Number of times to optimally fail? Fifteen percent

To learn new things, we must sometimes fail. But what’s the right amount of failure? New research led by the University of Arizona proposes a mathematical answer to that question.

Educators and educational scholars have long recognized that there is something of a “sweet spot” when it comes to learning. That is, we learn best when we are challenged to grasp something just outside the bounds of our existing knowledge. When a challenge is too simple, we don’t learn anything new; likewise, we don’t enhance our knowledge when a challenge is so difficult that we fail entirely or give up.

Source: Learning is optimized when we fail 15% of the time | EurekAlert! Science News

So, your solid B students? They are doing it right! And now I have vindication for a lot of my grades through HS, but those are based more on that fact that I procrastinated and rushed through the work instead of failing…