Pennoyer: irrational fears of 1Ls who did well last semester Forum

[megaTTTron]

i actually did .002 better, but the prof who fucked me

No.

No . . . you don't know how to quote? Or what . . .

[rbgrocio]

....

[270910]

This seems like a good place to post this question. Is the first year of law school as brutally hard as advertised, like an entire year of a really rough finals week?

Out of here, 0L.

*grabs water spray bottle*

[apper123]

This seems like a good place to post this question. Is the first year of law school as brutally hard as advertised, like an entire year of a really rough finals week?

No. Most law students greatly exaggerate how bad it is to be honest.

[megaTTTron]

This seems like a good place to post this question. Is the first year of law school as brutally hard as advertised, like an entire year of a really rough finals week?

No. Most law students greatly exaggerate how bad it is to be honest.

Word. And we whine a lot.

[06132010]

This seems like a good place to post this question. Is the first year of law school as brutally hard as advertised, like an entire year of a really rough finals week?

no; it's not that bad.

[sanpiero]

18 days since my last final and only one grade reported. LR has not reported and we submitted our final paper over a month ago. WTF. i fear that my first grade, an A, is setting me up perfectly for a huge disappointment when the final four are reported, just when i'm starting to think i have a shot at T14.

Just to add to your anxiety here, maybe b/c I am evil or something, but this is exactly what happened to me. I got an A immediately in LW, my best grade since coming to law school, then I got the rest and they were pretty much all sub last semester.

Thanks for adding to the anxiety, A'nold! For the time being, at least, I seem to be avoiding an A'noldonian decline. Got my second grade this evening: A. I'm shocked. I didn't have a single A last semester, and wasn't expecting any this semester. Using last semester's cut-offs, I'm now w/in the top 10%. Thought i'd update my story so everyone can follow my epic collapse when LRW, Con Law, and IP are reported.

[Lawl Shcool]

Well since everyone else is doing it....

Fall
4.3
4.3
4.2
4.1
4.1

Spring
4.2
4.1
3.8
3.8
3.7

cum drop .138 in spring...

[stinger35]

God you guys have a lot of classes

[slider]

Well since everyone else is doing it....

You did very well. Congrats!

[eth3n]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix...lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

[OperaSoprano]

God you guys have a lot of classes

Seriously. I'm going to have five grades for the entire year. Two are pending. Please let them be something good.

[Bankhead]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

Same thing happened to me, basically.

[eth3n]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix, lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

Same thing happened to me, basically.

Well, there goes OCI >:D

[TTT-LS]

,

[extragnarls]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix...lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

What happened with the C+'s? Were they "easy" exams?

For what it's worth (virtually nothing), I'd say your transcript looks better than the kid who got the same GPA with a steady stream of A-'s and B+'s. But I agree, that isn't funny at all.

[eth3n]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix...lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

What happened with the C+'s? Were they "easy" exams?

For what it's worth (virtually nothing), I'd say your transcript looks better than the kid who got the same GPA with a steady stream of A-'s and B+'s. But I agree, that isn't funny at all.

First one was that I actually made a mistake, I knew it at the time, and I guess the curve was so small that this mistake C+'d me. This semester its Con Law(ugh). I have yet to see the bluebook/MC but I have to assume it is because of my horrible participation, but I will know more in a few hours. Clearly telling someone that it was because I had bad participation is not the way to go, nor is telling them "well I made a mistake." I have no idea how to spin this.

My goal during OCI was to dismiss the first C+ without making annoying excuses for it (assuming I got all A/A- this semester, which clearly didn't happen). I planned on only explaining away the one outlier (which seemed plausible), but now that I have this one I have no idea wtf to do. Now the CALI (assuming I don't get another) seems more like the outlier than the two C+'s.

Basically I am going to have to network like a beast this summer and next year, obviously grades will get me nowhere (this is from Davis so ya, unless im top10% it could be cooley).

[apper123]

CrimLaw, outside maybe IP, was by far the exam I was 100% the most confident about and it's not close. What the hell? I'm just dumbfounded right now.

Welcome to LS grades, this won't be the last time you feel this way

It's just kinda gross cause if it wasn't for this grade, I'd be top 5% and have a shot at CCN as a transfer and definitely MVBP.

With this grade, I may drop out of the top 10% of the class and will get crucified at OCI.

nvm still a single digit rank in my class and top 5%. whew.

[Bankhead]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix, lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

Same thing happened to me, basically.

Well, there goes OCI >:D

Probably.

[Bankhead]

How to explain a transcript with all A's but plagued by 1 C+ each semester (also have CALI in the mix...lawl)? I am dead serious and this is not funny. I cannot believe this happened to me again. Oh ya, NOT IRRATIONAL!

What happened with the C+'s? Were they "easy" exams?

For what it's worth (virtually nothing), I'd say your transcript looks better than the kid who got the same GPA with a steady stream of A-'s and B+'s. But I agree, that isn't funny at all.

