Waiting for 1L grades...so much worse than waiting for LSATs Forum

[atlantalaw]

I disagree. After taking the LSAT I had no idea how I did, and after bombing it the first time, the wait for the retake score was just awful, since I knew that if I didn't improve I'd have to take a year off and try again. Basically, it was the most important test in my life, at the time.

Now that I've gotten into a good law school, I figure that I'll probably be OK regardless of what my grades are, unless I did absolutely terrible. I'm still very curious what I got, but I don't find the wait worse than the LSAT.

My plan is practice the following in front of a mirror, and use it as often as necessary:

"Thanks for the opportunity to practice evasive lawyering: No comment"

I'm going to ask you what your grades are just to hear that.

if someone asks me how my grades are, i am just going to be upfront and tell whoever asks that i will not share them with anyone.

[RVP11]

I disagree. After taking the LSAT I had no idea how I did, and after bombing it the first time, the wait for the retake score was just awful, since I knew that if I didn't improve I'd have to take a year off and try again. Basically, it was the most important test in my life, at the time.

Now that I've gotten into a good law school, I figure that I'll probably be OK regardless of what my grades are, unless I did absolutely terrible. I'm still very curious what I got, but I don't find the wait worse than the LSAT.

My plan is practice the following in front of a mirror, and use it as often as necessary:

"Thanks for the opportunity to practice evasive lawyering: No comment"

I'm going to ask you what your grades are just to hear that.

if someone asks me how my grades are, i am just going to be upfront and tell whoever asks that i will not share them with anyone.

Do you really call that being "upfront"?

[atlantalaw]

I disagree. After taking the LSAT I had no idea how I did, and after bombing it the first time, the wait for the retake score was just awful, since I knew that if I didn't improve I'd have to take a year off and try again. Basically, it was the most important test in my life, at the time.

Now that I've gotten into a good law school, I figure that I'll probably be OK regardless of what my grades are, unless I did absolutely terrible. I'm still very curious what I got, but I don't find the wait worse than the LSAT.

My plan is practice the following in front of a mirror, and use it as often as necessary:

"Thanks for the opportunity to practice evasive lawyering: No comment"

I'm going to ask you what your grades are just to hear that.

if someone asks me how my grades are, i am just going to be upfront and tell whoever asks that i will not share them with anyone.

Do you really call that being "upfront"?

sure, it is upfront about being evasive

[thesealocust]

My plan is practice the following in front of a mirror, and use it as often as necessary:

"Thanks for the opportunity to practice evasive lawyering: No comment"

I'm going to ask you what your grades are just to hear that.

You finish your outlines yet?

[JazzOne]

Waiting for grades is much worse than waiting for an LSAT score. I see the LSAT waiting threads and just roll my eyes. I don't see what the big deal is about sharing grades. I'll tell anyone who asks me about my grades. I study alone, though, so I doubt anyone will ask.

[samiseaborn]

I think it's worse because at least I had a job waiting for LSATs, winter break just doesn't offer the same level of distraction to think about something besides grades.

[caoyun]

Waiting for grades is much tougher. If you do blow your LSAT, you can re-take it. If you improve, many law schools will simply ignore your first LSAT. At the worst, they'll average it. So there isn't all that much pressure.

You can't re-take your first semester. If you do badly, the best you can hope for is that you can offset it in your second semester. It's not like if you improve enough employers will pretend your first semester grades didn't happen.

[dresden doll]

Waiting for grades is much tougher. If you do blow your LSAT, you can re-take it. If you improve, many law schools will simply ignore your first LSAT. At the worst, they'll average it. So there isn't all that much pressure.

You can't re-take your first semester. If you do badly, the best you can hope for is that you can offset it in your second semester. It's not like if you improve enough employers will pretend your first semester grades didn't happen.

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

1L grades >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (to infinity) LSAT in terms of how excruciating the wait is.

