Ask Isa: What to do if you fail a class

From the Ask Isa inbox:

Dear Isa,

I am worried and scared because I think I just failed a class this semester. I know, I shouldn't have failed a class for any reason but I did and it happened. So, I need some advice on what to do now?

I am aware of the impact it will have on my GPA and I know I will have to retake the course. Is there is something I can do to, I guess, not make it look so terrible (when in fact it is) for when I do transfer. This is so strange for me because I've never failed a class.

Sincerely,

Class Fail

Dear Class Fail,

Thank so much for reaching out. I'm so sorry about your failed class - that must be so difficult to deal with. But fear not failing a class can be overcome. Below are a few things that I hope will help:

1) Set an appointment to talk with your professor immediately. Take ownership of why you failed and ask the professor for advice on what you can do differently next time. This will only be a failure if you don't take the opportunity to learn from it.

2) Set an appointment with your academic advisor to talk about the failure and ask about your options. As you mentioned, many colleges do offer the opportunity to retake a class. Ask your advisor what your options are and ask for advice on which option will be best for you. 

3) Don't be afraid to explain the situation in your transfer applications. Many applications include an opportunity for you to add commentary regarding anything on your transcript. Use that space to share how you you were able to learn from the failure, overcome it, move forward, and keep it from happening again.

Overcoming adversity can be one of the best ways to explain your character and resilience in applications. Use this to your advantage and don't let it stop you.

The fact that you are reaching out already shows you are the kind of person who is going to bounce back from this, learn all you can, and keep going towards an amazing college career.

Good luck! And remember this oldie but goodie:

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

What to do when you fail a class

From the #AskIsa inbox:

Dear Isa,

I am worried and scared because I think I just failed a class this semester. I know, I shouldn't have failed a class for any reason but it happened. So, I need some advice on what to do now.

I am aware of the impact it will have on my GPA and I know I will have to retake the course. Is there something I can do to not make it look so terrible (when in fact it is) for when I do transfer? This is so strange for me because I've never failed a class..

Sincerely,

Failed

Dear Failed,

Thank so much for reaching out. I'm so sorry about your failed class - that must be so difficult to deal with. But fear not - failing a class can be overcome.

Below are a few things that I hope will help:

1) Check out The Chatty Professor's blog and book - she shares a lot of content about failing classes and how to talk to professors. 

2) Set an appointment to talk with your professor immediately. Take ownership of why you failed and ask the professor for advice on what you can do differently next time.Try to uncover why this happened and do your best to learn and grow from this experience. 

3) When it comes to transferring, many college (and scholarship) applications give you a small space to explain any special circumstances or discrepancies on your transcript. Use what you learned from your professor and write about how you were able to learn from failure, continue moving towards your goals, and stop it from happening again.

If an application doesn't offer this space, think about how you can incorporate this failure experience into one of the essays. 

The most successful people are often the ones with the most failures. They learned from their mistakes, changed, grew, and kept on going. Your ability to overcome this failure, stop it from happening again, and then become able to communicate it in a positive way will set you up for success in your future college and career journey. 

Sincerely,

Isa

Ask Isa: What do you do when you're an A student...& then suddenly you're not

From the Ask Isa inbox:

Dear Isa,

What do you do when you used to be an A student and is now struggling to keep an A in any class? You study hard and are still unable to pass the way you want. Is it time to drop a class?

Sincerely,

Disappointed student who wants to do better

Dear Disappointed, 

First of all I applaud you for caring and seeking help. That is the most important step!

I know it must be really frustrating to find your grades tumbling. There are many factors, so it's important to figure out what's causing the sudden drop.

First, I recommend talking to your professors immediately. You might also want to share the whole story with The Chatty Professor, as she also answers student questions on her blog and can give you exactly what to say to your professors to ensure the best outcome. 

Then, ask yourself: have I really been doing everything I can to pass this course? Have I been to tutoring? Have I been meeting with my professors at least once a week? Have I been studying/doing homework at least 8 hours/week? Am I reading books and articles on how to succeed in college and study better?  

Answer honestly and think about what habits you may need to change to improve your grades. 

If you really are giving it your all, take a look at the subject and have a serious conversation with your professor. Is this class required for your major? If so, you might want to talk to a career counselor and advisor to consider other major tracks if you find you aren't liking nor succeeding in core courses.

Or perhaps there are some other factors going on in your life that are affecting your grades? Check with your advising office to see if they offer counseling services or mentorship programs.

I've never dropped a class so I'm not the expert on those policies or how it affects your transcript. I highly recommend you ask that question of your advisor and professor.

The key is to be proactive. 

And finally, remember that doing poorly in a class does NOT mean you aren't smart. I got all A's in college, and my SAT score was nothing to brag about. The key to good grades is thinking strategically (e.g. choose a major that you find interesting), studying smarter, and asking for help ALL the time. 

I also recommend checking out the book How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport.

And if you e-mail me at isa@communitycollegesuccess.com I'd be happy to send you the free resource on getting good grades that I share in my book. 

Thanks again for reaching out. That alone tells me you ARE a straight-A student, even if the A's aren't showing up right now. They WILL be back if you continue to be proactive. 

