Quote:
Originally Posted by Paranoid Android
Anything else I can say to a friend who fails his university midterms after working so hard for it, apart from trying to sympathize with him? 
I feel so bad for him. He's a really academic person and consistently gets above average grades and then suddenly gets totally destroyed in two exams that he thought he did well on. |
Sorry to hear that. It can be a tricky area as everyone handles setbacks differently. Some people don't even like people to be overly sympathetic to them and can shun any sympathy in their direction. I think the best things to say (if you have not already done so) is to say that everyone fails in their exams every now and then and it is not the end of the world if you fail. The important thing is you try your best and just let the cards fall were they may. Don't live a life of regret by failing on a exam you thought you could have tried harder. If you fail despite giving it your best shot then you cannot blame yourself, that is just life. With that said I am sure with your friends intelligence and his previous achievements which is a good indicator (and is something that should be stressed) he will do fine in future exams. If you can give real life examples of people he considers intelligent that did fail but picked themselves up that would be a added bonus.
Our family does come from a academic background and it has been mentioned to me during hard times that certain family members not only failed an exam but had to redo the entire year yet they went on to achieve great things. It is good proof that a bad event need not be the end of the world and quite often we learn more from our failures than our successes.