As we draw towards the end of the year, most of us must’ve just gone through the mid-term examination. So this is indeed a good time to say this: your grades are not the most important thing in your life and they are certainly not the entity which defines you or the person you are.

Why do I say this? Because with the increasing competition in all spheres of life, the peer-pressure and the constant struggle to stay on top of things, we’ve made earning a certain desired grade the only purpose of our lives. And I’m sure as you sit fretting about your results, most of you will agree to this.

I will not say that grades are not important, of course, they reflect your academic standing and measure your efforts, allowing you to assess where you stand and how much more you need to work, indeed they’re important. But ‘how’ important they are is the deciding factor, does earning a required grade once makes you slack off, thinking you need not put in any more effort? Or getting a below average grade once makes you doubt your capabilities? How far do you allow grades to define you? This is where you need to keep a check.

When you earn a grade you should be proud of, it does not mean that your work is done and you need to stop making any effort. It means that you must continue putting more effort in the right direction in order to maintain it. Success is not permanent, unless you are willing to work for it continuously. However, I believe it’s easier dealing with good grades, because they tend to motivate you, are rewarding and allow you to strive even harder for a better result.

The trouble begins when you end up earning a bad grade. Let me remind everyone, a bad grade is not necessarily due to lack of preparation or a casual attitude towards academics. Often it may be due to countless other reasons; you fell sick during exam time, there wasn’t enough time to prepare for the exam, the course was overwhelming and you found yourself panicking, the exam was more difficult than you anticipated, a family emergency and countless other reasons. These are often brushed off by parents and teachers alike, as mere excuses, however, we need to understand that these are genuine reasons a student, who otherwise performs well, failed to achieve the required grade.

How do you tackle this aftermath? Students often have to bear the harsh remarks of teachers and stern scolding from their parents, which surely discourage and dishearten them. As a result, students might end up losing their motivation or develop the self-impression that they aren’t good enough.

But it is up to us, how we come out of this phase and tackle it. For this you need to remind yourself, how far do you allow a certain grade to measure your competence, efforts and even intelligence!

Firstly, you should remember that a single grade does not define you. Then you must reason with yourself, don’t be too hard on yourself as you assess why you failed to perform up to the mark, remember all the times you did end up scoring well.

Remind yourself that you and only you have the power and the ability to change the outcome of this poor grade. So instead of being discouraged, use it as an opportunity to work better next time.

Lastly, do not lose motivation. We’ve been told numerous times that a failure is a step towards success, and indeed it is, as it allows to you to better judge yourself and give another try, in a more prepared way. Use the same strategy to work not only harder, but smarter next time.

You can definitely change your not-so-good midterm grades to the required final grades. Moreover, it’s not just scoring well in academics that matters, your ability to learn and apply the knowledge you’ve gained throughout the term comes before that. So believe in yourself and don’t let a single failure define who you are.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 30th, 2017