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Hi all, just looking for some advice:

I'm a 1L and just finished my 1st exam of the season - crimlaw. The exam was 3 hours and had 20 multiple choice questions, a fact pattern essay, and a policy question. I feel really good about the MC and policy question but I just cannot stop thinking about that stupid fact pattern! It was filled to the brim with issues on burglary, robbery, conspiracy, accomplice liability, kidnapping, duress, self-defense, murder, attempted murder, etc. A lot was going on. I felt good about my essay until I left the exam and realized that I completely forgot to discuss a particular murder charge/subsequent self-defense claim for one of the actors. Especially since we spent so much time on these issues during the course of the semester, I fear it was worth a good amount of points, and I can't stop thinking about it! I'm confident that I did well on the test regardless but are my dreams of an A/A- now ruined? There's about 50 or 60 students in my class. Any sort of advice/stories of similar situations are deeply appreciated. Thanks!

jfc and people think I'm crazy

yup, enjoy the B+ (maybe even a B? - if it's 50+ kids, there's a good chance that you're going to get median screwed and end up with a B grade here.) If you lost out on a lot of points here, then maybe you can drop out and still get a job at McDonalds as long as they don't ask for your transcripts.

Sorry I'm not sorry I care about my grades? I'm clearly still happy with how I did but would love to hear from people who found themselves in similar situations and how it played out.

What are you expecting? There will be anecdotes of people that felt like they totally screwed up and turns out they didn't, along with people that felt they totally screwed up and did. Probably more people fall into the latter camp. If you missed out on a lot of obvious points and other people got those points, then there's a strong possibility you're going to get median fucked.

move on

twenty wrote:What are you expecting? There will be anecdotes of people that felt like they totally screwed up and turns out they didn't, along with people that felt they totally screwed up and did. Probably more people fall into the latter camp. If you missed out on a lot of obvious points and other people got those points, then there's a strong possibility you're going to get median fucked.

I don't know what to expect, that's why I posted this. Have you ever missed one issue on an exam (with 20+ issues) and fell to the median because of it?

Bamboou221 wrote:I don't know what to expect, that's why I posted this. Have you ever missed one issue on an exam (with 20+ issues) and fell to the median because of it?

worse!

You sound familiar. Is there any chance you go to HLS?

Bamboou221 wrote:

twenty wrote:What are you expecting? There will be anecdotes of people that felt like they totally screwed up and turns out they didn't, along with people that felt they totally screwed up and did. Probably more people fall into the latter camp. If you missed out on a lot of obvious points and other people got those points, then there's a strong possibility you're going to get median fucked.

I don't know what to expect, that's why I posted this. Have you ever missed one issue on an exam (with 20+ issues) and fell to the median because of it?

I know one guy that did and he got a C- and he had to retake the class. I think he dropped out after.

On a more serious note, forget about it. There's nothing you can do at this point. Maybe you fucked up big. Maybe you're not special and other people fucked up big too.

The single worst thing you can do right now is waste your time and energy worrying about this when you can still get As in your other classes.

ManoftheHour wrote:On a more serious note, forget about it. There's nothing you can do at this point. Maybe you fucked up big. Maybe you're not special and other people fucked up big too.

The single worst thing you can do right now is waste your time and energy worrying about this when you can still get As in your other classes.

Thanks, I really appreciate that. Hopefully it will turn out fine - law school really knows how to stress a person out.

You'll be fine. It's very, very common to agonize over things you might have missed. You don't have to analyze every single issue to get an A. Take a night off and start studying for the next one.

banjo wrote:You'll be fine. It's very, very common to agonize over things you might have missed. You don't have to analyze every single issue to get an A. Take a night off and start studying for the next one.

Yeah. The worst thing you can do for yourself right now is let an early exam fuck up your morale.

I know a girl who missed something fairly obvious like that. It was our last exam of the semester. She like stayed home and cried herself to sleep. I think she got a B / B+.

If A/A- is the normal grade for you, you might still be able to get an A-. You're losing points that should be obvious, but you're probably hitting points that are commonly missed.

Feel better?

Bamboou221 wrote:Sorry I'm not sorry I care about my grades? I'm clearly still happy with how I did but would love to hear from people who found themselves in similar situations and how it played out.

Just keep moving. It all washes out usually - I got a couple B+ which I think I didn't deserve, and got A's I know I didn't deserve. Randomness is inherent in the process, and sometimes that helps as much as it hurts.

Once you get dat jerb it all matters progressively less anyway.

Have you mapped out a plan B for law school? This sounds like one of those things that could make or break you.

It's notoriously difficult to determine how well you did on an exam unless you totally failed it. Knowing that you missed things will bug you and that's ok because it gives you a reason to study harder/do better next time, even if you end up with a good grade! I missed one minor policy point on my Con Law final that was incredibly obvious because I ran out of time. I was kicking myself for a month until grades came out and I got an A+. So like others have said, you can never really tell.

ManoftheHour wrote:On a more serious note, forget about it. There's nothing you can do at this point. Maybe you fucked up big. Maybe you're not special and other people fucked up big too.

The single worst thing you can do right now is waste your time and energy worrying about this when you can still get As in your other classes.

Yes. Obsessing over stuff I could not change was an obstacle which was difficult for me to overcome during my first year. Once I did so, my grades improved significantly during the following two years.

Lengthy exams are often riddled with issues and only a select few will spot all of them. There is a good chance other people missed the same issue and you will not suffer a catastrophic loss in points. Even if you get a B or a C in the class, it is not the end of the world. You have two years left in school and plenty of subjects left to take. As long as you are not struggling in the majority of your classes, things will balance out.

better to miss the obvious ones that they covered ad nauseuem in class then the clever ones.