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Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:06 pm
by grimfan
When I had my conference with my legal writing professor late last semester, she told me that my memo was one of the best in the class (~80 people). That was the first real compliment I received from a professor so I was really happy.
Now, as I wait for my grades, I'm wondering if she said that to everybody so that they wouldn't be destroyed before exams. However, I do know that some people were criticized like hell by their legal writing profs, but those were other profs.
If your legal writing prof told you that you were one of the best legal writers in the class, would you be a fool for buying into it?
Sorry if this sounds stupid. Just working out the pre-grades uncertainty.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:10 pm
by NotMyRealName09
Ha, your prof was probably telling you you got an A.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:17 pm
by nucky thompson
you could have the highest grade in LRW and be median in doctrinal classes. you could also have the highest grade in your doctrinal classes but do poorly in LRW.
What she said could mean you have a natural talent with legal writing which could mean you wrote excellent exams in your doctrinal classes.
OR it could mean you spent more time on your memo than everyone else in your class because they were studying for the doctrinal classes - meaning they killed the other exams while you did not.
Summary: take what your professor said for what it actually is - Your memo was one of the best. Do not read any further into it.
You need to work on summer job applications or smoke a blunt - anything other than neurotically wasting time trying to predict your grades - just let it be, let it beeeee - cause all the time wasted away predicting your grade will have no impact on what you end up receiving
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:18 pm
by TooOld4This
Professors all look for different things. Take the statement at face value. Your memo was one of the best in the class. That does not mean that you are one of the best legal writers in an objective sense (or that others who were criticized didn't learn from it and will be able to leapfrog over you) or that your success on your memo will translate to success on exams.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:26 pm
by Gorki
nucky thompson wrote:brah - you could have the highest grade in LRW and be [barely above] median in doctrinal classes.
This sums up my 1L. LRW prof would praise my writing too. Take it for what it is. I was good at spending time analyzing the issue and drafting the best agrument, I was not anywhere as good at spotting issues and blasting out hella words per minute. Practicing as a lawyer is somewhere between these two in my experiences thus far.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:08 pm
by Pokemon
grimfan wrote:When I had my conference with my legal writing professor late last semester, she told me that my memo was one of the best in the class (~80 people). That was the first real compliment I received from a professor so I was really happy.
Now, as I wait for my grades, I'm wondering if she said that to everybody so that they wouldn't be destroyed before exams. However, I do know that some people were criticized like hell by their legal writing profs, but those were other profs.
If your legal writing prof told you that you were one of the best legal writers in the class, would you be a fool for buying into it?
Sorry if this sounds stupid. Just working out the pre-grades uncertainty.
There is no correlation between CLR grades and doctrinal grades among the people I know at my school. If anything, there might be an inverse correlation.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:01 pm
by kingofdara
Your professor wouldn't tell you you were one of the best if you weren't. Relax.
It generally speaking means nothing much for your other grades. I have a friend who couldn't crack an A in legal writing but got A+s in 3/6 of the doctrinal classes.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:08 pm
by odoylerulez
Pokemon wrote:grimfan wrote:When I had my conference with my legal writing professor late last semester, she told me that my memo was one of the best in the class (~80 people). That was the first real compliment I received from a professor so I was really happy.
Now, as I wait for my grades, I'm wondering if she said that to everybody so that they wouldn't be destroyed before exams. However, I do know that some people were criticized like hell by their legal writing profs, but those were other profs.
If your legal writing prof told you that you were one of the best legal writers in the class, would you be a fool for buying into it?
Sorry if this sounds stupid. Just working out the pre-grades uncertainty.
There is no correlation between CLR grades and doctrinal grades among the people I know at my school. If anything, there might be an inverse correlation.
I think the inverse correlation thing holds true at my school too. Many students at many schools probably blow off LRW (comparatively) since it can be extremely subjective and is only 1 or 2 credit hours. Depending on the school, LRW may not count for anything in terms of a grade.
Students at the very top probably tried as hard at LRW as anything else, but I feel that many good students everywhere only hit median in LRW while dropping A-/A/A+ grades in the doctrinal classes.
Doesn't make a good grade in LRW unimpressive or a bad thing. It's just a common strategy for students to blow the class off.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:05 am
by ClubberLang
This is probably the worst humblebrag and post in general I have ever read.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:18 am
by BuckinghamB
stupid thread. no one cares.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:29 am
by adonai
I would say not to take it at face value. Profs are more likely to say you're good rather than mediocre (in my experience, I know there are some exceptions to that). I also had my LRW professor tell me I was one of the best writers she's seen amongst her classes and that I did a lot of things that she does when writing. Result? Median-pwned. When I asked her what happened, I thought you said blah blah blah about me, she basically said there was nothing she could do because others simply just did it better than I did. It's law school so even though you're good if someone else is even a tad bit better you won't get that A.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:48 am
by grimfan
Happy to report a 3.61 GPA!
I don't think the lessons of Legal Writing helped me in my exams, but I do think certain elements inherently related to it (such as being able to organize arguments in the first draft) definitely played a role.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:08 pm
by dood
ClubberLang wrote:This is probably the worst humblebrag and post in general I have ever read.
lol
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:17 pm
by 04102014
ClubberLang wrote:This is probably the worst humblebrag and post in general I have ever read.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:44 pm
by ndirish2010
I got a B+ twice in legal writing and 4/6 A's in doctrinal classes. Pretty meaningless.
Re: Legal writing prof told me I was one of the best
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:22 pm
by traehekat
ohpobrecito wrote:ClubberLang wrote:This is probably the worst humblebrag and post in general I have ever read.