What should I do if I fail?

Firstly, remember students who have failed can go on to pass re-sits and still graduate with a good degree. However, if you have failed an assessment: 

1. Try and get some support with how you are feeling, from friends, family, or from university services. This could be simply getting in touch with your personal tutor, or your student advisor or academic advisor, or Student Wellbeing Services 
2. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. It simply means that you have not met the standard on this particular exam at this particular time. Resist the urge to generalise, self-criticise or catastrophize (when we begin to think that everything is ruined).
3. Sometimes there is good reason why you did not perform as well as expected. If this is the case contact your Personal Tutor, Student Advisor or Student Wellbeing Services. You should also see the available guidance on Mitigating Circumstances
4. Reach out. There are many methods and approaches to help manage exam stress and anxiety and also developing your skills and strategies in preparing for reassessments. Student Wellbeing Services, the Skills Hub and the Global Effective Learning Service can all help. You can also contact the Student Success Advisors who are recent Heriot-Watt graduates and have been in the position you are in. Using their experience of sitting exams, they can give you helpful advice and tips.