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I was wondering if anyone had experience with this...

I rocked my first semester 1L year.
landed a 1L SA gig in a secondary market.

Just took my second semester exams. I do NOT feel good about them.
This semester, I didn't completely slack off, but I did not work nearly as hard as I did last semester (i was really burnt out from Fall Semester).

Now I am SUPER worried about my grades. I know for a fact that I missed some big issues in one of my exams.
Does anyone have experience with a significant grade decrease?
Should I even be freaking out?
How do you explain a grade decrease at OCI?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Potential employers will average the grades you received and compare that grade point average against the grade point averages of other candidates. In your own mind, the narration is critical. To firms sifting through hundreds of resumes, it really just boils down to GPA and corresponding rank.

I had an enormous decrease and nobody asked about it, and I did about how I would have done with the same grades evenly spread.

Kill it as a SA and get invited back. Then do OCI knowing you have a nice fallback.

Sealocust is right about firms just looking at your GPA and not exact distribution. I had a significant drop (all A's first semester, median 2nd semester) and it didn't hurt me at all in OCI. But I did have this funny exchange...

OCI interviewer right after I sit down: "What the hell happened 2nd semester?"

Me: "I got married in the middle of it."

Interviewer: "That was dumb."

It is going to hurt you in the sense that they aren't going to think of you based solely on your first semester grades (which I think is what you are asking...). They are going to look at the average of both semesters, at the cumulative gpa for the year. It won't hurt you that you had one semester better or worse than the other.

I would wait until you get your grades back as well; don't beat yourself up when you aren't even sure how you did. Stories abound of people misjudging their performance.

I can promise you it won't effect OCI, but it might affect it.

Feeling the same way bro. I didn't slack off just don't think I performed as well. Awwe shit happens its life. Time to brush up the interview skills.

There is nobody more hated in law school than the fucking douche bags who humble brag about "I THINK I DID SO MUCH WORSE THIS TIME." Or "I'm going to totes fail!!!!!!!! (despite everyone knowing I have a 3.."

Anonymous User wrote:Kill it as a SA and get invited back. Then do OCI knowing you have a nice fallback.

titcr

nealric wrote:I can promise you it won't effect OCI, but it might affect it.

lol your so clever bro

dr123 wrote:

nealric wrote:I can promise you it won't effect OCI, but it might affect it.

lol your so clever bro

i can't tell if this was on purpose or not.

Desert Fox wrote:There is nobody more hated in law school than the fucking douche bags who humble brag about "I THINK I DID SO MUCH WORSE THIS TIME." Or "I'm going to totes fail!!!!!!!! (despite everyone knowing I have a 3.."

Really? I hate the douchebags who are shocked anytime they get less than an A+ much more. Give me false modesty (or genuine neurotic worry, which I actually think is more common) over a god complex any day.

FWIW, I had a strong upward trend and I don't think it opened any additional doors for me (at best, it pushed me "over the edge" once or twice. Barring a jaw-dropping change (e.g., top 10% fall and bottom quarter spring) I don't think a downward trend is going to be given much notice. Be prepared, of course, to give a good answer if you're asked about it, but rest assured that a departure from, say, a 3.6 to a 3.2 isn't all that uncommon (when you're taking 3-5 graded doctrinal classes a semester a single mark can make/break your GPA). A 3.4 is still a 3.4.