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So TLS,

I am a 2L and STILL waiting for grades, but I got to thinking - is a large turnaround possible after 1L?

Have you heard of someone being top of the class 1L and just kind of "mailing it in" 2L and being bit in the ass for it? What about the opposite of that? I heard the curve gets softer as you progress, so just wondering.

Please share any anecdotes or success/failure stories!


EDIT: subject line

mathematically, it's much easier to drop than to go back up. but here is real life example so you could see for yourself. mind that this was for a night school so there were 4 years of school and class ranking for the year one doesn't really count. starting with year two class rank is for the graduating class including night and day students. Don't remember exact ranking but after so so year two was in top 25%, ended up top 13%. So you could see it's not easy to climb back up.

Semester 1 - 12 Credits, GPA 3.472, Cum GPA 3.472
Semester 2 - 11 Credits, GPA 3.485, Cum GPA 3.478 (Class Rank - Top 10%)
Semester 3 - 11 Credits, GPA 3.182, Cum GPA 3.382
Semester 4 - 10 Credits, GPA 3.198, Cum GPA 3.340 (Class Rank ~ 25%-27%)
Semester 5 - 13 Credits, GPA 3.589, Cum GPA 3.397
Semester 6 - 9 Credits, GPA 3.778, Cum GPA 3.449
Semester 7 - 12 Credits, GPA 3.668, Cum GPA 3.483
Semester 8 - 9 Credits, GPA 3.442, Cum GPA 3.480 (Class Rank - Top 13%)

You see, it took one bad year to go from top 10 to 25 and two years to climb back up. Hope that helps.

My GPA this semester (Fall 2L) was .3 higher than it was either semester 1L. My overall GPA also went up .1, hopefully this trend continues.

Sure. My GPA after 1st semester was a 2.8. Now i'm a second semes 2L and have a 3.39

just learning how to play the game

yessir--gpa at the end of 1L was a 2.8--up to a 3.2 now second year. Take easy summer classes--that bumps your gpa up.