[steve_nash]

Elena Kagan made a B- in torts, fwiw.

[dresden doll]

Elena Kagan made a B- in torts, fwiw.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

[steve_nash]

Elena Kagan made a B- in torts, fwiw.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

lol, didn't mean it like that.

[kobeoverlebron]

lsat was probaly worse. In law school they don't fail you unless you basically don't know a thing. Even then you will probaly get a C-.

With the LSAT if you do awful you may end up going to law school in Wisconsin or some cold place you hate. Or some hot place you hate.

Even if i some how got all C's. There is always next semester.

[Kohinoor]

Waiting for grades is much worse than waiting for an LSAT score. I see the LSAT waiting threads and just roll my eyes. I don't see what the big deal is about sharing grades. I'll tell anyone who asks me about my grades. I study alone, though, so I doubt anyone will ask.

I'll lie to anyone who asks me about my grades.

[Displeased]

As others have said, the worst part about the wait is that its impossible to estimate how well you did. At least with the LSAT, you could make an educated guess as to your score. I expect very few people got 140s when they expected 170s.

With grades, I feel like I could get anything from an A to a C+. Some days, I feel like I aced the tests, other days, I feel like I totally blew it. It doesn't help that my memories of the tests are so fuzzy, I can't remember what I discussed at all.

There's an urban legend here at U of C that a 1L went all year without looking at her grades. I dunno how she managed.

I don't see how not looking at your grades would be helpful, at all. Aside from the unnecessary stress and uncertainty that comes from not looking, you are also handicapping yourself for the second semester. You have no way of knowing if your studying strategy for first semester was working. Even if you get straight C+ grades your first semester, at least you can recognize that you are doing something wrong, and take positive steps to change the way you study and how you take tests.

On top of that, there's the whole issue with jobs. Aren't interviewers going to ask about your grades? Do you simply not look at your transcripts while sending them to interviewers? How do you know what jobs are within reach? I suppose you could just send out applications as if you had all As, and I imagine that not knowing grades would give you something interesting to talk about in your interviews, but still...Seems like not looking at grades would hurt you way more than it helps.

[Kohinoor]

lsat was probaly worse. In law school they don't fail you unless you basically don't know a thing. Even then you will probaly get a C-.

With the LSAT if you do awful you may end up going to law school in Wisconsin or some cold place you hate. Or some hot place you hate.

Even if i some how got all C's. There is always next semester.

It's curved. Getting a C- is a failing grade.

[dresden doll]

Elena Kagan made a B- in torts, fwiw.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

lol, didn't mean it like that.

Oh, no. It kinda made me feel a little better! You misunderstood me.

[biggamejames]

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

Wow, it sounds like you are taking this kind of seriously

[kobeoverlebron]

lsat was probaly worse. In law school they don't fail you unless you basically don't know a thing. Even then you will probaly get a C-.

With the LSAT if you do awful you may end up going to law school in Wisconsin or some cold place you hate. Or some hot place you hate.

Even if i some how got all C's. There is always next semester.

It's curved. Getting a C- is a failing grade.

how is it failing? Its a 2.0. You still pass. Espically in a course like LRW that does not even count against your class standing in Miami.

It does not look good. But you don't fail out of law school.

[dresden doll]

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

Wow, it sounds like you are taking this kind of seriously

In retrospect, I am. But my 1L quarter went along the lines of: get trashed at Bar review Thursday night/cure hangover at Wine Mess on Friday afternoon/continue to drink at a nearby pub after the Mess ended/wind up at a bar/spend Saturday curing the double hangover by suffering the headache/attempt to do the readings on Sunday. Seriously.

I crammed a lot before exams. I am scared to imagine the ass kicking that'll come my way when grades finally come out.

[thesealocust]

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

Wow, it sounds like you are taking this kind of seriously

In retrospect, I am. But my 1L quarter went along the lines of: get trashed at Bar review Thursday night/cure hangover at Wine Mess on Friday afternoon/continue to drink at a nearby pub after the Mess ended/wind up at a bar/spend Saturday curing the double hangover by suffering the headache/attempt to do the readings on Sunday. Seriously.

