Waiting for 1L 2nd semester grades is killing me Forum

[shock259]

1L was more fun than 2L.

Yall did 2L wrong. I studied 1/10th of what I did 1L and got similar grades. Also, I took a pass/fail class, classes with paper finals, classes with no on call system, etc. 2L has been the least stressful year ever.

[mr.hands]

For some reason i felt like i was waaay more prepared in the first semester of 1L. Does anyone else feel that way?

At this point i'd love to be median pwned. 2 of my 4 finals were 8 hour take-homes. I went back and read my answers after i turned them in (i know i know) and found multiple typos. Dear God i'm nervous.

[echooo23]

I guess one good thing about the weekend: I can stop stop obsessively checking to see if any more grades have posted for a couple days.

[BuckinghamB]

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+1 to OP. Haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I feel like first semester was a complete fluke. Very nervous.

[stillwater]

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+1 to OP. Haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I feel like first semester was a complete fluke. Very nervous.

i felt totally impotent this semester.

[Bronck]

This is 5 days premature for me, but is this going to turn into the waiting thread like last sem?

[brotherdarkness]

.

[kpuc]

+1 to OP. Haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I feel like first semester was a complete fluke. Very nervous.

Yeah, I realized last semester that there were truly no great outcomes. If you got bad grades, you became depressed and terrified that you wouldn't be able to improve. If you got adequate or good grades, you grew terrified that you'd blow it all next semester.

The only finality comes at the end of 1L. Then comes OCI/EIW/OGI...

[stillwater]

+1 to OP. Haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I feel like first semester was a complete fluke. Very nervous.

Yeah, I realized last semester that there was truly no great outcome. If you got bad grades, you became depressed and terrified that you wouldn't be able to improve. If you got adequate or good grades, you grew terrified that you'd blow it all next semester.

The only finality comes at the end of 1L. Then comes OCI/EIW/OGI...

There is no relief. Ever.

[kpuc]

There is no relief. Ever.

After securing a 2L summer position, I suppose there's some relief for a while.

But then there's the stress of getting an offer, then the stress of actually working, then the stress of trying to not get laid off if the economy is bad, then the stress of trying to find a suitable exit option...

But that's life in any occupation. At least people in our field are compensated pretty well and don't have to break our backs.

[A. Nony Mouse]

+1 to OP. Haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I feel like first semester was a complete fluke. Very nervous.

Yeah, I realized last semester that there were truly no great outcomes. If you got bad grades, you became depressed and terrified that you wouldn't be able to improve. If you got adequate or good grades, you grew terrified that you'd blow it all next semester.

The only finality comes at the end of 1L. Then comes OCI/EIW/OGI...

I always consoled myself that the good thing about not being #1 in my class (or #2, or #3 or... well, you get the idea) was that I never had to worry about losing that position.

[gregfootball2001]

I could realistically be anywhere from top 5% (take your OCI pick) to top 20% (you'll get interviews, but yay more stress). Grades can't come soon enough.

[kpuc]

I could realistically be anywhere from top 5% (take your OCI pick) to top 20% (you'll get interviews, but yay more stress). Grades can't come soon enough.

One way to cope is to assume that your grades are great until otherwise disproven.

[Viper12]

2 feelings clashing. I'm happy finals are over. However, as excited as I am to be done, I'm nervous...one final went well, I spotted the issues, did well on MC and typed til the very end, spell checked, nice headings, etc. However, Civ pro was a nightmare I found myself unsure on literally half of the true and false, and on the essay portion wasnt sure I always stuck with relevant issues, did enough detail, etc. I actually feel terrible about civ pro. Which sucks because I watched the freer lectures 80 times and spent a ton of time outlining the lectures, reviewing, etc.

Everyone seems to think the test was super hard. However, one of the issues involved impleader, and I remembered to walk through SMJ, supplemental, 1367a and B and everything so that was good. However, that was only one part of one essay....so nervous ugh. Praying to God I dont get a C or something.....

[Ded Precedent]

The important thing is to have a plan to escape the country if your grades don't turn out how you want them to.

[TLSaul2001]

I'm glad to see this is a common feeling among a lot of 1L's. First semester I was stressed about exams and thought I bombed all of them, so when the grades came I was pleasantly surprised that I did pretty good. (A-, 4 B+'s) Taken 4/5 exams this semester and feel just as unsure as I did first semester but have the added weight of wanting to maintain my GPA. I've had nightmares 3 nights in a row now where I got all C's and my scholarship went up in smoke. Needless to say the stress of finals this semester is light years ahead of last semester and I would seriously debate cutting off my pinky as a sacrifice if it meant I MAINTAINED my GPA. Not even thinking about improving on it. And on top of everything I actually had 6 classes this semester but the credits allocation is so wonky (1/2/2/3/3/4) that I'm terrified of doing terrible in the 4 and 3 credit classes and tanking my GPA no matter the outcome of the other 3 classes. The only solace I take is that legal writing was a 3 credit class and the worst I could have done is a B+, and if my rewrite was well received than there's the possibility of an A-.

Fuck the tests, fuck the world, fuck it all.

[Viper12]

God this wait is going to suck I really feel like a might have bombed civ pro....Idk why I struggled with T/F questions so much...

