a little longer to understand. After doing this, I was able to get an A on the next exam by dedicating the same amount of time studying, just in a more efficient way. I learned that switching up the presentation of information, such as reading the textbook’s language, is a useful way to have the information explained in a different way. Since then, I have always read the textbook of the information we go over in lecture the same day. 
3. Failure is a really hard thing to grasp, especially at first. Receiving the grade I did on the first exam, after studying for so long, felt like a slap in the face. Yet, the failure I experienced just made me want to do better. I felt as though I had something to prove. This class has taught me that the thought process has failure built in. I have learned that failure is such an important part of the path to success. Through this class I have also found that failure gives me that edge to do better in the next trial. I think I am definitely more likely to take a risk now than I was a few months ago.