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From what I could tell, 1L grades was mainly about getting used to the LS exam style. In 2L, since "everybody" now knows how to take exams, are grades mainly determined by out-studying the rest of the class in substantive content?

The consensus at our school is that those who have done well tend to continue doing well. However, everyone else starts to do well also. This is a result of two things. First, the curve relaxes and professors are able to give more high grades in each course. Second, students have more of a clue what they are doing, and thus they can produce a better exam answer than they could as 1Ls.

At our school, after the first year GPAs usually will rise across the board, with perhaps a slight regression toward the mean for the very top students in the class as they take on more responsibility (outside jobs, law review, research assistantships, internships, clinics, etc...basically anything that takes time away from studying). Some will slack off because their 1L grades have gotten them where they need to go, while others of us will keep plugging along and see the results in our GPA/rank.

I do not think it's fair to assume that everyone knows how to study for and take a law school exam by 2L. I also think that, studying aside, some people are simply better at taking law school exams (a skill which may or may not be correlated to any real life laywering ability). So no, doing well during 2L is not just about out-studying everyone else.

edcrane wrote:I do not think it's fair to assume that everyone knows how to study for and take a law school exam by 2L.

Major +1. After 1L year, everyone has taken a pile of exams. The overwhelming majority, in my experience, are left dazed and with little to no meaningful feedback on their exam performance outside of the 6-10 letter grades they received, often bearing no resemblance to how much they studied, how well they knew the material, or how they felt they performed on test day.

Keep in mind that at better schools (T14+) a large portion of the class will have 1) landed biglaw and 2) have no further ambitions for which grades matter, which means slacking is the only rational choice.

disco_barred wrote: Keep in mind that at better schools (T14+) a large portion of the class will have 1) landed biglaw and 2) have no further ambitions for which grades matter, which means slacking is the only rational choice.

Not sure if this is true during 2L, at least ITE, where offer rates may well be less than 90%. I'm hopeful that 3L, on the other hand, will be pretty easy.

edcrane wrote:

disco_barred wrote: Keep in mind that at better schools (T14+) a large portion of the class will have 1) landed biglaw and 2) have no further ambitions for which grades matter, which means slacking is the only rational choice.

Not sure if this is true during 2L, at least ITE, where offer rates may well be less than 90%. I'm hopeful that 3L, on the other hand, will be pretty easy.

Some 2L and 3L classes had like a third of the class+ missing daily last semester... it won't be as /many/ people slacking, but there was significant 2 and 3L slacking that I observed.

I took a class that was less than 10% 1Ls. From my observations, most of the 2Ls and 3Ls just want to ride the median. The students with jobs don't care about grades because their firms don't care, and the students without jobs are too depressed to care. The class was definitely easier than my other elective, which was mostly 1Ls.

Cavalier wrote:I took a class that was less than 10% 1Ls. From my observations, most of the 2Ls and 3Ls just want to ride the median. The students with jobs don't care about grades because their firms don't care, and the students without jobs are too depressed to care. The class was definitely easier than my other elective, which was mostly 1Ls.

(Takes note of awesome GPA boosting strategy)

the 2L/3L kids in my Northwestern elective classes during Spring 2010 didn't seem to be too interested in the proceedings of class. I'm really amped about doing well in 2L because I want to go for a clerkship, but I'm not sure this really was the case for them, the ones I talked to hated the class, maybe they just didnt like the instructor. The 3Ls presumably had even lesser incentive during Spring 2010, particularly if they had a clerkship locked up. They seemed REALLY disinterested. I know one kid who just didn't do a presentation that we were all supposed to do for my IP class, kinda weird.

I also know one kid from last year who had a COA clerkship locked up, was on LR, he wasn't exactly "all there" during that last term. I think its actually pretty smart to take a non-clerkship type class as a 1L Spring term kid, whatever you do - don't take Civ Pro 2, or Fed Cts, or something whacky like that where half of law review's in class.