Did I fail my exam? Forum

[Connor Benz]

So I am freaking out and I think I failed my exam. The multiple choice was crazy as fuck and I think I did bad on it. I talked to a couple of other classmates and they came up with different answers than I did. I know I got at least two wrong because I looked it up afterwards.

Next, the short essay portion was about 10 short essay questions and I did not know the answer to two of them, and this section was worth the most. Additionally, one of them I did not answer completely because I did not know the rest of the question.

The long essay - worth less than the short essays. This area I believed I did decent on, but I still don't think I got all the issues. Im sweating bullets over here. I talked to a classmate who said they did not mention one thing, but I mentioned it so Idk. Then another classmate said he didnt do much studying on a topic the professor talked about the last week of class and that was an issue in the fact pattern so he said he took his best shot at it. I'm hoping I did not fail, clearly I did not get an A, but Im hoping I can get a mid to low B? I'm fearing that i didnt even get C. Any thoughts please?

Multiple choice and long essay were worth equal points, while the short essay was worth 10 points more than the mc and long essay.

[ph14]

You did not fail. Breathe easy my friend. If it was hard for you it was hard for everyone. I have very good grades and I don't think I've EVER gotten "all the issues." I've done very well even where I know for a fact I messed up an issue or issues or completely missed an issue or issue(s). Moreover, at this point it is done and out of your hands, so try and not to think about it.

Don't ever talk about a law school exam once it is over. That's probably the most important rule in law school.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Nova]

Any thoughts please?

try to relax. theres nothing you can do about it now

[hephaestus]

No one here can tell you whether or not you failed your exam, but you need to take a deep breath and move forward. There's nothing you can do at this point and, assuming you have more exams coming up, panicking is not going to help.

Exactly this. Its tempting to spend all day second guessing yourself after the exam. But here's the thing: all of your classmates are doing the same thing, realizing they might have missed some question or fail to spot some issue. Law school exams do not demand perfection. You gain nothing by focusing on something out of your hands. Take a break for a few hours, do something else totally unrelated to law school.

[buckythebadger]

Now, go have a beer (or six) and move on with your life.

[BVest]

No idea the situation in your class, but my Civ Pro prof shared his grading rubric and distribution with us after we got our grades and it has comforted me the rest of law school:

On a B curve (with no A+ option):
240 possible points
High score: 155 (A)
Low Score: 67 (C)

[bk1]

Yes.

[bk1]

No.

[bk1]

Maybe.

But really:

try to relax. theres nothing you can do about it now

[Ded Precedent]

God Bless the Curve homie.

[nebula666]

You can fail?

[northwood]

If you answered every question, and were able to put some sort of law that you covered in class you should not fail. Unless you go to a TTTT, in which your school fails 20% of the class. But if you dont, stop worrying about that test. OR if you went full crazy and wrote some sort of insulting (about the professor) or drew a picture and wrote LOL I DONT CARE then i can see you failing

[KD35]

Also, just as a small note (I'm a 1L so only have 1 round of experience), the class I felt like I did absolutely the worst in was the class I did best in, and everyone else felt great about it and didn't do as well.

Don't worry about it, move on and forget about it til you happen to see grades later. And in the end, one grade won't kill you regardless. You didn't fail.

[NotMyRealName09]

If you didn't know this by know, know it now - DON'T TALK ABOUT THE EXAM WITH PEERS. Someone will have thought of something different and you'll freak yourself out. But on a law school exam, a 70% of all possible points could be the highest grade, so some people may have addressed different issues but that doesn't mean they'll score higher.

[ph14]

If you didn't know this by know, know it now - DON'T TALK ABOUT THE EXAM WITH PEERS. Someone will have thought of something different and you'll freak yourself out. But on a law school exam, a 70% of all possible points could be the highest grade, so some people may have addressed different issues but that doesn't mean they'll score higher.

Credited. This is pretty much the cardinal rule in law school. As soon as the exam is done it's done.

[onefootoutthedoor]

If you didn't know this by know, know it now - DON'T TALK ABOUT THE EXAM WITH PEERS. Someone will have thought of something different and you'll freak yourself out. But on a law school exam, a 70% of all possible points could be the highest grade, so some people may have addressed different issues but that doesn't mean they'll score higher.

