Failing an Exam - Probably Overreacting Forum

[Anonymous User]

So I took an exam last week pass/fail. As such, didn't prepare super well for it. I'm probably overreacting, but let's just say I did the impossible and failed a law school exam. Is my offer going to get yanked? If not, am I doomed for a no/cold offer?

[Desert Fox]

So I took an exam last week pass/fail. As such, didn't prepare super well for it. I'm probably overreacting, but let's just say I did the impossible and failed a law school exam. Is my offer going to get yanked? If not, am I doomed for a no/cold offer?

Yes it would probably get yanked because only legit tards fail at law school.

[20160810]

Does it effect your GPA if you fail a P/F class? If so then you might be boned. Not much you can do though, just hope for the best and do the best work you can this summer. Hopefully the professor is decent about it and doesn't drop the F bomb. If you're taking the class pass fail I should think the bar is set nice and low.

[jselson]

What was you word count on the exam? (Assuming a normal issue spotter.) I've heard people only fail exams when they write basically nothing, don't show up, or just don't have a single clue and go completely off topic. One prof told me he's only failed a person once, and that's because they didn't notify the school of technical issues they were having with their computer, and so turned nothing in. I've certainly bombed exams, but failing seems to be really an extreme situation, and I've never really worried about it. Unless you have some reason to think you weren't just the worst in your class, but literally demonstrated no legal knowledge whatsoever on your exam, I wouldn't think much about it.

[Anonymous User]

What was you word count on the exam? (Assuming a normal issue spotter.) I've heard people only fail exams when they write basically nothing, don't show up, or just don't have a single clue and go completely off topic. One prof told me he's only failed a person once, and that's because they didn't notify the school of technical issues they were having with their computer, and so turned nothing in. I've certainly bombed exams, but failing seems to be really an extreme situation, and I've never really worried about it. Unless you have some reason to think you weren't just the worst in your class, but literally demonstrated no legal knowledge whatsoever on your exam, I wouldn't think much about it.

OP here. I wrote 3000 words in a 3.5 hr exam, but I seriously was making shit up on a good portion of it. I did have some good stuff from the outline I used for a couple answers. I probably said things that are right on halfish of the answers. Not remotely all of the things. But some of the things.

Again, I'm probably overreacting. I only need to pass, but I didn't think the exam would go nearly as poorly as I felt like at the end. Maybe I just don't realize how low the bar is for passing.

[NotMyRealName09]

Nobody fails unless you write nothing.

[Anonymous User]

If this was graded, sounds like you would get a C at worst, but since its pass/fail, that's not really a concern. I think you're really overestimating what it takes to actually get an F.

Even if you did fail, whether or not that would affect your job depends on the firm. At my firm (NYC V10), you don't even get asked for transcripts after the 2L SA hiring process, so you'd actually have to not graduate to have your offered pulled.

I'm sure you'll be fine though if you managed to put down 3000 words that are even semi-related to the class.

[shock259]

Nobody fails unless you write nothing.

[Anonymous User]

What was you word count on the exam? (Assuming a normal issue spotter.) I've heard people only fail exams when they write basically nothing, don't show up, or just don't have a single clue and go completely off topic. One prof told me he's only failed a person once, and that's because they didn't notify the school of technical issues they were having with their computer, and so turned nothing in. I've certainly bombed exams, but failing seems to be really an extreme situation, and I've never really worried about it. Unless you have some reason to think you weren't just the worst in your class, but literally demonstrated no legal knowledge whatsoever on your exam, I wouldn't think much about it.

OP here. I wrote 3000 words in a 3.5 hr exam, but I seriously was making shit up on a good portion of it. I did have some good stuff from the outline I used for a couple answers. I probably said things that are right on halfish of the answers. Not remotely all of the things. But some of the things.

Again, I'm probably overreacting. I only need to pass, but I didn't think the exam would go nearly as poorly as I felt like at the end. Maybe I just don't realize how low the bar is for passing.