First one was that I actually made a mistake, I knew it at the time, and I guess the curve was so small that this mistake C+'d me. This semester its Con Law(ugh). I have yet to see the bluebook/MC but I have to assume it is because of my horrible participation, but I will know more in a few hours. Clearly telling someone that it was because I had bad participation is not the way to go, nor is telling them "well I made a mistake." I have no idea how to spin this.

My goal during OCI was to dismiss the first C+ without making annoying excuses for it (assuming I got all A/A- this semester, which clearly didn't happen). I planned on only explaining away the one outlier (which seemed plausible), but now that I have this one I have no idea wtf to do. Now the CALI (assuming I don't get another) seems more like the outlier than the two C+'s.

Basically I am going to have to network like a beast this summer and next year, obviously grades will get me nowhere (this is from Davis so ya, unless im top10% it could be cooley).

What is your curve set at and what is your overall rank?

[eth3n]

What is your curve set at and what is your overall rank?

Tenative. I don't know if I will even be in top 1/3 after this. Curve comes out in 3 weeks.

[Big Shrimpin]

.

[stinger35]

What is your curve set at and what is your overall rank?

Tenative. I don't know if I will even be in top 1/3 after this. Curve comes out in 3 weeks.

This has always interested me. Is there a reason why grades come out days or even weeks before the curve comes out? I mean, how difficult is it to plug all of that information into excel and get the data? I feel like my 15-year-old high school self could do those calculations in like an afternoon.

Agreed. My school takes over a month.

[A'nold]

18 days since my last final and only one grade reported. LR has not reported and we submitted our final paper over a month ago. WTF. i fear that my first grade, an A, is setting me up perfectly for a huge disappointment when the final four are reported, just when i'm starting to think i have a shot at T14.

Just to add to your anxiety here, maybe b/c I am evil or something, but this is exactly what happened to me. I got an A immediately in LW, my best grade since coming to law school, then I got the rest and they were pretty much all sub last semester.

Thanks for adding to the anxiety, A'nold! For the time being, at least, I seem to be avoiding an A'noldonian decline. Got my second grade this evening: A. I'm shocked. I didn't have a single A last semester, and wasn't expecting any this semester. Using last semester's cut-offs, I'm now w/in the top 10%. Thought i'd update my story so everyone can follow my epic collapse when LRW, Con Law, and IP are reported.

Congrats!

[A'nold]

CrimLaw, outside maybe IP, was by far the exam I was 100% the most confident about and it's not close. What the hell? I'm just dumbfounded right now.

Welcome to LS grades, this won't be the last time you feel this way

It's just kinda gross cause if it wasn't for this grade, I'd be top 5% and have a shot at CCN as a transfer and definitely MVBP.

With this grade, I may drop out of the top 10% of the class and will get crucified at OCI.

nvm still a single digit rank in my class and top 5%. whew.

Congrats my friend.

Oh, and just to put all of those nervous OL'ers who have been watching my progression at ease, my grades this semester are easily explainable (I just reviewed them and the prof. comments).

Keep in mind that my school curves to about a 2.67:

On a few of my B+'s: I wrote excellent exams. In fact, the professors wrote nothing but great comments but on each one there was like one question where I did average and those little problems took me from an A to a B+. Those exams were "easier" than last semester and the curve was tighter and one little mistake made the difference, unfortunately.

On my two B's: On one, I was lucky to get a B. My crim law professor said that he wanted us to use both the MPC and the common law on the exam "to show that we really get the material." The exam was completely focused on the MPC with some "extra points" going for a little bit of common law analysis. I hardly memorized the MPC and had to scratch and claw my way to that B, which was above median, and it was actually a success based on my mistake of studying the wrong way.
The other B was because it was the first time that professor had ever used an open book/note approach and it was the easiest exam of the semester. Apparently she did not know how to really write a difficult exam for open note kind of exams. I wish it had been closed notes. I looked at the checklist and the points I missed were based on not using specific terminology that she favored, such as "substantial justice and fair play" when I said something equal but used the verbage from the E&E. Again, my fault and I will explain later why this is so.

My f'ing C+: the hardest grading professor at the school. Whereas the other section's torts prof. curved to a 2.8, this guy curved to like a 2.38 or 2.4. Median was a C+, haha. I absolutely crushed this exam all over the place and was completely on pace for an A or A- but I actually got a freaking 0, that's right, no points, on the biggest essay on the exam. This professor actually fails students and takes great joy in giving students 0 points if they don't go down the exact path he wants us to, so I was probs. very fortunate to get a median grade here.



My thoughts: After reading my prof's comments closely, I see that I wrote another batch of top 95% exams.....yet didn't know the BLL as well as I should have and didn't focus as much as I did last semester on my class notes and the exact wording of phrases that rack up checklist points. My fault. I am happy to see that it wasn't my exam taking ability but instead my lack of preparation that did me in. I will definitely get back on track next semester. I missed a crap ton of class too which didn't help. Live and learn.