```json meta
{
  "title": "I Am Glad I Failed That Test",
  "lead": "It may sound crazy, but failing a test in college was one of the best things that happened to me during that time. It gave me a strategy for learning that has been invaluable to me ever since.",
  "isPublished": true,
  "publishedAt": "2024-05-16",
  "openGraphImage": "posts/i-am-glad-i-failed-that-test/og-image.png",
}
```

In the fall semester of my junior year in college I took a class called Cell Biology with [Dr. Bradley Creamer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-creamer-a735b423/). The first test we took I bombed...bad. It was the first time that had put on that kind of performance and I was frustrated. Lucky for me I went to a university where my professors had regular office hours.

The next morning I was the first one through the professor's door to get some advice on what I could do better to prepare. He gave me what has come to be some of the best advice on learning I've ever got. He said I shouldn't just read the chapters and do the problem sets, but also try to explain to someone else what I'd just read or learned. Like have a study group and try to teach each other.

For the rest semester that is what I did. I'd pull a whiteboard into the living room of our tiny apartment and I'd pretend as if I was lecturing on the topic. It was an immediate unlock to figuring out where the gaps in my understanding were. And since then it has been a go to strategy for learning new things.

Being able to learn new things has defined the first part of my career. From a personal trainer to a medical scribe to a food scientist and now a quality engineer, I've had to learn a lot of new things. And I've always gone back to that strategy of trying to teach someone else what I've learned. It's been invaluable to me.

I'm glad I screwed up that test and I'm grateful I had the blessing of a great teacher.
