1L grade waiting thread Forum

[Holly Golightly]

I had no idea people even calculated percentages within a section. Isn't it your standing within the class as a whole that matters?

I was never great at stats so I just take it for what it is. In my school, each section has 90 people so the school essentially points to the top 9 people in each section and deems that collective group of 27 (3 sections) to be the top 10%. Creates odd situations where people in other sections have higher GPA's than me but my rank might be higher.

Weird, I have never heard of that. I wonder if that's common or specific to your school.

[Borhas]

I had no idea people even calculated percentages within a section. Isn't it your standing within the class as a whole that matters?

I was never great at stats so I just take it for what it is. In my school, each section has 90 people so the school essentially points to the top 9 people in each section and deems that collective group of 27 (3 sections) to be the top 10%. Creates odd situations where people in other sections have higher GPA's than me but my rank might be higher.

well how do they continue ranking after 1L?

[kaiser]

I had no idea people even calculated percentages within a section. Isn't it your standing within the class as a whole that matters?

I was never great at stats so I just take it for what it is. In my school, each section has 90 people so the school essentially points to the top 9 people in each section and deems that collective group of 27 (3 sections) to be the top 10%. Creates odd situations where people in other sections have higher GPA's than me but my rank might be higher.

well how do they continue ranking after 1L?

No clue. I should probably find out.

[Unitas]

Wow. I've never heard of different curves for each section.

Seems like a terrible idea. Being in a section with more legitimate superstars would suck more than it already would in a normal system.

It happens (although to a lesser degree) even at WUSTL. A combination of differing means (86.5-87.5) between professors and the tightness of curves can have an effect. I wouldn't be surprised if my section was a little underrepresented in the top 10% last semester, and certainly underrepresented in the top 5%. It's nothing too significant though.

We have a difference in curves here as well (for instance, in ConLaw, my prof curved to a 3.02 and one of the other profs curved to a 2.9). However, there is no way of figuring out where you stand in the section vs. where you stand in the class.

At Georgetown a lot of the section cutoffs are close, but one is not like the others for top 10%. So a lot of section 3ers grades must be high in every class and not distributed. http://www.law.georgetown.edu/registrar ... 9-2010.htm

[missinglink]

Every time I re-read the exam memo for my Property class (B), I can't help but get a little angry. Everything discussed in the memo was in my exam, and then some.

Would ya'll recommend waiting to contact the professor to discuss the exam? If I wait until the fall, I won't even care anymore, and neither will the professor. I know that whenever I get around to it, I'll have to keep my feeling in check and just approach the situation dispassionately. I also feel that nothing good can really come from an exam post-mortem, so why bother.

[quakeroats]

Every time I re-read the exam memo for my Property class (B), I can't help but get a little angry. Everything discussed in the memo was in my exam, and then some.

Would ya'll recommend waiting to contact the professor to discuss the exam? If I wait until the fall, I won't even care anymore, and neither will the professor. I know that whenever I get around to it, I'll have to keep my feeling in check and just approach the situation dispassionately. I also feel that nothing good can really come from an exam post-mortem, so why bother.

You should meet with your professor. Perhaps the curve was tight or your view of what a full discussion should look like differs from your professor's. I'd wait at least a day or two to contact him/her so you don't say anything you shouldn't. In the meantime, read this: http://volokh.com/posts/1168382003.shtml

[missinglink]

Thanks. Obviously we must have differed of what a full discussion looks like.

Looks like my exam might be in some sort of netherworld at the moment. I just emailed the prof. Exams were turned over to the Admin, to be returned in the fall, and not before then.

[beach_terror]

I plan on meeting with my property prof just to make sure he can do math. Anything I don't get an A on, I always meet to double check.

[dailygrind]

The anxiety is starting to set in. I shouldn't have started checking my grades. That was a very, very foolish move.

[romothesavior]

Well, I'll throw out some predictions:

Civ Pro: 92 (The only one I am fairly sure about. I'd be really surprised with anything under 90)
Crim: 87 (Total crapshoot... could get anywhere from sub-median to near the top of the class and not be surprised)
Con Law: 93 (Think I nailed most of the issues, but who knows with our prof)
Research: 90
Legal Practice: 87 (I have gotten an 86 on all 4 of my graded assignments so far this year. Trying to be optimistic that I finally broke the curse, but I probably didn't.)

