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Of the tens of thousands of students receiving their exam results today, about one in ten will hear that they have failed. A disappointment, but not the end of the world. NU.nl spoke to three people who also once failed, but turned it into a positive.
Luuk van Ingen (35) took his final exams for the first time in 2007. On the day of the announcement, he was called at the earliest possible minute. Unfortunately, he failed. Although Van Ingen doesn’t think that’s a nice word at all. According to him, it sounds very nasty and judgmental. “And I didn’t experience it that way at all,” he says.
Van Ingen could retake chemistry to still get his HAVO diploma. But he (deliberately) didn’t study for this test. “My classmates were done with school and were going to live in student rooms. I wasn’t ready for that at all yet,” Van Ingen admits. He also rejected the option of evening school. He wanted to redo the school year entirely.
In 2008, Van Ingen took another exam attempt. He abandoned his ‘just passing’ mentality and ended the year with a much better report card. He only finished English with a 5. But in hindsight, that didn’t mean anything, he thinks. “Years later, I graduated from a master’s program where English is the language of instruction.”
But first, Van Ingen did an architectural training, after which he also studied architecture. Both studies went well for him and within a few years, Van Ingen had two diplomas in his pocket. Working in architecture was a bit disappointing in practice. Later he still found his calling and started teaching at the high school – the place where he himself had to make his study choice years before.
‘Your study choice is more of a guideline, not the final destination’
Rianne van der Stelt (30) did not manage to pass her VWO diploma in one go in 2013. According to her own words, this was due to a combination of procrastination, a ‘just passing’ mentality and insecurity. She had to do the year again. “I just called that VWO 7,” says Van der Stelt.
She didn’t know what she wanted to study at the end of her first exam year. That extra year of school gave Van der Stelt just enough time to find her passion. “Then I found out that I really liked mathematics,” she says. “If I hadn’t failed the first time, I would have continued and just chosen a study.”
In the following school year, Van der Stelt still obtained her VWO diploma. The next step was the applied mathematics course in The Hague. After this study, Van der Stelt would like to inspire other young people with her passion for mathematics. She now does this through social media and by visiting high schools.
With this, Van der Stelt wants to be the role model for other children that she would have liked to have had in her high school days. She calls it difficult to ‘have to’ choose your further education at a young age. “It felt to me like there was only one right choice,” says Van der Stelt. “But now I see it differently. Your study choice is more of a guideline, not the final destination.”
Different paths to your future
In 1996, Laura Sandee (47) took her final exams at the atheneum. The then eighteen-year-old had already developed a passion for playing the piano at a young age. Together with her family, Sandee drew up the plan to go to the Royal Conservatory The Hague after high school. This also included a visit from a piano tuner, who happened to come by on the day of the exam results.
“At our school, the failed students would get the assistant headmaster over the floor,” says Sandee. When the doorbell rang that day, she still hoped it was the piano tuner, but unfortunately. Sandee tried to save it with a retake. “But I got an even lower grade for that than the first time,” she says laughing.
Sandee still went to exam parties of the successful students, but felt very bad. After all, she had already done her entrance exam for the conservatory. Still, she found a way: Sandee could go to evening school during her first year at the conservatory to still get her VWO diploma.
And she did. After studying at the conservatory for four years, Sandee was able to start making a career. Now she performs with several orchestras at home and abroad. In addition, she now teaches young talents at the conservatory herself.
According to Sandee, you are really allowed to be disappointed in the event of a setback, such as not getting your diploma. “But don’t let it lead you off your path. There are always different paths that can lead to your future,” she says.