When Your Grades Start Making You Doubt Yourself Part 1

There is a particular kind of disappointment that comes from expecting a better result after putting in so much effort.

You attend lectures, take notes, read ahead, revise your materials and sometimes sacrifice your sleep just to make sure you are adequately prepared for examinations. You set academic targets for yourself and genuinely believe you can achieve them. You want to improve your grades, understand your courses better and become a student who can confidently engage with what they are learning.

Then the results come out, and somehow, they don’t reflect what you expected.

At first, you might tell yourself that it was just one examination. Perhaps the questions were difficult, the marking was strict or you didn’t manage your time properly. But when it happens repeatedly, the disappointment can gradually turn into self-doubt.

You begin to question your intelligence, your academic ability and sometimes even your decision to study the course you’re pursuing.

Interestingly, some students may begin to attribute these experiences entirely to spiritual difficulties. And while personal faith and spirituality can be important parts of a student’s life, we must also be willing to examine our academic habits honestly.

Are we actually understanding what we read, or are we simply spending long hours with our books? Do we practise answering questions, test our understanding and identify areas where we struggle? Are we studying effectively, or have we mistaken the number of hours spent reading for actual learning?

However, it would also be unfair to conclude that every disappointing result is caused by a student’s poor preparation. Teaching methods, examination conditions, assessment practices, personal circumstances and other factors can influence academic performance.

The point is not to blame ourselves for every result that falls short of our expectations. It is to recognise that academic improvement sometimes requires us to look beyond how hard we are working and examine how effectively we are working.

After all, wanting excellent grades and putting in the effort to achieve them are important, but we must also be willing to evaluate our methods.

Perhaps the question isn’t always whether we’re working hard enough, but whether what we’re doing is actually helping us learn.