I failed! Now what? Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been wanting to write something about what happens if you fail a class (or two) in law school. It's an experience that I have had the displeasure of having (more than once) and one that I hope to never have again. It's a little disconcerting to check your grades and discover that you didn't really ace that contract law exam. Failing is horrible. You feel sick in the stomach and a feeling of dread every time you get results from there on in. Sometimes however, failing isn't all that bad. I've failed. I'm not proud of it, but it's a part of my academic history and I think it has helped me to become the law student that I am today.

When I failed my first subject (yes that is right folks, I've failed more than one), I told a few people, but I didn't really mention it to any of my law friends. I was dreadfully ashamed of it. The thing is, keeping it to yourself isn't necessarily the way to go. Don't get me wrong, I hardly go around uni wearing a t-shirt that says "I failed! How about you?" on it, but I no longer hide my past.

So what should you do? If you've talked to other people about it, they may have suggested contacting your lecturer and making a time to speak with them, particularly to review any assessment. I definitely recommend doing this, although I did not do this myself. I had the intention, at least with my first subject, but was embarrassed. If you, like me, are too ashamed to do this, at least try to look over the  answer guide if it is made available to you. It is not the same as looking at your actual exam script and seeing what you wrote although it is fairly good. You will usually be able to get a general idea of whether you were way off in your answer or if you were on the right track.

While it is most definitely the first step you should take, my focus of this series is more what to do after that, in the semesters that follow. The steps are:

1. Identify the problem: Did you slack off and have no idea of the content? Did you have a medical issue going on through the semester? Did you try and learn in a way that just didn't suit you?
2. Work out your game plan: You can't just try to conquer the next semester the exact same way. You will need to make some changes. What are they going to be?
3. Make the changes (and be realistic about it): If you don't try to be realistic in your plan, passing will be anything but simple.

I will cover each of these in the coming week in this four part series.

Check out the rest of the series:
Part 2 walks you through identifying what went wrong
Part 3 helps you to work out how you will move forward