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Coaching psychologist Associate Professor Anthony Grant and educational psychologist Dr Susan Colmar offer up their expert advice on how to prepare for your results and the next semester.

Your results don鈥檛 define you

Associate Professor Anthony Grant, Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the School of Psychology

鈥淓xam time is always a very stressful time of the year 鈥� it鈥檚 perfectly natural to have lots of anxiety around getting results. The question is how to make it constructive, and avoid a downward spiral of self-flagellation, or a dismissive 鈥業 never cared anyway鈥� stance.

鈥淲e tend to get captivated by performance outcomes, where people pin large sections of their self-worth on how they鈥檙e doing compared with other people. It鈥檚 important to first recognise that you are not your exam marks. We should all be proud of our achievements, big and small, but when you separate your sense of self from your marks, you can start to think about results differently.

鈥淚t鈥檚 much more effective and useful to work with the notion of learning goals, and think of uni (and life) as a learning experience. Learning goals are about focusing on mastering the task, learning and developing a solid understanding. Think about yourself in a holistic way, think about the skills that you need to develop to move forward, and find people that you can do it with.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also worth reflecting that some people place a lot of pressure on themselves to try and reach a specific career, but it鈥檚 important to remember that careers change. What people will take away from their time at University isn鈥檛 just the grades, but also how they developed and the skills they acquired.鈥�

Plan ahead this semester, no matter the results of last

Dr Susan Colmar, Program Director of School Counselling/School Psychology MTeach

鈥淏efore results come out, it鈥檚 a good idea to go back to the basic notion of self-reflection. It鈥檚 healthy to think about what you would do if the worst happened and how you would deal with it to move forward, rather than catastrophising and falling to pieces. Know that you鈥檇 be offered appropriate support and the systems are there 鈥� we鈥檙e here to help and we鈥檙e not here to judge.

鈥淭hose who are confident they鈥檙e going to be fine should also reflect and be proud, but maybe still think of ways they might want to do it a little differently next time, to make sure they don鈥檛 have too much on or place too much pressure on themselves.

鈥淵ou might need to make some adjustments to how you run your life next semester. Plan and do some forward time-management 鈥� 鈥榯his is what I have to do, and this is how I鈥檒l fit this assignment in with other things in my schedule.鈥� A lot of us, myself included, half-plan 鈥� so we know that we need to get things done but then we end up working down to the wire. Task management helps to identify the steps you need to take to get there.

鈥淚n any given semester, anyone can have life-factors that get in the way. I honestly think that this University has good support, so if something major is happening in your life there鈥檚 a raft of people and resources you can go to. You can seek counselling support from Student Counselling Services, there鈥檚 , there鈥檚 the your own unit coordinator. And certainly if a student has a fairly major personal thing happen, then we鈥檝e got special consideration arrangements. It鈥檚 just important that students act early 鈥� if you don鈥檛 do as well as you鈥檇 like in your first assignment, then that鈥檚 when you should be seeking help. We鈥檙e generally very understanding and we have systems in place to help students.鈥�

You will receive your results by email on Wednesday 14 July. After 24 hours your results will be available in . (Go to 'My Studies', then 'Assessments').

Last updated: 27 May 2021