This sounds exactly like an exam I turned in last spring. I was worried because my word count was shit and everything I wrote was shit. I ended up with an A. Moral of the story is that everything is relative. My answer was objectively shit, but I guess it was towards the top of a pile of stinking shit. If what you wrote is better than literally one other person in your class, you will pass. 90% pass even if it's the worst answer in the pile.

[jselson]

What was you word count on the exam? (Assuming a normal issue spotter.) I've heard people only fail exams when they write basically nothing, don't show up, or just don't have a single clue and go completely off topic. One prof told me he's only failed a person once, and that's because they didn't notify the school of technical issues they were having with their computer, and so turned nothing in. I've certainly bombed exams, but failing seems to be really an extreme situation, and I've never really worried about it. Unless you have some reason to think you weren't just the worst in your class, but literally demonstrated no legal knowledge whatsoever on your exam, I wouldn't think much about it.

OP here. I wrote 3000 words in a 3.5 hr exam, but I seriously was making shit up on a good portion of it. I did have some good stuff from the outline I used for a couple answers. I probably said things that are right on halfish of the answers. Not remotely all of the things. But some of the things.

Again, I'm probably overreacting. I only need to pass, but I didn't think the exam would go nearly as poorly as I felt like at the end. Maybe I just don't realize how low the bar is for passing.

I've written less than half of that in a 3-hour exam, with barely a hundred words on the final of three equally-weighted questions, and came out of the exam feeling like I'd just been sideswiped, and didn't come close to failing. This semester, I wrote slightly over 1500 words, with only about 200 words on the second equally-weighted question, of which I completely got wrong the main issue the question was asking, and I have no worry whatsoever about failing. Sounds like you did just fine. Just chill out.

[20160810]

Honestly I think 3000 words = good faith effort which is seriously all that's needed here.

[BigZuck]

Same situation for me. Took the class p/f, wrote 3k words, think I totally bombed at least one question. Little worried because the professor seems to have a token (or two) D or F every semester. I think it's fine though, 3K words related to the class has to be at least worth a C I think.

[XxSpyKEx]

Do you attend a t14? If you do, then don't worry about it. I don't think it's even possible to fail a law school exam at a t14 (unless you don't take it, or something ridiculous like that). Pretty sure if you copied and pasted "the sky is blue" 100 times, you'd receive at least a C-. At my school, a very notable prof outright told the class that he puts his exams in two piles. One pile has the p/f exams, and the other has the graded exams. He doesn't read the p/f exams. He said most of his colleagues (i.e. other profs) operated similarly.

[AReasonableMan]

I doubt the professor is going to want to ruin your offer by failing you, and it's in the school's interest for you not to fail. You're not a 1L who may bring down the bar numbers. With an offer, you are an asset to their marketing.

[Hopefully2012]

I doubt the professor is going to want to ruin your offer by failing you, and it's in the school's interest for you not to fail. You're not a 1L who may bring down the bar numbers. With an offer, you are an asset to their marketing.

True, but most professors don't seem to care at all about the school's marketing.

[AReasonableMan]

I doubt the professor is going to want to ruin your offer by failing you, and it's in the school's interest for you not to fail. You're not a 1L who may bring down the bar numbers. With an offer, you are an asset to their marketing.

True, but most professors don't seem to care at all about the school's marketing.

Probably true. You still have the possibility they knows how bad failing is for your career, or that having to get permission to give an F isn't worth their hime.

[smallfirmassociate]

I did this once, walked out of the exam room 25 minutes early, and still got a better grade than 25% of the class. There are a lot of people who don't belong in law school, even at T-14's, and even if you do worse than all of them you will probably still pass.

If you wrote anything resembling the law at all on two or more answers, don't sweat it.

[Pikappraider]

I've never heard of anyone failing a p/f exam outside of missing the exam or not being allowed to sit in the first place due to literally never going.

