Read it again

Have you ever had to take an open-note history test? But the notes were yours to make. So you read the book, and you jotted down everything you found while reading the chapter. And then you take the test, with nothing to help you but a pencil and your notes. You come across a problem you just can't figure out. So you consult your notes, review what you remember, what the teacher has said before, what you took down from the book. And then, satisfied that you thought it through, you mark your answer and continue on.

Two days later you get the test handed back to you, now graded. Seeing you didn't get a perfect score you skim through it to check what you missed. And it's that problem, you missed that problem. Even after you read the chapter in the book, you listened to the teacher, you wrote down notes, and you consulted those notes to answer the question. You had been so sure you were right, because you had studied, you made sure. But you still got the question wrong.

Life can be compared to taking a history test. You live your book of life, taking notes as you go. Everything that happens to you, you learn from it. You learn from what others, like the teacher, tell you. You remember what you can. Then you come across something that happens or something you have to do, so you go back and review your notes. You think about the situation, and everything you know, everything you've learned, and you deal with the problem. But then, you didn't do it right, you didn't answer correctly. You were wrong.
But how could you be wrong? You listened to your teacher, you read the chapter, you took your notes. How could you be wrong, you did everything you were supposed to.

It never occurs to you that maybe, you took down your notes, but you misinterpreted what you read. You misunderstood. And because of that, it doesn't matter what you wrote in your notes or read in the chapter, or how sure you were. You didn't understand. You were wrong.

Don't be the person who blames the grader and does nothing else about it. Accept that maybe you misunderstood the chapter. Read it again.