• Talk To Someone If You Have To, But Find The Right Person For That Purpose: Due to temperament variation or mood swing, we express grief differently. It’s OK to feel like telling someone about this failure result. The only difficulty is in getting the right person or group of persons for this purpose. A professional counselor is the ideal, but you can save the search and cost by talking to a friend or a mentor. Whoever it is, should be a good listener, who will not judge or criticize you but empathize with you. Someone who will not back bite you; someone who will not take advantage of your vulnerability; someone who will not make jest of you in the future; someone respected and respectful. It’s helpful to find the right person to talk to in a hearth-to-hearth rapport.
• Highlight The Learning Points: Sometimes, after an examination, you are so sure you have blasted it and you should get nothing less than an ‘A’. If the outcome is against your expectation, endearvour to look out for a message in the mess. Could it be that your personal after-exam-assessment is an over-estimation? Are there technical nitty-gritty you could have paid more rapt attention to? Take a look at the spot where you fall for clues and learning points. Other times, after examination, you know it’s a below average delivery, and it’s by chance you’ll make a ‘C’. If the result comes out and it’s an ‘F’, instead of crying, sit down and highlight the learning points and areas of improvement.
• Rub Minds With Achievers and Get Better: The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is said to be the extra. It is helpful to rub minds with those who have achieved what you are trying to achieve, so as to know the kind of ‘extra’ they are adding to their ordinary. They may either be your classmates or seniors, whichever, feel safe enough to tell someone, that you don’t know what he or she knows and you need some tutorial. When you make a habit of this, that aspect in you who feels embarrassed at been a second best would continuously get better till it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the bests. But if you feel too embarrassed to rub minds with achievers, that aspect of you would lack impetus to try to compete positively, thus shrink further into complacency and culminate in mediocrity.
• Rise Up and Make Necessary Adjustments: Most times, people do their best in examination, but their bests fall short of the required. It’s time to make necessary adjustments. You may need to improve your efficiency in the exam hall, do this by attempting past questions in a simulated or mock environment. You may need to be more efficient in your reading, do this by dropping frivolous activities and maintain good focus. You may need to seek updated text-books, correct marking schemes, read more volume and so on. You may need to read my post titled, 7 Tips for Passing Examinations. Whatever you have to do, do it! Life itself is about making necessary adjustments, not doing what you ought to do is a maladjustment. Ask anyone who has achieved success in life.
• Do It Again, Do It Better: All of us fell several times when we attempted to walk, the first time, but each time, we rose up and tried again. It hurts when a nine months old baby falls, but, walk they want to, and very soon they are running around, no longer on ‘four’. I dare you to embrace this never-say-die attitude. Try again where you failed the last time, this time, do it better. When you do it better, you’ll get a better result. If you fail again, try again, better than the previous time. Very soon, you’d become an expert in that area. That is the way to success.

The highest form of failure is, not trying, because of the fear of failure. I am yet to see a success story that does not include some elements of failure. So I conclude that failure is an integral part of success. Failure is not abnormal, it’s a part of life. Classical examples abound all around us – Thomas Edison, Mohammadu Buhari, Ben Carson, Abraham Lincoln, and others. Success is largely dependent on the way you handle success. So, the next time you fail, practice the above 7 steps. I will see you at the top.

Hope this is helpful.

How to Handle Academic Failure, In 7 Steps (Part One).