Crashed and Burned on the Mid-Term Forum

[Zensack]

As the title says, I did incredibly poorly on my mid-term (torts). Bottom 25%. I'm still in shock several hours after seeing my score. I put so much work into my studies and preparing for the exam. I attend class, do the reading, and take notes daily. I devoted a full week to preparing for the exam itself. I did CALI lessons, E&E, both practice exams my professor posted, made an outline, revised the hell out of it, and visited office hours to talk about the writing exercises we did in class. I got to bed early the night before and didn't feel pressed for time. I've put in more work during half of my 1L semester than most years of undergrad, and all I have to show for it is this shitty grade. I really have no idea what to do now.

[lawstudent_87]

Welcome to law school.

[stillwater]

Welcome to law school.

yup, sucks bro. can you talk to your prof about it? otherwise, you need to revise what you're doing because it isn't working. use it as a learning opportunity, step back, evaluate your methodology, adapt and keep fighting. it's all you can do.

[WinbyLazy]

As the title says, I did incredibly poorly on my mid-term (torts). Bottom 25%. I'm still in shock several hours after seeing my score. I put so much work into my studies and preparing for the exam. I attend class, do the reading, and take notes daily. I devoted a full week to preparing for the exam itself. I did CALI lessons, E&E, both practice exams my professor posted, made an outline, revised the hell out of it, and visited office hours to talk about the writing exercises we did in class. I got to bed early the night before and didn't feel pressed for time. I've put in more work during half of my 1L semester than most years of undergrad, and all I have to show for it is this shitty grade. I really have no idea what to do now.

Re-assess your approach/techniques, strengthen and develop the approaches/techniques that will help you kick ass on the finals, and talk to people that did well (2Ls) and see what they did for proven approaches/techniques if you are unsure of what to do. Good luck!

[Zensack]

Welcome to law school.

yup, sucks bro. can you talk to your prof about it? otherwise, you need to revise what you're doing because it isn't working. use it as a learning opportunity, step back, evaluate your methodology, adapt and keep fighting. it's all you can do.

I can set up an appointment as soon as tomorrow. I intend to update the thread afterwards.

Re-assess your approach/techniques, strengthen and develop the approaches/techniques that will help you kick ass on the finals, and talk to people that did well (2Ls) and see what they did for proven approaches/techniques if you are unsure of what to do. Good luck!

I actually can't talk to upperclassmen who had my professor because this is the first time he's taught torts in a long time. I would like to revise my study/test prep strategies, but I have no idea how. reading law review articles is the only TLS recommendation I'm aware of but didn't do.

[shock259]

reading law review articles is not a good idea. Try to take a deep breath and take your mind off of it. Go talk to the professor and see what you can do to improve. Don't let this throw you. A lot of people do bad on midterms and come back to do well on the final. The race isn't over, and you have a lot of time left.

And remember to do practice tests as the semester comes to a close.

[mr.hands]

it's really really really early. Start your outlines, refer to supplements, and watch BarBri lectures

[thesealocust]

Sounds like you have a fever, and the only cure is less time learning the law, more time learning how to get points on a law school exam.

http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=123092

[gaud]

Welcome to law school.

Sadly, this.

Also, meet up with your professor and discuss your exam. I bombed a midterm 1L and pulled an A- in the class by snagging dat top grade on the final. You can do it

[kwais]

I think that you need to start drafting a letter of withdrawal to the registrar. There is a one-to-one correlation between doing bad on a single 1L midterm and instances of Sandwich Artistry. You are smart to have caught this now.

[LSL]

I think that you need to start drafting a letter of withdrawal to the registrar. There is a one-to-one correlation between doing bad on a single 1L midterm and instances of Sandwich Artistry. You are smart to have caught this now.

OP, this poster is a complete ass. Just listen to what the others are saying. See if you can find if the prof wrote anything on various torts issues that you can find online (articles, books, etc.). If not, I'd compare your answer to model answers from exam prep books like Siegel's and others. Good luck and chin up.