+1. Submit and then immediately get as far away from the law school as possible. Nothing good will come from a postmortem discussion with your classmates. If you really want to talk about the exam, make an appointment with your professor after grades are released.

Personal exam performance anecdote: after I took my 1L contracts exam I immediately went home, watched some TV, sat down to eat dinner, and suddenly realized that I forgot to address a major issue. I proceeded to stress about it for the next 4-6 weeks; until grades were released and I saw the "A" on my transcript.

You won't know until you know. Forget about it. Move on. Dominate the rest of your finals. Then enjoy your summer.

[BigRob]

Most law students could probably pass a blindly-graded exam in a course they didn't take; an entirely unresponsive gurgle of nonsense is enough to get a D. You have to write nothing to fail.

[adonai]

Most law students could probably pass a blindly-graded exam in a course they didn't take; an entirely unresponsive gurgle of nonsense is enough to get a D. You have to write nothing to fail.

Agreed. I misunderstood/mixed up the question calls for the entire essay portion of an exam, making it essentially meaningless. That means I technically hit zero issues. I still got a C. That probably won't make you feel better but at least you won't fail.

[whut]

Depends on the school. Most schools have no one "fail" but lower tier ones lose up to a full half or more their first year.
Whittier is around 53% fail out first year
cooley is a third

[Nova]

on my crim law exam there were 3 essay prompts of equal value. right when I was about to start the 3rd prompt, examsoft froze. I started freaking out and ran out of the room with my laptop to the tech guys.

I was so flustered when reading the 3rd prompt (a 100% policy question) I misunderstood it and thought it asked for an opinion on something completely different. I essentially failed to address the prompt in any way.

B-

[Connor Benz]

What if you make inferences from the facts? Aren't you not supposed to assume facts that are not there? I did this in my exam, made some inferences to help my argument.

[sopranorleone]

What if you make inferences from the facts? Aren't you not supposed to assume facts that are not there? I did this in my exam, made some inferences to help my argument.

It's fine to make inferences from the facts; just note that you're making an inference and explain why it's reasonable.

[BPLawl]

So I am freaking out and I think I failed my exam. The multiple choice was crazy as fuck and I think I did bad on it. I talked to a couple of other classmates and they came up with different answers than I did. I know I got at least two wrong because I looked it up afterwards.

Next, the short essay portion was about 10 short essay questions and I did not know the answer to two of them, and this section was worth the most. Additionally, one of them I did not answer completely because I did not know the rest of the question.

The long essay - worth less than the short essays. This area I believed I did decent on, but I still don't think I got all the issues. Im sweating bullets over here. I talked to a classmate who said they did not mention one thing, but I mentioned it so Idk. Then another classmate said he didnt do much studying on a topic the professor talked about the last week of class and that was an issue in the fact pattern so he said he took his best shot at it. I'm hoping I did not fail, clearly I did not get an A, but Im hoping I can get a mid to low B? I'm fearing that i didnt even get C. Any thoughts please?

Multiple choice and long essay were worth equal points, while the short essay was worth 10 points more than the mc and long essay.

You go to Cornell. Believe me, you did not just fail Property. They don't fail people here. I don't think Und. gives out Cs even! But go check her previous curves in the black binder by the registrar. HTH.

Also, perilously close to outing yourself.

[NotMyRealName09]

What if you make inferences from the facts? Aren't you not supposed to assume facts that are not there? I did this in my exam, made some inferences to help my argument.

It's fine to make inferences from the facts; just note that you're making an inference and explain why it's reasonable.

Eh maybe I take a strict view on this, but no - law school exams don't have inferred facts. Law professors do two things - not practice law, and take pride in writing fact patterns that beg right answers. Cross off each fact in a fact pattern as you use it. If you've crossed out each sentence, you're onto something. Just realize facts beg law, so know the law, and if your attack outline shows things you've covered in class that you haven't touched on yet in your exam answer, it's probable you've missed an issue that is staring you in the face.