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Sorry in advance if this was posted under the incorrect category, just joined.
I am a 1L and just took my first final this past Wednesday and I don't think I failed, but I definitely don't think I did very well.
So now I'm curious to know what happens if you do receive an F for a class.
Is it like undergraduate where you don't get any credit for taking it, does what happens depend on what school, can it prevent you from graduating or does it just show as an F on your transcript?

thanks

Why would you get an 'F' instead of just being at the bottom of the curve?

JoSK wrote:Sorry in advance if this was posted under the incorrect category, just joined.
I am a 1L and just took my first final this past Wednesday and I don't think I failed, but I definitely don't think I did very well.
So now I'm curious to know what happens if you do receive an F for a class.
Is it like undergraduate where you don't get any credit for taking it, does what happens depend on what school, can it prevent you from graduating or does it just show as an F on your transcript?

thanks

A reputable school won't give you an F without something being seriously amiss (e.g. getting caught cheating). If that happens, you may as well drop out, your GPA will make you unemployable

Relax, you got a B

JoSK wrote:Sorry in advance if this was posted under the incorrect category, just joined.
I am a 1L and just took my first final this past Wednesday and I don't think I failed, but I definitely don't think I did very well.
So now I'm curious to know what happens if you do receive an F for a class.
Is it like undergraduate where you don't get any credit for taking it, does what happens depend on what school, can it prevent you from graduating or does it just show as an F on your transcript?

thanks

We had people legit drop classes, they had to take them next year with 1Ls... I assume this is what happens if you fail, except the treshold for FAILING in law school is so damn low I bet the Dean sits you down and asks whether or not you know what you are doing.


Since you are a 1L, I am gonna call it that you did not in fact fail. Keep at it bud, this is your first go at the bullshit that is LS finals. Doing well now is about how much you can control the negative vibes in your head, and shut out the negative vibes of people around you.

Here's some quantitative data on this subject from my school:

In Fall 2011 in first year classes at my school there were 3 Ds and one F given out. No professor gave more than one of those grades. 11 professors gave no Ds or Fs. All of the classes had over 80 students in them.

In Spring 2012 in first year classes there were 8 Ds and 3 Fs given out. One professor gave 2 Fs, while another professor gave an F and 3 Ds. No one else gave out more than one D. 14 professors gave no Ds or Fs. All but three of these classes had over 80 students in them. The three classes with less than 80 in them gave no Ds or Fs.

At a lot of schools Ds and Fs are punitive. Students literally have to not show up to class AND do poorly on the final. It's probably too late to ask your professors now since you already took the final, but next semester you could ask your professors what types of students typically get Ds and Fs. I've done this at my school and the answer is always: "They never showed up, they were never prepared when they were in class, they knew nothing on the final."

If you wrote a decently long exam (like if it was four hours, you should've written at minimum, what, 3K words?) and kind of knew what you were talking about and don't go to a school that tries to fail out 20-30% of its class, you won't fail. During my 1L year, I choked during property. It was half MC, half essay. I bumbled my way through the MC, much of which dealt with future interests which I did not have time to study, and then moved on to the essay. I literally panicked about halfway through the essay, actually had no idea what I was writing about because I made it way too complicated (was thinking about it as if it was a four-hour essay instead of a two-hour essay). I just stopped typing and was listening to everyone around me typing and just wishing they would stop. fucking. typing. I wrote maybe 500 words about what, I don't know. Result: B+.

Someone did actually receive an F in my crim law class. The professor released the grade distribution and the point distribution. The median points received on the exam was 34. The person who got an F received 2 points. That's the type of fuck up you have to have to get an F. As someone else said 'relax, you got a B+/B.'