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I am a 1L and I took my Civ Pro final yesterday and I totally freaked out & had a panic attack & blanked on everything I know..... My teacher kept telling us to "write what we think" but I feel like I just sounded stupid..... Does anyone have any advice to ease my anxiety? I have no idea how to mentally prepare myself for failure... or maybe it's not as bad as I think..

1. first off, we were asked about venue and I didn't know what to say because in my mind everything depended on whether subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction were proper...

2. A defendant made a motion to change the forum to the a new state (where it resided) and as part of my argument I said that this couldnt work because there was no personal jurisdiction over the plaintiff in the new forum.... does this even make sense!?

3. in one of the questions I freaked out and convinced myself that the CA superior court was a federal court which completely changed my analysis...

I don't even remember what else I said but I can't stop obsessing about how I think I got a little bit off topic making "my own" arguments & feel like I did bad.....

I have no way to assess what is good, what is bad, and what is normal....

mpetersen wrote:I am a 1L and I took my Civ Pro final yesterday and I totally freaked out & had a panic attack & blanked on everything I know..... My teacher kept telling us to "write what we think" but I feel like I just sounded stupid..... Does anyone have any advice to ease my anxiety? I have no idea how to mentally prepare myself for failure... or maybe it's not as bad as I think..

1. first off, we were asked about venue and I didn't know what to say because in my mind everything depended on whether subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction were proper...

2. A defendant made a motion to change the forum to the a new state (where it resided) and as part of my argument I said that this couldnt work because there was no personal jurisdiction over the plaintiff in the new forum.... does this even make sense!?

3. in one of the questions I freaked out and convinced myself that the CA superior court was a federal court which completely changed my analysis...

I don't even remember what else I said but I can't stop obsessing about how I think I got a little bit off topic making "my own" arguments & feel like I did bad.....

I have no way to assess what is good, what is bad, and what is normal....

They make you take finals on a Sunday!?

Forget about it, nothing you can do now. On to the next one!

You should probably just go ahead and kill yourself now, life is only going to get worse from here on out. HTH!

Netflix and chill. Either literally or euphemistically. Then get on with studying for the next one because there's no need to worry about Civ Pro any more.

There is no advice to give other than to just relax and not think about it. There is nothing you can do about it, and freaking out about it will effect any impending finals you have, or will ruin your winter break.

Take solace in the fact that you don't have to do well, you just have to do better than the others. At least a sizable chunk of the class will completely shit up civ pro.

[youtube]uFgSa6VC8bQ[/youtube]

You need to relax and not think about it. What's done is done, and you probably did better than you think.

I walked out of my contracts exam last year knowing that I failed it. Got an A-. Meanwhile, I thought I wrote a solid torts exam and got a median grade. The point is, you have no idea how you did, and there were probably people who did worse. Relax and focus on your next exam, and if you're done, enjoy your break.

I am a 1L and unfortunately I don't have any specific advice, but I can tell you that everyone, including the people that make good grades, feel bad after exams, especially horse race style exams because even the top student missed a lot of things (that they probably remember after the exam!).

This is why you picked a school with good employment stats. Don't freak out. Like BVest said- Netflix and chill is the way to go.

Edit: semi scooped by rwhyan.

The most confident I've ever been on an exam was my lowest grade (below median), the second most confident I have ever been was median, the least confident I have ever been was an A.

Law school professors don't actually grade exams, it's just arbitrary crap/staircase method. Maybe you rocked it/your exam flies the farthest down the stairs.

Don't worry about it, on to the next one.

Louis1127 wrote:I am a 1L and unfortunately I don't have any specific advice, but I can tell you that everyone, including the people that make good grades, feel bad after exams, especially horse race style exams because even the top student missed a lot of things (that they probably remember after the exam!).

This is why you picked a school with good employment stats. Don't freak out. Like BVest said- Netflix and chill is the way to go.

Edit: semi scooped by rwhyan.

How do you know he goes to a school with good employment stats again?

Thank you all for the advice!! It's just so hard not knowing how you did or how to assess you performance !!

Clearly wrote:

Louis1127 wrote:I am a 1L and unfortunately I don't have any specific advice, but I can tell you that everyone, including the people that make good grades, feel bad after exams, especially horse race style exams because even the top student missed a lot of things (that they probably remember after the exam!).

This is why you picked a school with good employment stats. Don't freak out. Like BVest said- Netflix and chill is the way to go.

Edit: semi scooped by rwhyan.

How do you know he goes to a school with good employment stats again?

You are correct- it is an assumption- if OP goes to a school with bad stats, then what I said obviously does not apply.

Louis1127 wrote:

Clearly wrote:

Louis1127 wrote:I am a 1L and unfortunately I don't have any specific advice, but I can tell you that everyone, including the people that make good grades, feel bad after exams, especially horse race style exams because even the top student missed a lot of things (that they probably remember after the exam!).

This is why you picked a school with good employment stats. Don't freak out. Like BVest said- Netflix and chill is the way to go.

Edit: semi scooped by rwhyan.

How do you know he goes to a school with good employment stats again?