Let me know if you need any extra help, and good luck! :)

You can do this. 

Sincerely,

Isa 

What Disney & Pixar teach us about failure

When you think of Pixar, the last word that probably comes to your mind is failure. 

Disney Pixar's first movie (and the first computer animated feature film ever) was Toy Story; it released in 1995 and grossed over $192 million. 

And since then every single movie they have released has been a hit. Every single one: A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Cars, Wall-E, Brave....any of this ring a bell? 

This is unheard of. How are they so successful? 

Before I answer that question, I also want to consider a Disney film you may have heard of: Beauty and the Beast.

Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991 and was the first animated film to win a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture. 

Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story have something important in common that I think is integral to Disney Pixar's continued success. 

Both films were, at first, complete failures.

Not the films we saw, of course. But the creative teams initially developed scripts and storyboards for entire films that were supposed to be the first Toy Story and Beauty and the Beast. But they weren't. Because they failed.

The studios had invested millions of dollars in these first scripts and storyboards. But when the final teams saw the stories they felt something was missing - the stories fell flat and just didn't work. So they decided to lose millions, scrap the entire thing, and ask the team to start all over again. 

Can you imagine how awful that must have felt? To work on something for so long, with so much dedication, thinking it's good, and then having to do it all over again? 

And can you imagine losing millions of dollars because you thought something wasn't good enough? 

But they did. They all thought it was worth the risk, and they did not want to produce anything that they didn't believe would be great.

I think a huge part of Disney Pixar's success is their willingness to start over, and to never settle for less than, well, magic.

This idea applies to all of us, especially to community college students. Many of you may feel like you have started over. I've even met adult students who say they feel like they are starting a little late in the game. 

I also meet people who see what I've done by the age of 25 and feel like they haven't accomplished enough. And to that I always say "phooey" (okay I don't use that exact word because it would be weird, but I use it in my head). I think the bravest people in the world are the ones who are willing to say "scrap that I'm starting over."

Never be afraid to start from scratch if something isn't working. Never be afraid to own a failure. Those who are willing to take those risks and not settle for anything less will find the kind of unbelievable success that only grows from the seeds of failure. 

If you too are a Disney & Pixar fan you will love the documentaries The Pixar Story and Waking Sleeping Beauty. Both of these films inspired this blog post, and inspired me more than I can say. 

How to keep going after failure

We’ve all heard it a million times – that failure is a requirement for success. I remember my brother had this famous oft-heard quote on a basketball poster in his room:  

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

And this all sounds great. It’s especially comforting when you feel overwhelmed by failure or you’re feeling inadequate.

However, when the moment of failure actually occurs, you want to take that quote and throw it out the window.

Because it’s hard to have perspective when you’re in the eye of the failure storm. It’s ugly and hurtful and can cause you to sink so far into yourself that you extinguish all sense of hope.

And no matter how many times you try to remind yourself that failure is part of success, your brain tries to trick you and tells you that your failures aren’t part of success, that they just make you a failure.

But of course – that isn’t true. It’s not true at all.

I was at the Phi Theta Kappa convention this past week (i.e. one of the most amazing conferences ever; hope to see you there next year in CA!) and we heard Amy Chua speak, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

This funny and intelligent Harvard-educated Yale law professor said a lot of things I’ll never forget; but the one that struck me the most was the story of when she wanted to change from being a lawyer to a professor, and applied for 100 teaching jobs.

She got 100 rejections.

And so she decided teaching wasn’t for her.

When she told her father, who had immigrated to America, he said: “only 100 rejections and you’re giving up?”

That is the immigrant mentality, she told us. And it’s a mentality many of us are losing.

We have to grab hold of it if we want to succeed. It is what made our country great, and we are in stark danger of becoming too entitled, too easily discouraged, and too unmotivated to care about moving ourselves and our country forward.

I am one of the guilty ones. Sometimes I have a failure and wallow in its mire and feel like I just can’t do anything. In my darkest moments of failure I've thought: why do I even bother; what's the point?  

Sure I’ll tell myself “failure is part of success – every great person I look up to has failed. Heck one of my favorites, Walt Disney, said it was important for every young person to have a good hard failure at least once.”

But does it really make me feel better in the moment?

Nope.

So what does?

Usually that’s when I need other people. Eventually the quotes and the ideas about failure really do help, but to get you out of that first horrible feeling of failure, good friends and family can often do the trick (e.g. like Amy's dad).

So here’s what to do when you find yourself feeling like you’ve failed at something:

1. Be sad for no more than 1 day

2. Write down all of the good qualities about yourself in a journal

3. Talk to a trusted friend or mentor about your failure and be honest about how it’s making you feel. But don’t just vent. Also ask for advice. And listen.

4. Own your part of the failure. Do not be quick to blame. Figure out what to do better next time.

5. Read an article or biography of a successful person you admire, and note their failures. More importantly – note what they did after failure that made all the difference.

6. Adopt the immigrant mentality and remind yourself that anything worth pursuing is hard, and failure inevitable.

7. Keep going.