~87 is the median, so this would put me around top 1/4-1/3 for the semester I think.

Got a flood of grades today. All 3 of my core classes came in within 45 minutes of each other. The wait is over!

My estimates were pretty good. Did better in Crim than I thought I would, slightly worse in Con Law, and my guesses were almost spot on (within 1 point) for LRM, LP, and Civ Pro.

Pretty happy with my grades, but I am really nervous about cutoffs. I am VERY close to a percentile that could have a big impact on how firms view me at OCI (not top 10%, but another important one at WUSTL). In 2010, 2008, 2007, and 2006, I'm inside the cutoff. 2009 was a weird year with higher GPAs, and I'd miss the cutoff in that year. We had pretty high GPA cutoffs for last fall, so I am crossing my fingers that I made it. Either way, a pretty good (and remarkably consistent) year. My blood pressure has dropped significantly.

Good luck to everyone else.

[Zazelmaf]

Well, all my grades are in. Everything fell dramatically, even though I studied much more, followed much advice I read, and felt WAY more confident on the finals than last time around. I am honestly perplexed. I thought I had completely aced exams I did median in. I really don´t get it, and it´s very upsetting to me. I am considering dropping out at this point. Maybe I will talk to the professors. I just can´t believe I did so badly...

[missinglink]

When you say dramatically, how much?

[starchinkilt]

Still no crim grade

[Oban]

Law school is a strange mistress. My GPA went up this semester, even though i ended up below median in Crim. Honestly I think i worked about the same second semester maybe less, in the end my best grade was in the class I spent the least amount of time/supplements with. My worst grade in law school came in a class where the proof loved me and thought I was one of "smarter" students in his class. I tanked legal research, yet so far in my summer employer has nothing but glowing comments on my research skills.

Honestly i think the best way to predict your grades is how much you like the class/subject, not how challenging the material or how confident you felt going in/out of the exam.

[BarbellDreams]

Law school is a strange mistress. My GPA went up this semester, even though i ended up below median in Crim. Honestly I think i worked about the same second semester maybe less, in the end my best grade was in the class I spent the least amount of time/supplements with. My worst grade in law school came in a class where the proof loved me and thought I was one of "smarter" students in his class. I tanked legal research, yet so far in my summer employer has nothing but glowing comments on my research skills.

Honestly i think the best way to predict your grades is how much you like the class/subject, not how challenging the material or how confident you felt going in/out of the exam.

Dear God, this times a million.

[missinglink]

Law school is a strange mistress. My GPA went down this semester, even though i aced Conlaw. Honestly I think i worked more second semester, in the end my best grade was in the class I spent the least amount of time/supplements with. My worst grade in law school came in a class where the proof loved me and thought I was one of "smarter" students in his class. I barely passed moot court, yet so far in my summer employer has nothing but glowing comments on my research skills.

Honestly i think the best way to predict your grades is how much you like the class/subject, not how challenging the material or how confident you felt going in/out of the exam.

Edited to reflect my 2nd semester experience. Flip it around and a lot of that sounds all too familiar.

[Melkaba]

Got all of my grades back and... Hm. I should be happier when considering that I did miles better than first semester this time around (this time, I was consistently above median as opposed to being sub-median in all courses besides one hell of a fluke with Contracts). I dunno, it's kinda frustrating since I was aiming at the 1/3rd mark this time around I came so obscenely close that it kinda puts a damper on my mood.

It pretty much went: Con Law > Research > Civ Pro = LWriting > median > Crim Law.

Crim Law was a bit of a crap shoot when considering that I both didn't really care for that class (which doesn't amount to much since I spent the most time outlining for that one) and the test format was a little odd, with none of the professor's practice exams really being all that useful. Con Law was a bit WTF moment for me. It was a 24 hour final and I'm pretty sure I prepared for that exam the least out of any exam since my undergrad days. And I thought I did so bad on the Research final that I was legitimately steamed about it for the next week. I'm happy about Civ Pro and LWR though. LWR was my weakest subject last semester and I'm just happy I got Civ Pro down pretty well.

Work habit wise... I definitely worked A LOT less in the second semester. I cut out the endless briefing, mostly skimmed readings (or skipped some entirely, but hey, I guess that's why I did the worst in crim law!), and really focused on the main point of the cases. That, and I participated in a lot more group studying and took practice tests much more seriously.

