Learning is often associated with improvement and getting answers correct and while this is partially true and improvement is definitely the goal, how students deal with mistakes is the catalyst for learning. For a student to grow academically making mistakes is crucial. Students who never make mistakes often sty stagnant within their learning and this isn’t a coincidence because mistakes are essential. Getting questions wrong is often viewed as a negative but it shows the students what they can and need to improve upon thus providing an opportunity for learning.

The greatest students are able to harness their mistakes and use them to further themselves academically rather than viewing them as failures. This mentality separates top achieving students from others. Students should utilise the errors they make and use them as drivers to motivate them to improve. Students need to look back at past exams they they did poorly on rather than feeling ashamed of avoiding it. By looking back at past papers that they completed and re-attempting questions they got wrong they can then learn from them and improve for the next exam rather than getting the same style of questions wrong again.

By embracing mistakes rather than hiding from them students are able to harness their learning and improve independently and efficiently. Students must have a drive to improve and use their mistakes efficiently without dwelling on the error for too long. Mistakes allow room for growth and for the student to identify specific area that need improvement and with teacher or tutor feedback the improvement and direction can be pointed out easily. This allows the student to understand what they need to work on and how to work on it, stoping the confusion of “Why did I get this wrong” in its tracks.

Olivia Moustakis