Bombing my exams (t6), don't know what to do... Forum

[Sogui]

I am a 2L. I can tell you that things may not be as bad as you think for two reasons:

1) You underestimate yourself, and
2) You overestimate your classmates.

When I was a 1L, I walked out of a Civil Procedure class, called my wife, and said "I just failed an entire class." I got an A. The same semester, I thought that I missed the point on an entire Criminal question. I CALIed the class. You are a 1L, and, with all respect intended, you have no idea how you did until you get your grades. Chill out and enjoy your winter break.

I really hope you're right, I'm kinda banking on this.

The people here at CLS seem pretty damn smart, half of the class was in the top 1% of LSAT scores, and the vast majority of us are still within "one rough logic game" of each others scores, no way of knowing where you really sit.

[uzpakalis]

How did you get into a T6?

[beach_terror]

Excellent Caddyshack reference.

[clintonius]

How did you get into a T6?

Yeah, good question. Nobody good enough to get into a T6 should wind up at the bottom of the class

[run26.2]

One lesson I learned from 1L is that not all the same people do well both semesters and that there is regression to the mean (the GPAs will tend to move closer to the average over time). Some people that had top GPAs will go down, leaving the possibility for you to make up some ground second semester.

As a for my first semester I finished top 30%. Second semester I was top 20% for that semester and then top 20% overall. These numbers are not exactly right as I am just using them for illustration purposes. But I did have the same overall percentile rank as my second semester percentile, and it was higher than my percentile ranking first semester.

Don't loose hope. As others have said, other people probably made similar mistakes, and worse mistakes, than you did. You only have to do better than a few people in each class to be at or very near median. My guess is that, given that you did not blow things off, you probably have not done as badly as you suspect.

That being said, I would make use of practice tests you have access to.

[BruceWayne]

How did you get into a T6?

Yeah, good question. Nobody good enough to get into a T6 should wind up at the bottom of the class

This uzpakalis person needs a reality check.

[Diet_Coke]

Yeah I ran out of time too. I'm diagnosed OCD, and the compulsion unfortunately manifests itself in a need to rewrite sentences over and over again (something else too, but that doesn't apply to exams ). It sucks but I just have to deal with it and hope that I overcome it enough to do well on my last exam, and later next semester. Fortunately I was better able to move on for my second exam, and I'm hoping it gets better for the last one on Tuesday. It's so goddamn frustrating because I feel like I knew the law pretty well, and there wasn't anything that threw me off on either test, but whatever--it is what it is.


Maybe it won't be as bad as I think, I actually feel like I performed half-way decent on the second! Be thankful that you at least have the pseudo-safety net of attending a T6 school.

[MrKappus]

Yeah I ran out of time too. I'm diagnosed OCD, and the compulsion unfortunately manifests itself in a need to rewrite sentences over and over again (something else too, but that doesn't apply to exams ). It sucks but I just have to deal with it and hope that I overcome it enough to do well on my last exam, and later next semester. Fortunately I was better able to move on for my second exam, and I'm hoping it gets better for the last one on Tuesday. It's so goddamn frustrating because I feel like I knew the law pretty well, and there wasn't anything that threw me off on either test, but whatever--it is what it is.


Maybe it won't be as bad as I think, I actually feel like I performed half-way decent on the second! Be thankful that you at least have the pseudo-safety net of attending a T6 school.

This is something that maybe should have been addressed BEFORE writing 7000-word tomes in 4 hours w/ a hundred other motivated people at a time. That said, sounds like it didn't affect you too badly, and you probably did just fine. (On the plus side, I bet your diction/usage will be a joy for the prof to read after reading 100 other students' word vomit.) Good luck.

[Diet_Coke]

Yeah in retrospect I should have done something about it earlier. I just didn't want professors/students knowing about it, and felt that since it didn't become much of an issue during my undergraduate years, it wouldn't become insurmountable in the present. Obviously law school exams have proven to be something else entirely, and I know I won't be able to perform while moving at my pace. I went back to a doctor and started my prescription two days ago, but I'm still debating if I want to address it with the school.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the depth of my analysis and quality of writing get me through.