Choose the fruits of your labor.

We have a lot of projects to work on. Probably around the area of 10-11 each semester. Thats 40-44 during your two years here.

You typically only need 3-5 for a book so it shouldn't be too hard to find them out of those 44. Well it is, but you have to know what a book piece is when you see it, and know the duds as well. We spend a lot of time working on duds here. LOTS. Its so easy to lose the forest for the trees. Fall in love in your ideas or art direction and lose focus on the simple fact that you need to find the good work.

But what do you do about the duds?

Abandon them? Nope. You never know when a dud can become gold with a little tweeking.
Work even harder? Nope. If the idea is bad, no amount of fixing can make it good.
Start over? Sometimes. But you don't always have the luxury to start over when you're under the gun of another project.

At some point you need to see that your work might not work, finish it as best you can, and bury it for good. There's more projects waiting out there for you, concentrate on those.