Waiting for 1L 2nd semester grades is killing me Forum

[kpuc]

I wasn't like this first semester, mainly because I had no idea what to expect. I enjoyed not having to think about grades and still being free to (remotely) fantasize that I got straight A+s, or at least that I didn't get straight B-'s. I had a couple of bad dreams where I got terrible grades, but for the most part, I wasn't that anxious.

But now, it's a different story. I did pretty well first semester, so now I'm dreading the idea that I blew it this semester. One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams. I'm especially tortured over the exam that had the strict word limit because I was able to spend time editing. I remember each question, and now, I am full of regrets that I didn't do this or that. There are other regrets too, such as thinking of all the things I could've done throughout the semester but didn't (more office hours, more diligent reading, etc.).

I've never been TOO stressed out by law school, but this is really getting to me. I wanted to enjoy my post-1L pre-summer job break, but this nervousness and insecurity is seriously weighing me down and won't go away.

[Danger Zone]

--ImageRemoved--

[A. Nony Mouse]

One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

I totally had this experience. Second semester 1L, my first 2 grades came out early, and they were the lowest and second-lowest I'd got in law school (I got one of the second-lowest first semester, but it was my lowest grade that semester). I was absolutely convinced I'd tanked and everything was over, and refused to look at any more grades until the rest were all in and pondered my imminent doom.

And then the remaining grades were very high, and my overall semester GPA was exactly. the. same. as my first semester GPA. EXACTLY.

So try not to worry about it yet (easier said than done, I know). One bad (or less good) grade is not a sign of anything.

(This was the experience that led me never again to look at grades until they were ALL in. I can't go so far as the people who just never look at grades - in part because I needed to know my GPA after 1L - but I never again looked at them piecemeal. Depends on how you get your grades, though - we have to manually go look, if they e-mail you grades it's harder not to check!)

[kpuc]

One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

I totally had this experience. Second semester 1L, my first 2 grades came out early, and they were the lowest and second-lowest I'd got in law school (I got one of the second-lowest first semester, but it was my lowest grade that semester). I was absolutely convinced I'd tanked and everything was over, and refused to look at any more grades until the rest were all in and pondered my imminent doom.

And then the remaining grades were very high, and my overall semester GPA was exactly. the. same. as my first semester GPA. EXACTLY.

So try not to worry about it yet (easier said than done, I know). One bad (or less good) grade is not a sign of anything.

(This was the experience that led me never again to look at grades until they were ALL in. I can't go so far as the people who just never look at grades - in part because I needed to know my GPA after 1L - but I never again looked at them piecemeal. Depends on how you get your grades, though - we have to manually go look, if they e-mail you grades it's harder not to check!)

Thanks for the anecdote. Much appreciated.

My goal was to bump up my GPA by about 0.05 this semester, but now, if I only FALL by that same amount, I'll be very happy. Staying the same would be a dream come true.

[kpuc]

(This was the experience that led me never again to look at grades until they were ALL in. I can't go so far as the people who just never look at grades - in part because I needed to know my GPA after 1L - but I never again looked at them piecemeal. Depends on how you get your grades, though - we have to manually go look, if they e-mail you grades it's harder not to check!)

The thing is that this was what I did first semester! I knew that looking at a potentially bad first grade would wreak all sorts of pointless havoc on my confidence, so I just waited a few extra days for the rest of the grades to come in and it all worked out.

I just lost sight of that wisdom this time and am paying for it now.

[lawyerdown27]

One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

I totally had this experience. Second semester 1L, my first 2 grades came out early, and they were the lowest and second-lowest I'd got in law school (I got one of the second-lowest first semester, but it was my lowest grade that semester). I was absolutely convinced I'd tanked and everything was over, and refused to look at any more grades until the rest were all in and pondered my imminent doom.

And then the remaining grades were very high, and my overall semester GPA was exactly. the. same. as my first semester GPA. EXACTLY.

So try not to worry about it yet (easier said than done, I know). One bad (or less good) grade is not a sign of anything.

(This was the experience that led me never again to look at grades until they were ALL in. I can't go so far as the people who just never look at grades - in part because I needed to know my GPA after 1L - but I never again looked at them piecemeal. Depends on how you get your grades, though - we have to manually go look, if they e-mail you grades it's harder not to check!)

+1. Focus on doing well in your 1L summer gig. To me, it's easier not to look because you're not around your classmates every single day. It's also a good reason to stay off of Facebook and avoid the "CONTRACTS GRADES ARE UP EVERYBODY FREAK OUT ZOMG" posts. That way, you can just take your medicine all at one time (or alternatively, get a huge heap of pleasant news at one time).

[Randomnumbers]

I lack your willpower. I check multiple times a day *already*. Once it becomes possible for grades to get back, I fear I might venture out of control.

[nevdash]

3L on the cutoff between honors categories. One of my buddies works in our registrar's office and I'm seriously considering asking him to either give me my grades early or at least give me a heads-up a few days before they go up. Actually going nuts; this is the most gunner I've ever felt before.

[echooo23]

But now, it's a different story. I did pretty well first semester, so now I'm dreading the idea that I blew it this semester. One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

This is me right now. Except I still have 1 more final to go. Ugh.

[kpuc]

But now, it's a different story. I did pretty well first semester, so now I'm dreading the idea that I blew it this semester. One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

This is me right now. Except I still have 1 more final to go. Ugh.

You got a grade back with a pending exam??

