3 tips if you didn’t get the exam results you wanted

Aug 25, 2022 | Young People

If you’re a young person who has recently received GCSE, B-TECH, T-Level, A-Level or results from any other courses, you’ve probably breathed a sigh of relief that the wait is over but you might be left with lots of other feelings depending on whether you got the results you wanted.

First of all, you should congratulate yourself for what you achieved, no matter what the outcome was. After the difficulties experienced over the last few years with the disruption in your studies and having to learn remotely, it’s a remarkable achievement to have completed your course and to have taken exams so well done you! Here are three tips to help if you didn’t get the results you wanted.

Tips for dealing with exam results

1) Express your feelings

It’s completely natural to feel disappointed, upset, angry or frustrated so go ahead and let those feelings out in a safe way. That might mean talking to someone who you can be completely honest with about how you are feeling and not worry about their response. It could be doing something physical – going for a run or hitting a pillow, crying or writing about the feelings you’re experiencing. It’s important to express your feelings as trying to push them down or cover them up doesn’t make them go away.

Letting your feelings out can help to stop negative thoughts about your results going round and round in your head and you’ll be able to think more clearly about what steps to take next. If you need support with managing your feelings from a trained professional here are some helplines for young people that are available 24/7, who you can contact about any issue: Get Support | Childline, 0800 1111; Get Support – The Mix, 0808 808 4994.

2) Don’t be hard on yourself

Try not to be hard on yourself, however difficult that might be. Your results aren’t a reflection of your worth as a person or of all your talents, skills and abilities. They have just captured your experience at one point in time when there could have been lots of things going on that affected you – maybe you weren’t feeling well, had an argument with someone, didn’t get a good night’s sleep, have caring or other responsibilities so had less revision time, or suffer with anxiety.

Whether you experienced something that affected your results or not, exams are only a measurement of one type of skill or area of knowledge and you will have others that are as important, if not more, when it comes to success in life. These include how well you get on with others, how you manage setbacks and deal with difficulties and how confident you are in yourself as a person. If you would like to learn more about developing these key skills for adult life book an exploration call with me to find out how Turquoise Key Life Skills coaching can help: www.turquoisekey.co.uk

3) Think through your options

You might feel that you can’t achieve your goal if you’ve put everything into your studies and had plans that depended on specific results, however there are always alternative options. Maybe you can’t take the next step you had planned in the time scale that you originally hoped to do it in but that doesn’t mean that all is lost. There are many different ways to get to any outcome.

So, if you had a particular job, course or training opportunity planned, see if you can find out what other options there are and get help with this from other people to be able to come up with as many alternatives as possible. You might need to talk to your college, university or training provider to find out about all your options.

It can be a stressful time after results come out, trying to work out what to do next, with more to cope with if you didn’t get the results you wanted. Make sure you do something nice for yourself and if you take these tips on board they might help to reduce some of the stress.

For more support to deal with your results or work out what to do next book a free exploration call on the website today or email jacqueline@turquoisekey.co.uk and find out how I can help.