On Comfort Zones: I Failed TWO Finals. On Purpose!

Have you ever done anything that’s outside of your comfort zone… and felt good about it? I gotta admit I’m not a big risk taker but my most recent “adventure” has me reconsidering.

I took three classes this past semester–two of them had funny requirements: The lowest exam grade (out of three in one and four in the other)–including the final–would NOT count towards our final grade. But the prof in one of those classes, Industrial Psychology, upped the ante in a way I’ll never forget:

If you get a zero on the final, you’ll get an A. But if you get at least one question right, you’ll fail it.

Wait.. What??

As he explained it, to get a zero ON PURPOSE, you have to know the right answers so that you know what NOT to pick. And if you avoid the right answers, well then you get a zero, i.e., an A.

But if you get even one right answer, then you didn’t know the material enough to know what to miss, so you’ll fail it.

In theory, getting a zero should be easier than aiming for a perfect score: In a multiple-choice exam where every question has four choices, you have a 75% chance of picking the WRONG (in this case, right) answer and only a 25% change of choosing the right (in this case, wrong) answer.

But because this is something that no prof ever does (or at least not something that I’ve experienced during five years, two Bachelors, one minor, one certification, one thesis, through my involvement in at least three different departments), it sounds much harder in practice.

BUT (YOU GUESSED IT) I WENT FOR IT

I actually set out to fail both finals because frankly I didn’t need to take either (though they were required) and, aside from a fun challenge like the one our prof posed, I hate having to take an exam I don’t see the need to.

I gotta admit it felt weird: I mean, I didn’t have to study that hard for once! For one of those exams I just needed to know the material well enough to know what NOT to pick, and for the other I just had to add my name to the top of it. Easy peasy!

But still, I felt odd: I don’t fail exams, like ever–especially on purpose. I’m a proud goody two-shoes, someone who genuinely enjoys doing the right thing.

BUT WHEN “THE RIGHT THING” HAS MANY DEFINITIONS, WHICH ONE DO YOU GO FOR?

My dad thought it was a bit mediocre that I hadn’t studied for the second exam. But in my defense, I already had an A- in the class. To get to an A, I’d probably need a REEEEALLY high score ON that final. But after getting two B-s and an A- in the previous exams, I knew there’d be a small chance I’d get an A in this CUMULATIVE final, and I just don’t subscribe to Lots of pain, Small gain (unless it’s w/losing weight because that’s gradual).

So I sat down, answered the first couple of pages, and then turned the exam back in. What can I say, I’m excited and anxious for grad school–and this was the last unnecessary stepping stone standing in my way. Naturally, I wanted to get it over with ASAP.

I was excited for my Industrial Psychology final (I had an A in the class and had gotten an A- and an A in the other exams) because if I aced it, it’d mean I could get rid of that first A-.

AND LO AND BEHOLD, I ACTUALLY GOT A ZERO!

I couldn’t stop jumping for joy when I found out I had. Apparently there were four people total who got zeros (i.e., As); a couple people tried (but failed); and the rest aimed for actual scores.

SOMETIMES GOING AGAINST YOUR NORM PAYS OFF

[Tweet “Leave your comfort zone once in a while.”]

So reevaluate that norm (without compromising your values!!), get out of your comfort zones once in a while, and see where that leads you. You might earn that A–whether it’s a literal A or a figurative one is entirely up to you.

What have YOU done that’s outside of your comfort zone and that yielded an unimaginably great result?

Photo credit: Original via Mental Floss.