Getting a Failing Grade: What do I do?

We all have felt this way after getting a test back and seeing a failing grade: you get that huge pit in your stomach, feel bad about how you did and wish you had done something that would have made you get a better grade.  I want to give some ideas of what to do if you fail a test, from my own personal experience.  

From all of your failed tests, there are things that can be learned, so, instead of hiding your failed test and pretending that it did not happen, address it head on.  You will need to ask yourself a few questions:

1. How come I did not do as well as I thought I would/ should have done?
2. How can I do better next time?
3. Is there anything I can do to boost this grade?

For the first question, you should be asking yourself did I study enough?  Did I know the topics or how to do the math questions?  Sometimes I do not know how to study for math, it is difficult because what you need to know is usually equations and word problems and if you do not know how to do them you will struggle.  From experience, I know one thing I can do to study, especially this year in math class, is look over the worksheets or the notes that we learned throughout the chapter.  This freshens up what is going to be on the test so that you will know the topics better, rather than going into the test without even looking over notes.  Also, you can ask yourself, was I having a bad day? Was there something else on my mind? Well, I know when I am down or something is on my mind, I will not do my best on the test that I am taking, and it can extremely decrease the chances of getting the grade that I wanted.  

For the second question, you should think of ways to do better next time, which would include getting extra help and studying more than you had before.  Usually all teacher have extra help sessions, or office hours where you can go to them and ask them specific questions from your test that you failed, so that you learn the way to do it.  If you are really struggling you can get a tutor; last year in high school, I know there were peer tutors that helped each other.  This may be better for some people so they do not feel intimidated by being one on one with a teacher.  Also you can have study sessions with friends from your class; this can be a fun way to study for something that is "not so fun" for some people.  

For the third question, this differs with every teacher.  Some teachers will let you do test corrections to get half of the points that they lost back.  This can really improve a grade, especially since we are talking about a failing grade.  It can bring it up to a passing grade.  This year in math, we are allowed test corrections with a reflection of why we did the way we did.  I like this because it has you look back on what you did wrong and has you think about why.  When you talk and reflect on what you did wrong, I believe that next time you will not get it wrong and it will make you feel more confident about your next test that you have to take.

Just remember, if you fail a test, it is not necessarily a bad thing.  Learn from your mistakes and improve!