How did you feel before your first midterm? Forum

[solotee]

Just curious how people felt coming into their first graded mid-term and how they did afterwards.

My first midterm is tomorrow. Although it's only worth 10% of our grade, just the fact that it's the first objective measure of our performance in law school is making me anxious. In a way I feel like tomorrow will set apart the have's and the have not's. Although I did my best preparing for it, I have no clue whether it will pay off or not.

[20160810]

10% in a curved class means don't worry. This test is realistically (1.) a potential heads-up if you're really behind and on pace to bomb the class or, best case, (2.) something that might bump you up from a B+ to an A- if you're on the borderline after the final. Chill out, get off TLS, pour yourself a cold one, flip through the E&E, and good luck.

[beach_terror]

Just curious how people felt coming into their first graded mid-term and how they did afterwards.

My first midterm is tomorrow. Although it's only worth 10% of our grade, just the fact that it's the first objective measure of our performance in law school is making me anxious. In a way I feel like tomorrow will set apart the have's and the have not's. Although I did my best preparing for it, I have no clue whether it will pay off or not.

I felt like I gave a B+ performance on my crim midterm 2 weeks ago. We get it back in 2 days so that evaluation could be way off or spot on. I hit all the issues I wanted to and analyzed as time permitted, I was just unhappy with the clarity of my writing and feel like I didn't nitpick (and over nitpicked) some stuff.

[LAWYER2]

I felt confident going into it, and subsequently did well. It really helped me to teach my classmates, and anyone else would listen the material

[Arrow]

I could barely sleep before my 1st midterm. Ours was worth only 25%, but it was really the first time I would be judged based on everything I had done so far. I guess, at the time, I had studied a lot, but was not sure how smart or how hard everyone else had been working. The exam itself wasn't so bad, as I had done hypos, but yeah, I was just really worried about the curve. Still, the midterm was a great learning experience and helped me fix a lot of errors.

Good luck!

[beach_terror]

I was just really worried about the curve.

The curve keeps me up at night. I try to ignore what other people say/do because, no matter what, it's out of my control... but it's tough not get sucked in.

[solotee]

After the midterm I realized right away I missed an easy issue

Lesson learned: Torts checklist!

Not looking forward to grade, but I'm definitely looking at this as a learning experience.

[dailygrind]

felt like a beast going in, felt pretty confident coming out, thought i only missed one issue and it was higher level. grade comes back, and i'm sitting at median. fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[saucie]

I was nervous going in, but not very nervous because I made the mistake of not looking at past exams. I thought I did okay afterward, but felt like the hour had gone by in five minutes. Failed the midterm. But then I CALI'd the class, so I guess I could say the midterm was no big deal.

[solotee]

felt like a beast going in, felt pretty confident coming out, thought i only missed one issue and it was higher level. grade comes back, and i'm sitting at median. fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Have you had a chance to figure out where you went wrong? (Also isn't half of UVA on TLS?)

[stayway]

midterm grades tomorrow ffffffffuuuuuu

Be nice to me curve-pretty please

[dailygrind]

felt like a beast going in, felt pretty confident coming out, thought i only missed one issue and it was higher level. grade comes back, and i'm sitting at median. fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Have you had a chance to figure out where you went wrong? (Also isn't half of UVA on TLS?)

if i had to speculate, i'd say my writing lacks clarity on some points. i thought my analysis was fairly strong, barring the missed issue at the higher level, but that my reasoning wasn't always apparent unless you were dailygrind. i'm going to find out soon.

midterm doesn't count so i don't think we're being uber-secretive about how we did, plus only a few people in my section are regular tlsers, and i don't particularly mind if they know i'm run of the mill. but yeah...lots of uva folk on tls.

[Bankhead]

When I did my civ pro ungraded midterm, I had likely one of the lowest grades in the class. I ended up with the highest grade in the class on the final. Don't sweat it.

[beach_terror]

When I did my civ pro ungraded midterm, I had likely one of the lowest grades in the class. I ended up with the highest grade in the class on the final. Don't sweat it.

Do you mind if I ask how much effort you put into prepping for it?

[beach_terror]

Got my point total, but I have no idea how to interpret it

[taylort]

You got a midterm? Enjoy!

Walking into a one-shot, winner take all final with no clue how you're doing until it's over. That's pressure.

[vanwinkle]

I could barely sleep before my 1st midterm. Ours was worth only 25%, but it was really the first time I would be judged based on everything I had done so far. I guess, at the time, I had studied a lot, but was not sure how smart or how hard everyone else had been working. The exam itself wasn't so bad, as I had done hypos, but yeah, I was just really worried about the curve. Still, the midterm was a great learning experience and helped me fix a lot of errors.

Good luck!

The great Arrow speaks!

For me, the midterm was a wakeup call and learning experience. The most valuable single experience I had in law school was sitting down with my prof in office hours and going over my exam to discuss what I'd done wrong. It wasn't any one particular thing, it was the way I was approaching the exam that was wrong, and when I realized that I changed my approach, to great success.

In that way, especially for a midterm that's only worth 10%, even doing badly isn't a bad thing in itself. You have a chance to learn now, and if you really take from it everything that you can, you can end up improving greatly and doing well on the final.

[solotee]

OP here. Just got my graded 10% midterm back. I was super nervous going into this midterm. Even worse, I realized I missed a major issue right after they called time. It was a two-part problem of negligence & intentional torts. I got so carried away w/ negligence that I forgot to talk about any intentional torts and defenses to intentional torts.

Despite the major flaw, scored into top 1/3 of class. Great learning experience.

[vanwinkle]

OP here. Just got my graded 10% midterm back. I was super nervous going into this midterm. Even worse, I realized I missed a major issue right after they called time. It was a two-part problem of negligence & intentional torts. I got so carried away w/ negligence that I forgot to talk about any intentional torts and defenses to intentional torts.

Despite the major flaw, scored into top 1/3 of class. Great learning experience.

Congratulations, it's always great to get the first one out of the way. It's even better if you can learn from it. Now you can have the confidence that you at least know what you're doing, and build on that until finals get here. Good luck!

[beach_terror]

Despite the major flaw, scored into top 1/3 of class. Great learning experience.

Same here, not quite where I'm aiming to be... but at least it was a step in the right direction. We can pull those up to A's no problem!