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Also a 1L here. Same situation too - did extremely well last semester, felt awful about my first final.

Honestly, you just have to suck it up. Put it out of your mind and focus on Am Jur-ing that next final. Also, for what it's worth, you really never know how you did on a final. I thought I did terribly in civ pro last semester and it ended up being one of my highest grades. I've also noticed that when I think an exam was difficult, most people tend to think it was easy. Not sure why that is, but it goes to show you that you really never know.

I'd normally suggest drinking, but it seems like you have more finals to go so you may not agree with that advice. Anyway, just start studying, eventually having to focus on the other material will put the other exam out of your mind. take a practice exam for your next subject so you can obsess over the things you miss on that.

instride91 wrote:Also a 1L here. Same situation too - did extremely well last semester, felt awful about my first final.

Honestly, you just have to suck it up. Put it out of your mind and focus on Am Jur-ing that next final. Also, for what it's worth, you really never know how you did on a final. I thought I did terribly in civ pro last semester and it ended up being one of my highest grades. I've also noticed that when I think an exam was difficult, most people tend to think it was easy. Not sure why that is, but it goes to show you that you really never know.

Same here. In the fall, those finals I've come out shaking my head, I was the highest grade in the class. So you really never know. In a way, be happy YOU thought it was hard. If you put a ton of work in, if you thought it was hard, others did too. When they are not shooting for As, "easy" might mean they just knew a good portion of stuff. Its natural to focus on the negatives when you want an A so badly.

Thanks all. Just brutal re-hashing every possible issue, every question, etc.

The answer is easy. You'll be feeling even worse if you have a crappy performance on your subsequent exams. So your real motivation should be achieving that "well, I did my best. Time to dick around for a month" feeling. You'll still probably obsess over this one exam that gave you problems, but it's better to obsess over only one exam.


That is, just move on before you make things worse.

Just a 1L so I don't have a ton of experience, but I found it funny last semester how the people who I know studied a lot and knew their stuff (and eventually ended up doing the best) always thought the exams were way tougher than others.

That's probably because other people who aren't as worried what they get are just happy if they know a good bit of it, whereas someone who has studied a lot gets frustrated if they are unsure of anything. Also, the questions are meant to be tough and unclear. So if you think it's hard it probably just means you actually spotted all the tough stuff the professor wanted you to.

So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Like other have said, nothing you can do at this point but move on and make sure you're prepared for the next exam anyways.

Stop worrying about it. You can't change anything so thinking about it won't help. Also I reckon you probably felt similarly last semester, rehashing answers and such, and you did very well, so don't sweat it.

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Obviously you just have to let go and move on, but even if you end up not doing as well as you'd have liked, there's a solid chance it won't actually hurt you. I also attend a T2 and did very well first semester 1L, but did worse GPA-wise second semester. However, my class rank still rose due to other people doing better/worse than they did the semester before.

So, you really can't know if this hurt you or not, law school isn't about how well you do, its about how well you do compared to everyone else.

Use it as motivation to not feel this way after the next exam

Some advice for the future - sell back your book or put it somewhere you can't easily access it immediately after the final. That way you physically can't go back through it to see what you missed. I've had the same problem and that sometimes helps.

My approach would be to start studying for the next exam as intensely as possible, even if it is only for a few hours before you get too tired to make studying effective. Don't just read though your outline--prepare and work through flashcards, write-out answers for essay questions from old exams while timing yourself, etc. If you really immerse yourself in the subject matter of your next exam, your mind is more likely to shift its focus. When I was in law school, I found that doing this helped me move on from completed exams more than resting, exercising, reading, or watching television.