You are correct- it is an assumption- if OP goes to a school with bad stats, then what I said obviously does not apply.

My school has good employment stats but that doesn't matter if I get bad grades... :/

mpetersen wrote:Thank you all for the advice!! It's just so hard not knowing how you did or how to assess you performance !!

Wait until you have a job and you get a calendar invite for "Performance Review" but the invite is for a week away. It's a million times worse than waiting for grades.

mpetersen wrote:

Louis1127 wrote:

Clearly wrote:

Louis1127 wrote:I am a 1L and unfortunately I don't have any specific advice, but I can tell you that everyone, including the people that make good grades, feel bad after exams, especially horse race style exams because even the top student missed a lot of things (that they probably remember after the exam!).

This is why you picked a school with good employment stats. Don't freak out. Like BVest said- Netflix and chill is the way to go.

Edit: semi scooped by rwhyan.

How do you know he goes to a school with good employment stats again?

You are correct- it is an assumption- if OP goes to a school with bad stats, then what I said obviously does not apply.

My school has good employment stats but that doesn't matter if I get bad grades..:. :/

Well that depends how good the employment stats are. Give us a range of schools.

mpetersen wrote:I am a 1L and I took my Civ Pro final yesterday and I totally freaked out & had a panic attack & blanked on everything I know..... My teacher kept telling us to "write what we think" but I feel like I just sounded stupid..... Does anyone have any advice to ease my anxiety? I have no idea how to mentally prepare myself for failure... or maybe it's not as bad as I think..

1. first off, we were asked about venue and I didn't know what to say because in my mind everything depended on whether subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction were proper...

2. A defendant made a motion to change the forum to the a new state (where it resided) and as part of my argument I said that this couldnt work because there was no personal jurisdiction over the plaintiff in the new forum.... does this even make sense!?

3. in one of the questions I freaked out and convinced myself that the CA superior court was a federal court which completely changed my analysis...

I don't even remember what else I said but I can't stop obsessing about how I think I got a little bit off topic making "my own" arguments & feel like I did bad.....

I have no way to assess what is good, what is bad, and what is normal....

It sounds like the stuff you were freaking out over were issues and you picked up on why they were issues. If you put all that on the test you're probably good. If you didn't and this is a school outside the top 14 or so and you legitimately think you performed below the average of the class then you should probably drop out.

AReasonableMan wrote:It sounds like the stuff you were freaking out over were issues and you picked up on why they were issues. If you put all that on the test you're probably good. If you didn't and this is a school outside the top 14 or so and you legitimately think you performed below the average of the class then you should probably drop out.

Go ahead and confirm you're below median before dropping out though cuz this:

BigZuck wrote:The most confident I've ever been on an exam was my lowest grade (below median), the second most confident I have ever been was median, the least confident I have ever been was an A.

BigZuck wrote:

AReasonableMan wrote:It sounds like the stuff you were freaking out over were issues and you picked up on why they were issues. If you put all that on the test you're probably good. If you didn't and this is a school outside the top 14 or so and you legitimately think you performed below the average of the class then you should probably drop out.

Go ahead and confirm you're below median before dropping out though cuz this:

BigZuck wrote:The most confident I've ever been on an exam was my lowest grade (below median), the second most confident I have ever been was median, the least confident I have ever been was an A.

There's a difference between not being confident because you're not sure if your analysis is right or why you couldn't reach a conclusion, and not being confident because you froze and barely wrote anything. I had the same experience but that's a product of understanding something well enough to realize you don't understand it, and not shitting the bed.

You aren't going to listen, but the only thing you can do is not think about it. Move onto the next one and squeeze out every point you can from the points left to earn.

AReasonableMan wrote:

mpetersen wrote:I am a 1L and I took my Civ Pro final yesterday and I totally freaked out & had a panic attack & blanked on everything I know..... My teacher kept telling us to "write what we think" but I feel like I just sounded stupid..... Does anyone have any advice to ease my anxiety? I have no idea how to mentally prepare myself for failure... or maybe it's not as bad as I think..

1. first off, we were asked about venue and I didn't know what to say because in my mind everything depended on whether subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction were proper...

2. A defendant made a motion to change the forum to the a new state (where it resided) and as part of my argument I said that this couldnt work because there was no personal jurisdiction over the plaintiff in the new forum.... does this even make sense!?

3. in one of the questions I freaked out and convinced myself that the CA superior court was a federal court which completely changed my analysis...

I don't even remember what else I said but I can't stop obsessing about how I think I got a little bit off topic making "my own" arguments & feel like I did bad.....

I have no way to assess what is good, what is bad, and what is normal....

It sounds like the stuff you were freaking out over were issues and you picked up on why they were issues. If you put all that on the test you're probably good. If you didn't and this is a school outside the top 14 or so and you legitimately think you performed below the average of the class then you should probably drop out.

Well thank you. I wrote stuff... I wrote enough; however, less than I could have because on the questions that stumped me I kept changing my mind and erasing when I should have just trusted my instinct.... It's hard to remember what I wrote because I panicked. I really knew the material though which why it's even more annoying... I think he made the test super ambiguous for a reason...