[Danger Zone]

But now, it's a different story. I did pretty well first semester, so now I'm dreading the idea that I blew it this semester. One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

This is me right now. Except I still have 1 more final to go. Ugh.

You got a grade back with a pending exam??

8th Amendment violation.

[Robert Paulson]

Checking in. Anyone else feel like exams this semester exams were harder and wondering if they failed out of law school? Should be a fun month.

[echooo23]

But now, it's a different story. I did pretty well first semester, so now I'm dreading the idea that I blew it this semester. One of our classes released a grade very early and it was the lowest one I've gotten in LS so far. That shook me up very badly, and now, I've lost confidence in my other exams.

This is me right now. Except I still have 1 more final to go. Ugh.

You got a grade back with a pending exam??

Yes, and a substantive course at that.

[Jsa725]

.

[kpuc]

Checking in. Anyone else feel like exams this semester exams were harder and wondering if they failed out of law school? Should be a fun month.

I don't think they were harder, it's just that my expectations have changed. First semester, all I wanted to to be was above median. Now, I want to maintain my GPA.

[shock259]

Another anecdote: I thought I did well second semester. I actually did slightly worse than 1st semester, but still very well. My GPA dropped like .03 points, but because the curve flattened out a bit, I retained an identical class rank.

[MinEMorris]

Another, perhaps less helpful anecdote: first semester, two classes I felt crappy about and two I felt great about. In the two I felt great about, got As. In the two I felt bad about, Bs.

Second semester, again two classes I felt crappy about and two I felt great about. Two classes I felt most crappy about are first to give grades: two As. Feeling good. Few weeks later, classes I felt most confident about give out grades: two Bs.

Even though you feel like after 1 semester you can gauge your performance, you really can't. Grades are like eyewitness identifications: no correlation between confidence and accuracy. I know that might make things more miserable, but hopefully it will help you refrain from constantly trying to "figure out" what you got. No matter how many issues you "absolutely know" you spotted or missed, you really have no idea.

Looking back on 1L, I wish I had wasted less time worrying about things that were out of my control and spent more time worrying about things that were inside of my control. First thing to do is reward yourself for trudging through 1L. Next, I would start worrying about your 2L job hunt. Reading through the massive threads about OCI (attire, interviewing skills, dos and donts, how to start mass mailing and networking, etc.) and being prepared for that process will be potentially life changing. There are stories of people ranked top 15% at T10s who struck out at OCI because they were underprepared, and there are stories of people ranked top 30% at T50s getting V10 offers because they hustled hard. 1L is the first big hump to get over in your legal career, but unfortunately, it's not the last.

Congratulations, though, guys. 1L is definitely as bad as the school part of law school gets. Be sure to spend some time drinking this summer.

[gdane]

1L was more fun than 2L.

[Lacepiece23]

Checking in. Anyone else feel like exams this semester exams were harder and wondering if they failed out of law school? Should be a fun month.

I don't think they were harder, it's just that my expectations have changed. First semester, all I wanted to to be was above median. Now, I want to maintain my GPA.

I thought they were harder way more material because we just jumped into things instead of bullshitting on fluff for the first month. I feel like the profs didn't hold much back because it was our second go around. I still have one more to go. feeling terrible about one meh about the other and great about one. Who knows.

[redsox550]

Checking in. Anyone else feel like exams this semester exams were harder and wondering if they failed out of law school? Should be a fun month.

I don't think they were harder, it's just that my expectations have changed. First semester, all I wanted to to be was above median. Now, I want to maintain my GPA.

I thought they were harder way more material because we just jumped into things instead of bullshitting on fluff for the first month. I feel like the profs didn't hold much back because it was our second go around. I still have one more to go. feeling terrible about one meh about the other and great about one. Who knows.

word. i kinda feel meh towards all of them

[lolfranks51]

3L on the cutoff between honors categories. One of my buddies works in our registrar's office and I'm seriously considering asking him to either give me my grades early or at least give me a heads-up a few days before they go up. Actually going nuts; this is the most gunner I've ever felt before.

Wait a minute -- there are members of our classes who can actually see our grades?

[A. Nony Mouse]

3L on the cutoff between honors categories. One of my buddies works in our registrar's office and I'm seriously considering asking him to either give me my grades early or at least give me a heads-up a few days before they go up. Actually going nuts; this is the most gunner I've ever felt before.

Wait a minute -- there are members of our classes who can actually see our grades?

Friend of mind who worked in our career services office saw people's grades because she was responsible for uploading resumes and what not. But you could potentially release grades or know when they're coming out without seeing the actual grades.

[alicrimson]

1L was more fun than 2L.

Agreed, but at least we knew what to expect exam-wise(ish).

Anywho, 1Ls, I know how you feel. Second semester 1L, I was convinced I did worse. Ended up doing literally the exact same. Also, depending on your personality type, exam waiting doesn't get any easier. I'm still waiting around anxiously. haha.

[kpuc]

1L was more fun than 2L.

Agreed, but at least we knew what to expect exam-wise(ish).

Anywho, 1Ls, I know how you feel. Second semester 1L, I was convinced I did worse. Ended up doing literally the exact same. Also, depending on your personality type, exam waiting doesn't get any easier. I'm still waiting around anxiously. haha.

Hope the same thing happens to me.

Anyway, I think I'm going to stop obsessing over things I can't control and start working on things that I can, such as trying to get on law review and reaching out to associates/partners in firms that I'm interested in.

[lawyerdown27]

1L was more fun than 2L.

SURE WAS