T2 - roughly in the 50s or 60s

Oh, gawd yes, this is my thread. My last exam was civ pro, and I've never felt less prepared for an exam in my life, despite the fact that I studied as best I could. I felt way more on top of things first semester - at least the material if not the brand new experience of law school exams. This semester I felt perpetually drained. I'm just hoping the curve saves me.
However, I did learn last semester that it's so hard to predict performance because of the curve. Luckily I have a ridiculous amount of things to do before grades are posted so that I can't obsess too much about grades.

Do people's grades usually drop? I have been told that they are relatively consistent. I know that I can drop by almost .3 and still be in the top 10% but still....is this thread just fueled entirely off anxiety?


I am beginning to have major anxiety about grades.

They usually drop.

You're an angel. Did you make an account just to post this?

I'm stating a fact. Top five percent cutoff for my school after first semester of 1L is usually around 3.9 and tends to drop to about 3.7 after a full year of grades according to our Career Services office.

I see, but at the same time that is not really a drop. Granted the same people who were in the 3.9 range are still in the 3.7 range.

Good point. If we define a drop as a drop in class rank (which is probably a better definition anyway) then its true that people probably won't see a drop at all. It does probably mean the same students who brought home all A's first semester are less likely to do so second semester, even if they still hit the exact same place in the class rank.

I'm wondering how it always drops, though, if we're graded on a B curve. I could see fewer people managing to get As. But are fewer people also getting Cs? More Bs for everyone? I always feel that whenever someone gets a C, it frees up people closer to the top of a curve to get an A. Conversely, I guess if there's fewer As, some of last semester's C students get a slight boost into B-.
It's also possible that I am both over and under thinking this and need to get back to write-on.

This is only a "fact" for your school. It completely depends; at my school the cutoffs went up in spring semester. And it's also not really relevant to what people are anxious about.

I think there are pretty much the same amount of As Bs Cs but people drop in the rank, and thats why the cutoff marks go down. For example, if there are a few 4.0s semester 1 making the top 5% cutoff a 3.9, it is likely that 2-3 of them will get at least an A- or something. Further, there are 3.6-3.7s that will move up. It is unlikely that all top 10-15% students will maintain the exact same rank. With all the shuffle, the cutoff sometimes moves up or down.

Historically the top10% cutoff at my school (after 1l year) has been around a 3.6. After Fall semester it was close to 3.8. Not sure if this is accurate, but its likely that the difference was because the cutoff changes after Spring.

Stupid question, but what the hell is the actual name of UC Berkeley School of Law now? There are about 4 names for it on the website.

stanfordrejects.com

We are in a transfer thread here, we are all rejects of Stanford. I think it is UC Berkeley School of Law. The re-branded and ditched the Boalt hall part of it.

Just to chime in, I'm really worried, too. I got accepted as a transfer to USC next year and while the initial letter said nothing about grade stipulations, they announced that we have to stay in the top 20%. I'm in the top 10% but I'm really worried I will drop out of the top 20%!

Finals felt so much harder this semester!

Hopefully we're all just being nervous for no reason.

Depends on what we mean about "bombed." I didn't feel completely god-awful about any of my exams, but I can totally see myself getting straight B+s.

I think doing well the first semester really piled on the pressure. It's hard to suddenly confront these new expectations, especially considering I went into my school expecting to be a median student, but somehow walked away with all As. When I started my first test, I was so fucking nervous that I couldn't even type without making a ridiculous slew of errors. It's kinda like you're Albert Pujols playing loose and putting up MVP numbers in St. Louis, but then once you get that fat contract, suddenly turn into a headcase.

i believe that condition is called the "barry zito syndrome."

It's simply Berkeley Law.

Yeah, probably no longer sending out transfer apps, thanks con law.

For me I think it all comes down to Torts. The waiting game is now afoot!

What if you have one C or C- on your transcript and the rest of your grades are fine? I already know w/o a doubt that I will get the lowest grade in my class on the final that I took yesterday and could say goodbye to dean's list this semester. Is there any hope to transfer with a bad grade or should I just forget about the idea of transferring?

Opinions on here say that a B or B- won't hurt your chances as long as the GPA stays high, but a C might. If you have a C though, wouldn't that kill your GPA/Rank and put transferring out of the question anyway?

Also, if you got consistent high grades, it is highly unlikely that you will get a C/C- in just one class, it is probably just a bad feeling and you did better (B/B+). I thought I completely bombed one class last semester, I'm talking C-/D and ended up with an A-, so you really never know.

Just send em

seconded. you probably killed the other classes, too, so you should be fine.

B ish in law schools but only 1 unit