Reasons Why Failure is Common During College Life

Has failure become the enemy of your college life? It can be difficult to deal with especially when everyone you see is moving a grade up while you feel stuck. College is a whiff of fresh air that lets you explore and express. School might not teach you much about life but college sure does. It gets you through little ups and downs of life with it's canteen food but along with that it gives you a bittersweet taste of failure. For some it can be an enlightening experience towards self discovery. Where you explore your interests, styles, sexuality as well. You develop habits and friends which are both good and bad. Hence, college life can be considered a teaser for the actual movie called life.

It's all fun and games till it starts reflecting on your academics. Whether it's your first year or your final semesters trying to power through to graduation life in the academic world can be challenging. According to a recent study released by the America's Promised Alliance every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of College. That's a student every 26 seconds or 7,000 a day.

Anxiety and Depression in College Students

It's little wonder that 1 in 5 college students are affected by anxiety or depression. It is natural for these changes to take a toll on your mental health. Dealing with it is as important as acing in academics. Students are affected by anxiety which leads to failure in academics due to a lot of other factors. With the given freedom teenagers are bound to get carefree and at times irresponsible in their actions, choices and decisions which leads some to become prey to substance abuse.

The rate of substance abuse (both drugs and alcohol) among college students has risen steadily in recent years. A recent study found that 37% of college students regularly used an illegal drug or abused alcohol. All of this leading them astray from their career and real life goals.

College is one of the best times of everyone's life because it's the vacation we enjoy the longest before responsibilities start piling up. College teaches one life skills and equips one to be professionally confident by giving exposure in subjects out of syllabus, for example, handling cultural events, Volunteer Work, Sports and also Inter College Competitions of various kinds. It's a pool of opportunities that teaches you how to survive and swim.

Students who want to succeed are often, understandably cautious and afraid of failure. Similarly, parents of students are afraid of seeing their children succumb to academic failure, since so much of today's modern society seems to depend on academic success for upward mobility. Of course, academic failure does not always depend on the student alone. Plenty of students find themselves in situations that thwart their failure, often due to socioeconomic status and issues with education inequality. These are important issues to address. For the purposes of this article, academic failure refers to the inability of a student with access to all necessary resources to forge ahead.

How Can Students Overcome Failure in College Life?

It's very common for freshman to fail their first semester of college. Second, some students aren't ready academically for college, so they end up doing poorly in their classes. Third, on top of the pressure to perform academically, many students struggle with living away from home, being financially independent, making new friends, or finding direction in your life can all be overwhelming new challenges. Failure in small doses is actually crucial to learning. However, when students completely fail academically, this means that they are unable to overcome the small failures over time to learn and grow and eventually succeed.

Fear of success also exists in students nowadays due to the environment or peer groups they are a part of in college. The stereotype that nerds aren't cool enough while party animals are show stealers makes bright students perform poorly in order to fit in. It is important to escape this notion and think for the betterment of self being in a circle of friends that don't inspire you to do something better or contribute to your growth can be holding you back.

Often, fear of failure or success can lead to unpreparedness, and in some cases, students do not prepare for other reasons, such as laziness. Laziness can cause students to fail while avoiding the hard work required to succeed in their studies. Some students have never learned how to appreciate hard work or are not accustomed to challenging themselves, so they are never uncomfortable. Students fail to prepare due to laziness, last minute studies, no available resources or understanding of the subject until the night before exams. Losing seriousness towards studies or your career can be the major cause of regret and lead to unsatisfactory jobs.

Also lack of preparation is the most common reason for academic failure. This can sometimes mean that they have not done the work they need to do or have not taken the necessary steps such as studying for exams, completing important assignments, or completing college applications. Students who are unprepared may allow their learning to be lacking during school hours without seeking the help they need to understand things and now feel it's too late to be able to get it.

Motivation is the key to overcome laziness, sometimes the students lack motivation, so they stop caring. When students are not encouraged, they may feel that academic achievement is not worth it or that they will never achieve it. Unscrupulous students are more likely to face good failures at the beginning of their education and feel the need to try again. These students need to find out the “why” when it comes to academic success, a reason that will motivate them to achieve their goals. Encouragement can come from a job purpose, a desire to achieve the future, a hope for financial stability, or even a desire to give back to the community or family members.

Conclusion

Overcoming and sometimes accepting the failure is important in order to move forward and refrain from doing the same wrong things while working in the right direction. It helps you see and analyze things more rationally with clarity. Shortcomings are a part of failure realizing your shortcomings or flaws can only make more room for improvement and awareness. At the same time, it is important to be compassionate towards yourself and not push your limits to madness. Compassion for oneself is what we lose in the long run. Blaming yourself must be easy but trying to understand yourself is easier if only given a chance.