#failed test

Akira stared unseeingly at the letter in front of him. He'd already known what the message inside was going to be before he opened it, he dreaded the message. So it was with slow hands, haltingly, that he ran his finger under the seal of the envelope, finally unfolding it to see his college entrance exam scores.

He failed.

He'd taken the whole year off to study, spend hours on the test itself. And yet even during the studying, even while sitting in the room to take the exam, he felt his conviction waning. He'd had the vague notion of going to college for as long as he could remember. It just seemed like the thing you were supposed to do, but after the events of his year in Tokyo, after seeing the fantastical and the horribly real, that conviction started to waver.

Now staring at the failed test, he had to finally face the question. What next?

Pulling out his phone, he quickly sent off a text before pitching the letter into garbage.

>>Where are you?

75% of our kids failed the last test we had.

So we have to contact the parents of every kid that failed, tell them the test score and tell them that we are sending the test home for them to retake and that they won't get credit for it unless the parents sign it.

Spanish Midterm, Chem Test, Bio Exam

Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely.

Good news is, we've got a much better test for you, fighting an army of man-mantises.

Hey! I'm not sure how the system works in Germany, but in the US, it is possible to fail a test and even fail a class in medical school. In fact, my roommate failed a class last year.

I think that it's a tough blow for anyone to receive a failing grade, but I don't think it says anything about your intelligence or ability to be a good doctor. It's important to figure out why you failed. Was it a timing problem (not enough time, misuse of time, studying harder but not smarter)? Was it because you misunderstood a concept (or concepts) that were central to the topic and as a result messed up a bunch of questions?Were there external factors that made test day difficult like anxiety, family stress, or illness? Is it because you would rather be studying something else or are unsure of your career choice? Or was it something else?

We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and medicine is no different. Heme/onc made SO much sense to me. It was so straightforward and easy for me to understand, but I really struggled with our pulmonology unit. It didn't fit my study method and I felt like the material just wasn't sticking no matter how much I studied it. Just because you're in medical school, it doesn't mean you'll be good at everything. Doing poorly in one block doesn't represent your abilities overall.

Failing a test or failing a class doesn't make you a failure. But, it is important to understand why it happened and prevent it from happening again. While written tests and practical exams aren't perfect, it is still a gauge of what you know. To be a good doctor, you need to know the science and what to do with that information. A failing grade might mean you didn't master the material, and it could negatively impact a patient interaction in the future if you don't go back to understand what you missed and why you missed it. (You CAN recover from failing a test. I mean to say that it is important to relearn what you missed and learn from the experience so that you can turn a negative into a positive. You can succeed and still be an excellent doctor despite facing challenges getting there.)

If failing is a consistent problem, I think it warrants a meeting with your advisors or mentors. They can help you figure out why it's happening and what resources are available to you to do better. Don't neglect the support system you have and outside opportunities that can help you improve. School is hard and it's unlikely you'll be good at everything. But, that doesn't mean you can't try to do your best in every subject. Tutoring, counseling, social support, an accountability buddy, study skills training/changing your study method, etc., might be helpful interventions, and a mentor/counselor can help you figure out which next step is best for you.