I crammed a lot before exams. I am scared to imagine the ass kicking that'll come my way when grades finally come out.

OTOH, think how much more impressive it will be if you did better than the library trolls. Who dares wins!

[biggamejames]

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

Wow, it sounds like you are taking this kind of seriously

In retrospect, I am. But my 1L quarter went along the lines of: get trashed at Bar review Thursday night/cure hangover at Wine Mess on Friday afternoon/continue to drink at a nearby pub after the Mess ended/wind up at a bar/spend Saturday curing the double hangover by suffering the headache/attempt to do the readings on Sunday. Seriously.

I crammed a lot before exams. I am scared to imagine the ass kicking that'll come my way when grades finally come out.

Relax. I don't know what the curve is like at UC, but at at least at my school, it's ridiculously hard to finish significantly below the curve. I'm sure you did fine.

[Kohinoor]

lsat was probaly worse. In law school they don't fail you unless you basically don't know a thing. Even then you will probaly get a C-.

With the LSAT if you do awful you may end up going to law school in Wisconsin or some cold place you hate. Or some hot place you hate.

Even if i some how got all C's. There is always next semester.

It's curved. Getting a C- is a failing grade.

how is it failing? Its a 2.0. You still pass. Espically in a course like LRW that does not even count against your class standing in Miami.

It does not look good. But you don't fail out of law school.

At my school at least, I'm pretty sure you need like a 2.7 or 2.3 to stay in school...

During each academic year of enrollment all degree
candidates must earn a minimum grade point average
(GPA) of C+ (2.3)

[dresden doll]

Plus, if your aspirations involve academia, you can't really afford any bad grades. A shitty semester will ruin you forever. And there's the issue of summer jobs, too. Blow the fall semester, and you most definitely won't be getting a fancy 1L gig.

Wow, it sounds like you are taking this kind of seriously

In retrospect, I am. But my 1L quarter went along the lines of: get trashed at Bar review Thursday night/cure hangover at Wine Mess on Friday afternoon/continue to drink at a nearby pub after the Mess ended/wind up at a bar/spend Saturday curing the double hangover by suffering the headache/attempt to do the readings on Sunday. Seriously.

I crammed a lot before exams. I am scared to imagine the ass kicking that'll come my way when grades finally come out.

OTOH, think how much more impressive it will be if you did better than the library trolls. Who dares wins!

Even I would feel that it'd be somewhat unfair to get better grades than someone that did more than I did. I think academic karma will punish me. I was a 4.0 kid in UG and HS, so I suppose my conscience is a bit acute on this point.

James, I do hope I won't wind up below median. I want to say that I did put some solid work into classes towards the end, but the thing is - so did EVERYONE. I seriously can't think of a slacker in our class. It's kinda impressive and scary at once.

[ScaredWorkedBored]

lsat was probaly worse. In law school they don't fail you unless you basically don't know a thing. Even then you will probaly get a C-.

With the LSAT if you do awful you may end up going to law school in Wisconsin or some cold place you hate. Or some hot place you hate.

Even if i some how got all C's. There is always next semester.

It's curved. Getting a C- is a failing grade.

Getting worse than a B at a B+ curve school or a B- at a B curve school means you did really bad. Getting worse than a B- or C+ respectively means that you basically hit your head randomly against the keyboard for four hours.

[apper123]

I had a dream the other night that I got my grades.

Saw the following as I read down the grade report (which was printed and mailed like you used to get in high school lolol thanks dreams):

Torts - A
Legal Writing - A

at this point in the dream I'm like OMGOMGOMG YAYYY then i kept reading down:

Civil Procedure - F
Property - F



i woke up pretty upset. took me like 5 mins to convince myself it was just a dream.