Top Law Schools

How often do people's GPA's drop substantially second semester of 1L? I did decent last semester, but this semester I slacked. I still outlined, obsessed over hypos and all that, but I definitely slacked on briefing and class prep. Do you think there's a strong chance I went from top 30% to bottom half?

yeah, probably. it depends.

They're very consistent for the most part. You may fluctuate a bit on the edges, but the kind of slacking you're talking about may have no impact at all. The people who had a 3.0 first semester who have a 4.0 the second didn't get law school exams the first time around now, but are now really good at them. That said, it's extremely unlikely anybody would have the vice versa, because you're not going to suddenly forget how to take the law school exam. My bet would be that for someone with a 3.0 to pull a 4.0, a bunch of people are dropping a tiny bit along the edges.

I think "top 30%" is way dicier than top 5%. The tippy top has that 'exam taking it factor' that the rest of the class doesn't, and probably will never attain. If you're top 30%, you probably got there almost exclusively through your hard work, not by your innate exam taking ability. Thus, if you remove that hard work, you're likely going to drop hard. Sorry.

If you think in term of the gaussian distribution curve (where you are in the far right of the curve), and if your skills stay the same in the second semester, but there is a good chance that your classmates would improve their skills--thus shifting the curve to the right. Assuming your skills stay the same, this means your ranking might drop to top 40-49% but to not bottom of the class.

psu2016 wrote:I think "top 30%" is way dicier than top 5%. The tippy top has that 'exam taking it factor' that the rest of the class doesn't, and probably will never attain. If you're top 30%, you probably got there almost exclusively through your hard work, not by your innate exam taking ability. Thus, if you remove that hard work, you're likely going to drop hard. Sorry.

Very true, happened to me. Don't let it happen to you.

As others have mentioned, it's possible that some people figure out to take exams, and thus improve their exam scores. That could be bad for you. However, there are also people that slack off, and those people could be above you. That could be good for you. So really, the best answer is

criminaltheory wrote:yeah, probably. it depends.

BeyonceBeytwice wrote:How often do people's GPA's drop substantially second semester of 1L? I did decent last semester, but this semester I slacked. I still outlined, obsessed over hypos and all that, but I definitely slacked on briefing and class prep. Do you think there's a strong chance I went from top 30% to bottom half?

Not helpful but lol at that being slacking I didn't do half that this semester.

Most exams are just the application of basic rules to a complex hypothetical. They don't really require a lot of studying, and I think most people far overdo it. There's no point in reading a treatise, doing extensive briefing, class prep, etc. if you understand the basic rules fully. There is no point in having a 50+ page outline. What you did sound pretty fine to me. Unless you got worse at writing exams, or everybody else got better, you'll likely be fine.

Happens all the time. Many of my friends had major drops (or jumps) 2nd semester 1L. After that it becomes harder to move up and down, as less classes are curved (more A's), ungraded credits, more grades so harder to change gpa, etc.

All depends on the school, but 1st and 2nd Semester 1L definitely has the potential for the biggest gpa swings.