By Anonymous My experience with sports club elections taught me a lot about resilience. In the end of my third year, I was very keen to join any sports club committee and ran for the same position in a few clubs. I felt very confident about my suitability and didn’t pay much attention to preparing the…
By Pat Mathewson I have always been interested in student advocacy, which requires public speaking skills. Lacking these skills made me feel like a failure. In my first year, when I had to present to the whole room, I would get unbelievably nervous. Even though I have always been a good writer, I couldn’t articulate…
By Kyle Blain In 2013, I was responsible for organising Jailbreak, a race in second semester where the teams have 36 hours to get as far away from St Andrews as they can. The event was well attended, and we decided to run it again the following year. In 2014 Jailbreak unexpectedly became a disaster.…
By Dr Chris Hooley You have to understand when you are shying away from something for emotionally driven reasons. It is very easy to make your mind think about other things in the academic environment, and to be instinctively repelled by something because it failed in the past. Focus on things that are not working,…
By Staff at Student Services Look at things in perspective. Challenge negative thinking by analysing what you did right. Failure is part of learning, and you should give yourself credit for what went well as well as reflecting on what should be improved. How to cope if: I failed an exam/assignment/module? All St Andrews students…
The YouTube channel The School of Life has an interesting video on the history of failure as an idea, and how it has evolved over time. Give the video a watch, or read some of the highlights below! Highlights: Greek tragedy showed audiences that terrible things can and do happen to good people, so we should be kind to…
TEDxSF by Mel Robbins Another great video about failure and how to get what you want – feel the fear and do it anyway! The video can be found here, or highlights are laid out below. Highlights: What do you want? Not other people, think selfishly – what do you want? Getting what you want is simple but…
By Anonymous Picture it. You graduate with a 2:1, and, literally two days after Grad Ball, start something that, if it isn’t your dream job, then it’s as close to a dream job as you can possibly imagine. Not just that, but you’re working with people you love and respect and admire, in a place…
It’s important to talk about failure, but sometimes this can be hard. How do you broach the subject in the first place – let yourself be vulnerable and potentially be let down? How do you make sure the other person knows what you want from the conversation? The New York Times has a great article…
By Syl Reads (written 31st December 2019) Every year, like many avid readers and book bloggers, I participate in the Goodreads Challenge. I set a number of books that I want to read within the year (usually 100), then I read, read, and read some more! I’ve always hit my goal or at least come…