Whether you’re in your first year or your last, you may have come across a failed piece of coursework or exam. I’m here to tell you that it’s absolutely fine and normal to fail some sort of work during your degree. No matter the outcome, your optimism and perseverance will get you through the academic year, I assure you. The following is my advice on how to cope with such a knock back.
The initial shock
If you’ve spent so much time on a piece of coursework, or revised for weeks in preparation for an exam, it’s bound to be disheartening to receive a failed grade. You will be in shock at first, but it’s important to feel proud of the work you’ve completed as it is. Before rushing in and panicking about what to do next, take the evening out to calm down. The worst possible thing you could do is to rush into re-doing the coursework/revising before speaking to the module leader or your tutor.
Contact the module leader and tutor
If you’ve failed a piece of coursework or exam, it’s important to get feedback. Now whether you’ve just slipped up on misunderstanding the brief or you’ve forgotten to include a different point of view around the topic, you need to get the feedback from your module leader or whoever marked the work. For some pieces of work, such as exams, it may be a little difficult to ask for feedback immediately as they may need to be re-marked by the board, but for most coursework, you should be able to receive feedback through Turnitin or via a meeting with whoever marked the work. It’s important to take it into consideration and not look at it as just harsh criticism. Your tutors want you to pass! They’re not doing it out of malice, they just want you to gain a thorough understanding of a topic before you enter a career in that industry. Take notes of ways to improve, but also keep into consideration areas that you excelled in.
What to do next
So re-sits usually occur in the Summer. They can be anytime between August and September depending on term dates and whether you’re an undergraduate or postgraduate student. Once the semester is over that contained the module that you failed, the module leader should send out a mass announcement for all those that failed so keep an eye out on Blackboard and your emails. They will let you know what you need to submit, how to submit and when the deadline is. It’s important that as soon as you receive this information, to contact your tutor to keep them updated with the progress that you’re making as well as for any advice you may need! Then it’s down to you to crack on with it, and submit.
As a final word, I just want to re-assure that it’s okay to re-sit!
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