By Jessica Bown Students 4 top tips for bouncing back when passing your exam feels impossible 26 Mar 2026 Whether it is failing an exam or making a mistake during your studies, such moments can feel overwhelming. But it’s not the setback that matters as much as the way you respond to it. When something goes wrong, your first instinct might be to panic or assume you are not cut out for the profession. But setbacks are not personal failures, they’re valuable experiences and lessons to take forward. The skill is to reframe what has happened, so instead of asking “Why did this happen to me?”, try “What is this telling me?” This shift moves you from feeling like a victim to feeling empowered. Tip 1: resilience through reflection Having resilience means having a process to work through setbacks and the best way to start is with honest reflection. Give yourself 24 hours to feel disappointed (treat yourself kindly and have some rest), then ask yourself three questions: What actually happened? Write down the facts without writing down any judgment or how you felt about it: “I didn’t pass my exam” rather than “I’m terrible at exams.” Writing this down instead of just thinking it through will help you process better. What factors contributed to this? Consider everything. For example, your preparation time, study methods, external circumstances and areas where your knowledge was weak. What can I control going forward? This part is really important because you can only make changes to the things you can control. You can’t change exam questions, but you can change how you prepare. You can’t control redundancy decisions, but you can control how you present yourself in future interviews. Tip 2: develop problem-solving skills Another way that you can reframe a setback is as a problem waiting to be solved. You can choose whether you’ll solve it reactively or strategically. Try following these steps: Break the problem down into manageable parts. If you’ve made an error, fix the immediate mistake but also analyse why it happened. Was it time pressure? Unclear instructions? A gap in your technical knowledge? The cause will determine the type of solution you’ll need to prevent it from happening again. Gain some perspective. Talk to your tutor or peers about what went wrong. People who’ve experienced similar setbacks can often offer answers you might not have considered. Create an action plan. Make sure it has specific steps that feel manageable. Vague intentions such as “I’ll work harder” rarely make a difference, but concrete tasks such as “I’ll complete three practice papers each week and review any incorrect answers with my tutor” give you something solid to work with. Tip 3: celebrate what went right Even when something goes wrong, rarely does everything go wrong. Perhaps you didn’t pass your exam but you improved your score from last time. Being able to find some positives (however small) among what feels like a setback stops you from catastrophising. These small wins provide evidence that you’re making progress, even when the overall outcome has caused initial disappointment. Tip 4: move forward with confidence Once you’ve rested, recovered, reflected, problem-solved and created an action plan, the final skill is to move forward without carrying the setback around with you like baggage. Set a small, achievable goal to rebuild your momentum, such as mastering one topic for an exam completely before tackling the next. You can acknowledge your progress by keeping a record of what you’re doing differently and your small wins along the way. Use this as evidence to yourself when doubt creeps back in. Hold your head high and remember that the people who achieve the most have all faced setbacks. It means that you are challenging yourself and that can only be a good thing. Sometimes, even better opportunities can come from things that seem to have gone wrong. This article was first published in Feb-March 26 edition of AAT Student magazine here. Further reading What to do when you feel like giving up – AAT students share their turning points How to overcome setbacks and ace your qualification How to build your personal brand while studying AAT Jessica Bown is an award-winning freelance journalist and editor.