[nevdash]

3L on the cutoff between honors categories. One of my buddies works in our registrar's office and I'm seriously considering asking him to either give me my grades early or at least give me a heads-up a few days before they go up. Actually going nuts; this is the most gunner I've ever felt before.

Wait a minute -- there are members of our classes who can actually see our grades?

Oh no, he's not a student. I just happened to make friends with someone who works in our registrar's office. Haha.

[gregfootball2001]

I could realistically be anywhere from top 5% (take your OCI pick) to top 20% (you'll get interviews, but yay more stress). Grades can't come soon enough.

One way to cope is to assume that your grades are great until otherwise disproven.

Ha, if only I could. Instead, I dream all night that I bombed. My school is entirely pre-select, and while I have interesting (non-relevant) WE, grades are huge.

[kpuc]

I could realistically be anywhere from top 5% (take your OCI pick) to top 20% (you'll get interviews, but yay more stress). Grades can't come soon enough.

One way to cope is to assume that your grades are great until otherwise disproven.

Ha, if only I could. Instead, I dream all night that I bombed. My school is entirely pre-select, and while I have interesting (non-relevant) WE, grades are huge.

Damn, that sucks.

[gregfootball2001]

I could realistically be anywhere from top 5% (take your OCI pick) to top 20% (you'll get interviews, but yay more stress). Grades can't come soon enough.

One way to cope is to assume that your grades are great until otherwise disproven.

Ha, if only I could. Instead, I dream all night that I bombed. My school is entirely pre-select, and while I have interesting (non-relevant) WE, grades are huge.

Damn, that sucks.

Aw, it's not so bad. Biglaw + fed clerking is around 25%, so I should be fine. But still, the unknown bites.

[xiamay]

Another, perhaps less helpful anecdote: first semester, two classes I felt crappy about and two I felt great about. In the two I felt great about, got As. In the two I felt bad about, Bs.

Second semester, again two classes I felt crappy about and two I felt great about. Two classes I felt most crappy about are first to give grades: two As. Feeling good. Few weeks later, classes I felt most confident about give out grades: two Bs.

Even though you feel like after 1 semester you can gauge your performance, you really can't. Grades are like eyewitness identifications: no correlation between confidence and accuracy. I know that might make things more miserable, but hopefully it will help you refrain from constantly trying to "figure out" what you got. No matter how many issues you "absolutely know" you spotted or missed, you really have no idea.

Looking back on 1L, I wish I had wasted less time worrying about things that were out of my control and spent more time worrying about things that were inside of my control. First thing to do is reward yourself for trudging through 1L. Next, I would start worrying about your 2L job hunt. Reading through the massive threads about OCI (attire, interviewing skills, dos and donts, how to start mass mailing and networking, etc.) and being prepared for that process will be potentially life changing. There are stories of people ranked top 15% at T10s who struck out at OCI because they were underprepared, and there are stories of people ranked top 30% at T50s getting V10 offers because they hustled hard. 1L is the first big hump to get over in your legal career, but unfortunately, it's not the last.

Congratulations, though, guys. 1L is definitely as bad as the school part of law school gets. Be sure to spend some time drinking this summer.

This makes me feel a lot better...i think. I have the exact same feelings as everyone else here... did really well last semester, but this semester was a shit show...even though I feel like I worked super hard (way harder than last semester), I had some stupid mishap on each of my 3 exams and they all just felt way harder....

the whole having high expectations also just makes it agony waiting for grades.. I keep running through my exams and trying to score each part of the exam and guess my grades/GPA. I want to stop obsessing about this so I can study for my last final! I'm hoping after all my finals are done, it'll be a lot easier to not think about grades once I can drink and play.

Anyone have tips on how NOT to think about old exam mistakes/Grades??

[TLSaul2001]

This makes me feel a lot better...i think. I have the exact same feelings as everyone else here... did really well last semester, but this semester was a shit show...even though I feel like I worked super hard (way harder than last semester), I had some stupid mishap on each of my 3 exams and they all just felt way harder....

the whole having high expectations also just makes it agony waiting for grades.. I keep running through my exams and trying to score each part of the exam and guess my grades/GPA. I want to stop obsessing about this so I can study for my last final! I'm hoping after all my finals are done, it'll be a lot easier to not think about grades once I can drink and play.

Anyone have tips on how NOT to think about old exam mistakes/Grades??

There's absolutely not a single thing you can do to change what you already handed in. You wrote it, submitted it and now your teacher is grading it. No amount of worrying or 'what ifs' is going to change the fact that your work is now being compared to everyone else in the class and being put on the curve. Also, going over what you wrote in your head and trying to guesstimate your success isn't going to be possible since your grade depends on everyone else's work.

I know it's impossible not to think about how you did, but the least you can do is not try and figure out what your grade is going to be by replaying the test in your head, that's futile.

[grimfan]

Anyone have tips on how NOT to think about old exam mistakes/Grades??

Think about your other (or more important) life goals and passion projects? Unless you're one of those people whose dream is to make partner at Cravath or become a federal circuit judge, chances are that you probably have other interests besides law school and the legal field.

[Lacepiece23]

Anyone have tips on how NOT to think about old exam mistakes/Grades??

Think about your other (or more important) life goals and passion projects? Unless you're one of those people whose dream is to make partner at Cravath or become a federal circuit judge, chances are that you probably have other interests besides law school and the legal field.

Sucks mine was making the nfl until I blew out my knee so I only have law to cling to now.