Studying Smart, Part 1: Productive Failures
We need to rethink failure, because mistakes always present opportunities for growth.
This is the first in a series of posts on studying smart, where we look at reliable, practical skills that any student can cultivate and every student can benefit from. Today, we’re examining how to make productive use of failure.
Since we don’t always draw much attention to our study skills and habits, I want to quickly mention two things that often stop us from shining a light on our existing practices:
We don’t think we need help.
We think subject-specific help is the key.
In my experience working with students—both on subject-specific material and study skills—these assumptions often follow from the same core belief. Most students believe they’re naturally gifted in some subjects and naturally weak in others. It’s then a short (but treacherous) leap to the conclusion that changing their habits is unnecessary and the real problem with “problem subjects” is the subject itself. I won’t delve into the complex psychology here. I’ll just say that the concept of productive failures strikes at the heart of why that might be the wrong conclusion. The practice of productive failures can also be a diagnostic tool for shaping smarter study.
Normalizing Failure
Productive failures operates on the assumption that everyone fails at something at some point, but successful students turn those failures into learning opportunities. It may seem as if thriving students never fail, but they’re likely secretly taking a magnifying glass to their failures and weak spots. That’s where growth happens. In fact, some of the skills and information that we come to value most only arise after we face up to our failures.
Here’s a good place to start, then. Every time you fall short, ask yourself three simple questions:
What did you miss?
Why did you miss it?
How can you improve next time?
The most obvious and productive setting for these questions is immediately after a test, but you can easily adapt them for other academic tasks, as well. For an essay, you might ask, what was the weakest part, why was it weak, and how can it improve? Teacher and peer feedback hopefully gives you a starting point, but you can also do this on your own or with the help of a tutor. Especially if some days have passed since you submitted an essay, give it another look. Sometimes that time away helps you see it more clearly.
Excellence is a Work in Progress
The biggest challenge to turning failures into productive failures is that you have to stop thinking of due dates and gradebook entries as the end of the road. Instead, set aside time to review returned tests, quizzes, and essays, and see those potential disappointments as a chance to learn more deeply. There’s a good chance the skills and information that show up on one test or essay will apply again on another assignment, so there’s a tangible benefit to reviewing submitted work, as well.
Besides the discipline of reviewing our failures, this practice also requires a certain amount of humility. To circle back to those roadblocks I mentioned at the beginning, you have to be willing to acknowledge that there’s always room for improvement, in both process and product. When we get a lower grade than desired, this can be a relatively straightforward process (ask the questions outlined above). But even with subjects where we seem to thrive, we may not recognize the cost of our success – did you spend so much time studying for that one test that your work in other classes suffered? Is drafting an essay causing undue stress and anxiety, even if you get the grade you want?
Asking the right questions here can help you discern what sort of follow up makes the most sense. Sometimes it’s subject-specific support, but other times it’s the approach to studying or working itself. Either way, there’s no shame in a failure if you can seize the opportunity it presents to work smarter.
In our next post in this series, we’ll look at the principle of repetition with variation as it applies to our study skills. (Here’s a preview: “practice makes perfect” is nearly right.)