I agree completely about not failing yourself.
On my PPL, I made a complete hash of the PFL and the radio nav section.
PFL - I made an immediate turn into wind, as instructors had taught me. That meant a left turn.
But the only suitable field had been on the right and that was now directly behind me. So I was completely thrown - I thought he was asking me to PFL into fields the size of postage stamps.
Examiner eventually took pity on me, took control, pointed out the suitable field (about a mile long and 500 yards wide!) criticised my instructors, directed me to climb to exactly the same spot as before and pulled the throttle again.
So this time I turned right and "selected" the suitable field.
I really thought I'd failed.
Nav - when I did the position fix using 2 x VORs, I drew one of the lines on the chart from from a completely different VOR.
I still passed.