The first emotional stage of failing a class is denial.
You may also feel like the teacher made a mistake. You go on and on rambling about how bad the teacher is at grading without noticing that it is your fault.
Or, you just lie to yourself and say something along the lines of “I have the rest of the quarter to bring it up,” when in reality, it’s already the end of the quarter.
Next, you need to crunch.
“When I’m failing a class,” said sophomore Albert Forero. “I don’t really care until the very end of the quarter.”
By this time you realize that you have no sense of motivation and you need to get some. So, you make up a plan. The plan is to go home, eat a snack, and crunch on all the homework that you have been missing. But someone texts you, you end up Instagram, then on a part of YouTube that you have no clue on how you got there. It’s then 11 o’clock at night, and you panic because your plan didn’t fall through. And you still blame it on the teacher.
You then creep into depression. At this point you have given up on everything and anything involving that class. You shed some tears, maybe many, and come to the sad realization that you would do absolutely anything for a high F or a D.
After this depression, you feel regret. You start to wish that you did all that homework instead of binge-watching your favorite shows on Netflix. You become your worst enemy and could kick yourself for being so un-motivated.
Finally, after beating yourself up over not turning things in, you go through a phase of acceptance and gain an “I don’t care” attitude. It is then understood that there is nothing you can do to get that grade up. This shows that you have accepted your failure, and are finally at peace with it.
If you have failed more than one class before, I bow down to you and your strength to overcome.
One tip that can prevent you from failing a class is to stay on the ball. Do the homework when it is due and do not procrastinate. If you don’t understand something, then you can always ask the teacher questions, or even your classmates.