[gregfootball2001]

As the title says, I did incredibly poorly on my mid-term (torts). Bottom 25%. I'm still in shock several hours after seeing my score. I put so much work into my studies and preparing for the exam. I attend class, do the reading, and take notes daily. I devoted a full week to preparing for the exam itself. I did CALI lessons, E&E, both practice exams my professor posted, made an outline, revised the hell out of it, and visited office hours to talk about the writing exercises we did in class. I got to bed early the night before and didn't feel pressed for time. I've put in more work during half of my 1L semester than most years of undergrad, and all I have to show for it is this shitty grade. I really have no idea what to do now.

Congratulations! That's wonderful news. Seriously. Really, really great for you.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. You now have an opportunity. You found out - before it counted - that what you were doing was wrong. Talk to the TA that graded it, talk to the prof. Find out where you could have gotten more points. Re-write a (small) section, bring it back to the prof or TA, see if that would have gotten more points. I did that my 1L year, and it was a huge help. You're finding out your weaknesses before it really matters. That's huge.

Listen, mid-term grades don't matter for shit. All that matters - the one and only thing - is that you learn and improve. If you had done wonderfully, and didn't change a thing, that doesn't mean that you would have done wonderfully on the exam. People improve. People get better. Just like you're gonna get better.

Also, if you haven't read Getting to Maybe, this might be a good time.

Good luck!

[Eco]

I got an A+ on my midterm, ended up with a B+ on the course, back in 1L time. It's no big deal. Midterm means nothing, the final is all that matters.

[ironman467]

I bombed a midterm 1L year. It counted for more than your grade.

I was working hard but I wasn't working smart. If you do both, you will succeed.

Talk to your professor and find out what you need to do.

I ended up with a B+ in the class, graduated pretty high, have the job of my dreams, and passed the bar.

You aren't alone!!! Many have been there before, bra.

[WinbyLazy]

Read "Getting to Maybe" and "7 Tips for Exam Taking Success" (or something like that) by Charles Whitebread.

[YYZ]

Generally, I don't think doing E&E and Cali is the best use of your time. Study only the material from class and go talk to the prof or another student if you don't understand something. For the rest of the semester, use about 20% of your time reading/preparing for class and 80% of your time studying the material you have already learned from class. That way, you focus most of your efforts for the final.

Also, you need to take maximum advantage of the practice tests that your prof gave you. It's one thing to try and answer the problem, but it's much better to answer the question and the review your answer with the prof. He or she will basically tell you how they want students to respond to their questions. So, if any of your other profs give you sample exam questions during the remainder of the semester, take this approach for finals.

[NotMyRealName09]

+1 on the Whitebread book mentioned above. Out of every single thing I did to get ready for my 1L finals, I attribute my success largely to that book, and I actually first read it a few days before my first exam. It's short, like 100 pages, get it now, read it.

Did you memorize a one-page handwritten outline of the course that you jotted down on scrap paper as soon as the exam begun, which listed every major rule and all its elements (assuming it was a class like that)? You should next time. I know it sounds odd, but there is a positive in this in that you discovered your study methods are not working and need revision. Someone who aced this exam won't change anything they are doing, and the people behind them on the curve will be improving. You can improve, stay with it. Good luck.

[NotMyRealName09]

Generally, I don't think doing E&E and Cali is the best use of your time. Study only the material from class and go talk to the prof or another student if you don't understand something. For the rest of the semester, use about 20% of your time reading/preparing for class and 80% of your time studying the material you have already learned from class. That way, you focus most of your efforts for the final.

Also, you need to take maximum advantage of the practice tests that your prof gave you. It's one thing to try and answer the problem, but it's much better to answer the question and the review your answer with the prof. He or she will basically tell you how they want students to respond to their questions. So, if any of your other profs give you sample exam questions during the remainder of the semester, take this approach for finals.

And I'll second this. E&E and Cali do not matter. All that matters is what did YOUR professor cover in class. Look at the table of contents of your textbook. Look at the sections your professor covered. That table of contents is now the skeleton of your outline. Work from there. Because the dirty secret is that your professor wrote their exam by outlining it from the table of contents and making sure they touched on everything (or select things) they actually covered.

[gregfootball2001]

Generally, I don't think doing E&E and Cali is the best use of your time. Study only the material from class and go talk to the prof or another student if you don't understand something. For the rest of the semester, use about 20% of your time reading/preparing for class and 80% of your time studying the material you have already learned from class. That way, you focus most of your efforts for the final.

