Failure is often viewed with a negative stigma and is something that students try to avoid. Failure should instead be viewed as an opportunity to improve and grow. Behind every successful student is a series of failures that they have reflected on and learnt from. It is important to define failure here. What is (or is not) a failure is personal to you. Failure can mean getting below the pass mark on an exam or piece of homework, but it can also mean getting a lower grade than you wanted (for example a 7 and not an 8). Failure is essentially when you don't get your intended result. This result can be in terms of grades, or any other outcome.
Having a good relationship with failure and viewing it with a growth mindset as an opportunity will help you to grow, to take opportunities and to push boundaries. Failure occurs most often when we are challenged, and if we aren't challenged, we won't develop. The key is to be willing to put yourself in positions where you can fail (or succeed) and then if you do fail to reflect and learn from that failure.
In the Success as a Student podcast episode using ‘Failure as an Opportunity to Grow’, Dr David Robertshaw discuss how failures help us to grow; how A-level results do not necessarily translate to future attainment; how failure is part of the journey; why students should shoot for the stars and how we can learn from failure. Here are the key highlights from the podcast.
The first key highlight is that failure is part of the journey of a successful person. Successful people learn from their failures and use them to make their future successes. Past failures do not mean that you cannot be successful. Instead learn to persevere, reflect on failure and use failure as a foundation to build success.
The second key highlight from this episode is that prior attainment does not mean success or failure at university. If you found success in your GCSEs, don't expect that you’ll just breeze through your A-Levels. Make sure to put the effort in and continue to develop. If you did not do well in your GCSEs or AS levels, or if you're struggling with your studies you can still do well in the future.
At the University of Derby there are numerous examples of students and staff who struggled in their A-levels before coming to university, and then, at the end of their degree came out with strong grades. You can succeed if you reflect, have a growth mindset and put the effort in, rather than just relying on your past attainment, good or bad.
In the resources section you can find two further podcasts on learning from failure. In the episode ‘From A-Level Failure to University Success’ Joel Boulter explained how he achieved a first class university degree and several awards after getting two poor A-Levels.
In the episode ‘Passion, Purpose and Perseverance’ Anisha Johal explained how she failed to get an internship, before reapplying for it the following year and receiving it after reflecting on her application and improving her skills and experience. These are two great examples of using failure as motivation to improve.