It’s likely that at some point in your academic career, whether you’re in secondary school, college or university, that you’re going to get a coursework mark back that is not quite what you had expected or hoped for. This can be a really demotivating experience, especially if you really put your all into the assignment. While we can’t change a coursework mark for you, we can make a few suggestions about how to deal with this experience.
It’s likely that you’ll be feeling quite upset and possibly angry when you first get the news. The best advice here is to not do anything rash (e.g. don’t find the marker and have a go at them, or decide that this course is not for you). If you give yourself a few days to calm down and consider the feedback, you might come round to understanding why the coursework mark turned out as it did. Whether or not you really feel better, it’s a good idea to just reflect on what may have gone wrong.
Perhaps you feel that you need a bit more information about where you went wrong, and who better to answer this question than the person who marked it? You can make an appointment with them or stop in at the end of a class to ask if you can get some clarification. They may need a bit of time to review your work, so it’s a good idea not to put them on the spot or expect answers right there. One word of advice, though, is to not approach this meeting as a chance to change your mark -unless there was some sort of mix up this is unlikely to happen. This can, however, be a great opportunity to really find out where you need to improve so that you can do better on the next assignment.
Hopefully after reading your feedback a few times and chatting with the marker you’ll have a better idea of what happened. Creating a few bullet points of things to improve on for the next assignment may be helpful, as this can help keep things fresh in your mind so that you can be sure to focus on those points. Perhaps you had good ideas but the structure of your essay wasn’t very good. You could try creating an outline with an introduction, main body and conclusion and putting your main ideas in using bullet points before actually writing the essay. If you were marked down on research, perhaps you need to consult a wider range of resources in the future. If there’s a teacher or lecturer that you feel particularly comfortable asking for help, you could consider getting some advice about how to improve on whatever points were flagged.
Talking to some friends can also help you to see what you did wrong-as well as right–on your coursework. Finding out where they were marked down may help you see that while you had trouble with one aspect, you did really well at another. It’s also possible that they also received a lower coursework mark than expected. By comparing some of the feedback, you can perhaps build up an idea of what the teacher/lecturer is looking for, which can help you and your friends to improve. It can also be really helpful just to let off a bit of steam about the whole thing.
Most importantly, remember that a bad coursework mark every now and then isn’t going to tarnish you for life. In fact, there’s a lot that can be learned and improved upon through getting this kind of feedback that you otherwise wouldn’t even think about. So although it can be demotivating (it kind of sucks to be honest), with a little refection and some concerted effort on your weaknesses you’ll likely do much better in the future.