I am teaching a bunch of students and have to give them a test at the beginning of every class to see if they have come prepared for the lab. I gave the first one last week and when I was correcting the answers, realised that the average was less than 70%. I wrote an easier quiz the next time around and, at the end of it, asked them how they felt. Having seen their low scores on the first one, they all said, 'So! Tough! Much tougher than the first time'. But they had all done better on the second one - an average increase of 15%.
I wonder how much such thinking affects our daily decisions. Do we find everything harder if we fail once?
Hmm..
