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I failed it twice: first because I got too cocky when the previous semester ended without incident. Second was due to the fact that I already had a part time job.

On the third attempt I had a different lecturer - an old guy who favoured attendance over anything else and gave the same problems each year. I knew most of the material already, so I got 80% out of that.

I learned nothing from that experience though and went on to fail 22 courses over the seven years I spent in college.



Holy cow, that's a lot of dedication and endurance! What kept you going despite the unusually high amount of failures?


It was actually youth, arrogance and stupidity. The same things also kept me going.

After my junior year I found a job through a school friend whom I helped preparing for his exams and from that point on I started weighing whether on a given day I should go to lectures or make money. My family was in a precarious situation financially and I only needed two full days to finance repeating a course, so the choice was obvious at the time.

I almost dropped out after two semesters because I failed too many courses (four - two was the limit after the first year), but I talked the dean out of deciding to kick me out - we had that option back in the day.

I spent the remainder of my time on what you could consider a Performance Improvement Plan - took 14 courses for the third semester, failed three, but thanks to that I was just three short starting the fourth, which was acceptable.

Four years of winging it like that and after a total of five years(instead of the planned four) I had my Bachelor of Engineering degree.

In hindsight I should have not went to do a Master's Degree because I never finished my thesis due to not being satisfied with the scope(or the lack of it).


I hesitate to ask this and have zero judgment implied when I ask it- Did you realize later that you may have had ADHD?


I never went for an assessment but it's possible, considering I was fired multiple times throughout my career - also a common sign.


I'd suggest doing so. Also a sleep study to see if you have sleep apnea, because it also results in frequent job changes.

I unfortunately have both (although both are now being managed and my stability has hugely improved). There was a lot of drama before the diagnoses, and I'm still working through having taken it personally...




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