When you say it took you several tries on an assignment and you still couldn't get it right, was the "not right" judgment coming from the professor or from you? Just curious. I usually put enormous expectations on myself. I'm much more demanding than my professors would even care to be. So, to alleviate some of the anxiety, I ask a lot of questions. "What do you mean by... ?" "Can you show me an example of... ?" It's when I don't ask questions, when I silently sit and stare at a packet of reading or pieces of a project, that I melt down into a pool of grad-school ooze. ; )