But eh, since I'm more interested in the PI realm of things, being substantially above median at a T18 is a pretty good feat for my purposes. Good luck to everybody else here.

[Grizz]

Got all of my grades back and... Hm. I should be happier when considering that I did miles better than first semester this time around (this time, I was consistently above median as opposed to being sub-median in all courses besides one hell of a fluke with Contracts). I dunno, it's kinda frustrating since I was aiming at the 1/3rd mark this time around I came so obscenely close that it kinda puts a damper on my mood.

It pretty much went: Con Law > Research > Civ Pro = LWriting > median > Crim Law.

Crim Law was a bit of a crap shoot when considering that I both didn't really care for that class (which doesn't amount to much since I spent the most time outlining for that one) and the test format was a little odd, with none of the professor's practice exams really being all that useful. Con Law was a bit WTF moment for me. It was a 24 hour final and I'm pretty sure I prepared for that exam the least out of any exam since my undergrad days. And I thought I did so bad on the Research final that I was legitimately steamed about it for the next week. I'm happy about Civ Pro and LWR though. LWR was my weakest subject last semester and I'm just happy I got Civ Pro down pretty well.

Work habit wise... I definitely worked A LOT less in the second semester. I cut out the endless briefing, mostly skimmed readings (or skipped some entirely, but hey, I guess that's why I did the worst in crim law!), and really focused on the main point of the cases. That, and I participated in a lot more group studying and took practice tests much more seriously.

But eh, since I'm more interested in the PI realm of things, being substantially above median at a T18 is a pretty good feat for my purposes. Good luck to everybody else here.

Egregious Woostle trolling

[Baylan]

Shock and awe.

After the paper posting of my one grade showed me a B-, it goes electronic tonight and shows B+. Had to take a celebratory drink, though waking up in less than 5 hours for work tomorrow is going to suck.

Final tally: 3.84 on the semester, 3.60 on the year, on a 2.85 curve at my TTT.

[brose]

Shock and awe.

After the paper posting of my one grade showed me a B-, it goes electronic tonight and shows B+. Had to take a celebratory drink, though waking up in less than 5 hours for work tomorrow is going to suck.

Final tally: 3.84 on the semester, 3.60 on the year, on a 2.85 curve at my TTT.

So where does that put you? I have an acquaintance there with a 3.4 - I didn't know their curve was that low.

[stratocophic]

Grades went down in flames. TOO BAD I'VE ALREADY GOT MY PLIP INTERVIEWS AND THEY CAN'T TAKE EM BACK AAAAAWW YEAH


(Pictured above: me styling on the system)

[09042014]

Grades went down in flames. TOO BAD I'VE ALREADY GOT MY PLIP INTERVIEWS AND THEY CAN'T TAKE EM BACK AAAAAWW YEAH


(Pictured above: me styling on the system)

Is it technically lying if you never update your resume? !?!

[stratocophic]

Grades went down in flames. TOO BAD I'VE ALREADY GOT MY PLIP INTERVIEWS AND THEY CAN'T TAKE EM BACK AAAAAWW YEAH


(Pictured above: me styling on the system)

Is it technically lying if you never update your resume? !?!

TI,OC,TCQ

[09042014]

Grades went down in flames. TOO BAD I'VE ALREADY GOT MY PLIP INTERVIEWS AND THEY CAN'T TAKE EM BACK AAAAAWW YEAH


(Pictured above: me styling on the system)

Is it technically lying if you never update your resume? !?!

TI,OC,TCQ

3.2 in ME is probably good enough for many patent firms. My 2.8 UGPA gets me dinged at shit-law- 90K patent sweat shops.

IP SECURE doesn't work for extreme splitters.

[stratocophic]

Grades went down in flames. TOO BAD I'VE ALREADY GOT MY PLIP INTERVIEWS AND THEY CAN'T TAKE EM BACK AAAAAWW YEAH


(Pictured above: me styling on the system)

Is it technically lying if you never update your resume? !?!

TI,OC,TCQ

3.2 in ME is probably good enough for many patent firms. My 2.8 UGPA gets me dinged at shit-law- 90K patent sweat shops.

IP SECURE doesn't work for extreme splitters.

Here's hoping. At least you've got the NU/EE mojo combo... WUSTL/ME really doesn't have the same ring to it, so I'm pretty much relying on firms not caring about 2nd semester grades in interviews - LULZ.