[Paul Campos]

Do you attend a t14? If you do, then don't worry about it. I don't think it's even possible to fail a law school exam at a t14 (unless you don't take it, or something ridiculous like that). Pretty sure if you copied and pasted "the sky is blue" 100 times, you'd receive at least a C-. At my school, a very notable prof outright told the class that he puts his exams in two piles. One pile has the p/f exams, and the other has the graded exams. He doesn't read the p/f exams. He said most of his colleagues (i.e. other profs) operated similarly.

Here's a little story: When I was at Michigan we could take something like 25% of our upper level classes P/F, and it was sort of understood that if you wrote the word "law" somewhere in your blue book you would pass, because the whole purpose of the system was to allow a prof with 140 people in an antitrust class or what have you to only have to grade 90 exams etc.

Unfortunately a visiting professor from some German university failed to understand this informal social contract, and he flat out failed like 19 people in his corporations class. Naturally this caused quite a commotion (totally irrelevant side note: one of the people who failed was a guy who had become the all-time money-winning Jeopardy contestant between his 1L and 2L years -- he won something like $175K --$350K in current dollars). After much whining by the affected parties the administration allowed everybody who failed to take a second exam, and to average the two grades.

[XxSpyKEx]

Do you attend a t14? If you do, then don't worry about it. I don't think it's even possible to fail a law school exam at a t14 (unless you don't take it, or something ridiculous like that). Pretty sure if you copied and pasted "the sky is blue" 100 times, you'd receive at least a C-. At my school, a very notable prof outright told the class that he puts his exams in two piles. One pile has the p/f exams, and the other has the graded exams. He doesn't read the p/f exams. He said most of his colleagues (i.e. other profs) operated similarly.

Here's a little story: When I was at Michigan we could take something like 25% of our upper level classes P/F, and it was sort of understood that if you wrote the word "law" somewhere in your blue book you would pass, because the whole purpose of the system was to allow a prof with 140 people in an antitrust class or what have you to only have to grade 90 exams etc.

Unfortunately a visiting professor from some German university failed to understand this informal social contract, and he flat out failed like 19 people in his corporations class. Naturally this caused quite a commotion (totally irrelevant side note: one of the people who failed was a guy who had become the all-time money-winning Jeopardy contestant between his 1L and 2L years -- he won something like $175K --$350K in current dollars). After much whining by the affected parties the administration allowed everybody who failed to take a second exam, and to average the two grades.

So this averages to a "pass" then (or a letter grade)?

[cron1834]

What was you word count on the exam? (Assuming a normal issue spotter.) I've heard people only fail exams when they write basically nothing, don't show up, or just don't have a single clue and go completely off topic. One prof told me he's only failed a person once, and that's because they didn't notify the school of technical issues they were having with their computer, and so turned nothing in. I've certainly bombed exams, but failing seems to be really an extreme situation, and I've never really worried about it. Unless you have some reason to think you weren't just the worst in your class, but literally demonstrated no legal knowledge whatsoever on your exam, I wouldn't think much about it.

OP here. I wrote 3000 words in a 3.5 hr exam, but I seriously was making shit up on a good portion of it. I did have some good stuff from the outline I used for a couple answers. I probably said things that are right on halfish of the answers. Not remotely all of the things. But some of the things.

Again, I'm probably overreacting. I only need to pass, but I didn't think the exam would go nearly as poorly as I felt like at the end. Maybe I just don't realize how low the bar is for passing.

I've written less than half of that in a 3-hour exam, with barely a hundred words on the final of three equally-weighted questions, and came out of the exam feeling like I'd just been sideswiped, and didn't come close to failing. This semester, I wrote slightly over 1500 words, with only about 200 words on the second equally-weighted question, of which I completely got wrong the main issue the question was asking, and I have no worry whatsoever about failing. Sounds like you did just fine. Just chill out.

Reading this made me feel better. Also, the Campos story was fun.