Also, you need to take maximum advantage of the practice tests that your prof gave you. It's one thing to try and answer the problem, but it's much better to answer the question and the review your answer with the prof. He or she will basically tell you how they want students to respond to their questions. So, if any of your other profs give you sample exam questions during the remainder of the semester, take this approach for finals.

And I'll second this. E&E and Cali do not matter. All that matters is what did YOUR professor cover in class. Look at the table of contents of your textbook. Look at the sections your professor covered. That table of contents is now the skeleton of your outline. Work from there. Because the dirty secret is that your professor wrote their exam by outlining it from the table of contents and making sure they touched on everything (or select things) they actually covered.

I'm gonna disagree a bit (which shows yet again, by the way, that there's more than one way to do well - do what works for you). The E&Es were extremely helpful for me. Doing 10 or so hypos on each little part of the law really helped me see the rule from different standpoints. Few of my profs had previous exams posted, and having a bunch of hypos available was really helpful.

[shock259]

IMO, E&E's and other supplements are helpful if you aren't understanding something. Or to give yourself a bit of a better understanding. But after you've read 2-3 supplements on the same topic, it all starts sounding the same (and it is the same). So there's huge diminishing returns on doing that. Read it until you get it. And when you get it, move on.

I think practice tests are going to be the most important component for OP. He seems to know the law. Just got to spot those issues and apply it right.

[WinbyLazy]

+1 on the Whitebread book mentioned above. Out of every single thing I did to get ready for my 1L finals, I attribute my success largely to that book, and I actually first read it a few days before my first exam. It's short, like 100 pages, get it now, read it.

I agree. What I found particularly helpful, and I think this was mentioned elsewhere on TLS was that "Getting to Maybe" is a solid "foundation" for "Whitebread's 7 Tips."

During my 1L year, I created a small summarized document outlining Getting to Maybe and Whitebread's Tips. Here is a link to the document, perhaps that will help:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kpay1kcq8zvg4 ... 20GTM.docx

IMO, E&E's and other supplements are helpful if you aren't understanding something. Or to give yourself a bit of a better understanding. But after you've read 2-3 supplements on the same topic, it all starts sounding the same (and it is the same). So there's huge diminishing returns on doing that. Read it until you get it. And when you get it, move on.

I think practice tests are going to be the most important component for OP. He seems to know the law. Just got to spot those issues and apply it right.

This is also a good point. I primarily used E&Es and other supplements after I finished putting together my outlines from class. The purpose was to supplement my notes and strengthen anything I've missed and clarify my understanding. Then you just cut it down anyway.. :

[Danger Zone]

Read it until you get it. And when you get it, move on.

This is true of everything in law school. I would have saved a ton of time if I had realized this earlier. As a 1L, you might feel like "am I missing something? This sounds obvious." And you would probably be correct. So move on if you feel that way.

[Dogg]

IMO, E&E's and other supplements are helpful if you aren't understanding something. Or to give yourself a bit of a better understanding. But after you've read 2-3 supplements on the same topic, it all starts sounding the same (and it is the same). So there's huge diminishing returns on doing that. Read it until you get it. And when you get it, move on.

I think practice tests are going to be the most important component for OP. He seems to know the law. Just got to spot those issues and apply it right.

second this ^

[spleenworship]

I got a C on my Ks midterm. Got an A in the class.

2 secrets: First, I went over the midterm with my prof. Second, it's only so much of your grade... a good final can pull you up.

Also, GTM is worth it if not already read.

[Sgttpc]

We had midterm exams for all four classes (civ pro, K, torts, and property). Torts and CP are worth 1/3 rd of overall grade where the other two are complete. They separate k and prop into I and II. I did not think they were that tough. I just think being properly prepared makes the difference, it was nice to have some time in between exams to focus on one subject. I left each feeling very good. The multiple choice was tricky, but essays were not difficult. I outlined early and kept up with all of the class outlines weekly, so when the term ended all I had to do was trim it down. I got outlines down to 8-13 pages for this term. I did a bunch of practice exams, and sent to professors for feedback. I think this was the most helpful part of preparing for an exam. Finding what they are looking for, and making adjustments where needed. I did not use a bunch of supplements, only e&e for torts to help with some concepts. Good luck to everyone next semester.