Explaining one low grade during OCI Forum

[win200]

I have straight As/A-s... except for a B in Torts for fall semester and a C+ during spring. That particular professor (now no longer with the school) gave a final that consisted of 80 obnoxious esoteric T/F questions. We called it the Russian Roulette final - there was no correlation between performance on this test and performance in all other classes. I'm in the top 3% of my class, so I'm not terribly worried about this, but what would the best answer be to "What happened in Torts?"

[oscarthegrouch]

Maybe just explain that you missed one issue, but learned blah blah blah?

[Dead Ringer]

.

[sophie316]

I have this too...I misread a statute in a big question and by the time I noticed it it was too late to do a good job changing it....had to word vomit and it was a word limited exam so I quickly ran out of room before reaching several issues. That one 1 q bought my grade way down...is that an ok thing to tell employers?

[Dead Ringer]

I would guess it kind of depends on whether they give you an opening. I am sure not going to start an interview with "let me just quickly explain that one grade..."

Sophie, that was kind of what happened to me in Crim except I never caught the mistake

[270910]

1) Do not bring it up

2) It likely won't come up

Law school grades are the randomest things ever. Every interviewer will have random ass grades too. They'll also know that law school is SRS BSNS so A) people all tried hard for all of their classes and B) people probably don't have a damn clue why some exams were good and some exams were bad.

Your best bet if (and ONLY if) an interviewer asks is to play it off quickly. "The prof gave a mean exam... I enjoyed the class and worked hard, but, you know, law school - that's how it plays out some times" and you're probably done. Don't start droning on about issues or hard questions or russian roulette. It can be as true as you want it to be but you have to get the interview back to your personality and away from your transcript. And the more you try to "explain" it the greater the odds you look whiny or like you're making excuses.

[rayiner]

^^^ what disco said.

I talked to a partner who had graduated from SLS recently. He went on a rant about how random LS grades were, lol. Unprompted. So yeah, interviewer won't even bring it up if your bottom line GPA is good.

[270910]

So yeah, interviewer won't even bring it up if your bottom line GPA is good.

And if they do, it's almost certainly in the context of friendly curiosity rather than naked contempt. "What happened in Torts!" might be a natural question if they're surprised, but you have to realize there's no expectation that everyone have perfect, uniform grades. Because nobody will

[leobowski]

How could you explain a huge jump in grades 1st semester? I had walking pneumonia right before finals, but that seems like a cop-out.

Edit: meant to say jump in grades between 1st-> 2nd semester.

[Kohinoor]

How could you explain a huge jump in grades 1st semester? I had walking pneumonia right before finals, but that seems like a cop-out.

Same. I had the flu and, while at the gym with the flu, managed to sustain a neat rotator cuff injury the week before finals.

[soaponarope]

How could you explain a huge jump in grades 1st semester? I had walking pneumonia right before finals, but that seems like a cop-out.

Same. I had the flu and, while at the gym with the flu, managed to sustain a neat rotator cuff injury the week before finals.

Why were you at the gym (working out?)... with the flu?

[Kohinoor]

How could you explain a huge jump in grades 1st semester? I had walking pneumonia right before finals, but that seems like a cop-out.

Same. I had the flu and, while at the gym with the flu, managed to sustain a neat rotator cuff injury the week before finals.

Why were you at the gym (working out?)... with the flu?

I like offering people trips to the gun show.