Didn't do as well as hoped; grades come back good? Forum

[perfunctory]

Has anyone felt like they didn't perform as well as they hoped on finals/know they got a few questions wrong for sure after the exam, but received A/A-s?

[lymenheimer]

Nope. Never happened in the history of ever.

[jphiggo]

Yes. Just do yourself a favor: get drunk and stop thinking about grades.

[BigZuck]

I was mostly the opposite.

This does sound theoretically possible though, yes. You know what, I bet it has happened before.

[Skyline55]

Good luck with the grades OP! I'm having a similar problem--I don't think I did poorly I just have no means of gauging how well the rest of my class performed.

Quick question for anyone who wants to answer:
I have my last exam in Torts tomorrow. I just finished reading "Getting to Maybe" for the second time and something stuck out to me. In the "forks in the law" chapter they pointed out that though comparative negligence is the prevailing mode for assessing liability nowadays, they still recommended including an analysis on how someone might raise contributory negligence as a premise. In my torts class, we have touched on contributory negligence, but my professor is pretty strict about how, in "[our] universe," pure comparative negligence should be used.

So my question is, if I encounter something like this on an issue spotter, should I bother wasting time on "contributory negligence" if it won't be a colorable claim for the purposes of my class?

Hope this wasn't too confusing. Thanks.

[jingosaur]

I was mostly the opposite.

This does sound theoretically possible though, yes. You know what, I bet it has happened before.

Me too. Thought I was going to do well and then was mediocre. Then I pretty much mailed it in 2L and my grades get up.

get drunk and stop thinking about grades.

Do this.

[Blackfish]

this happens all the time in law school. LS exam performances are basically unpredictable and there is a bit of a randomness to it that you just can't quantify. there are people who think they bombed it who end up killing it and vice versa. there are people who had 75%+ LSAT and GPA who end up getting median pwned or worse and people who snuck in through a waitlist in late July who end up merking their entire class. it's unpredictable.

[iliketurtles123]

Yep.

The more confident i was, the worse i did.

For 2 of my classes i legitimately thought i was in thr bottom 10%. Ended up getting A- for both classes.

[ArtistOfManliness]

Nope. Never happened in the history of ever.

[jphiggo]

Quick question for anyone who wants to answer:
I have my last exam in Torts tomorrow. I just finished reading "Getting to Maybe" for the second time and something stuck out to me. In the "forks in the law" chapter they pointed out that though comparative negligence is the prevailing mode for assessing liability nowadays, they still recommended including an analysis on how someone might raise contributory negligence as a premise. In my torts class, we have touched on contributory negligence, but my professor is pretty strict about how, in "[our] universe," pure comparative negligence should be used.

For something like that, you can just add a quick one liner. However, this result would be X in comparative negligence jurisdictions because of Y and Z. And then move on. If there's a point to scrounge up, that'll do it.

[lavarman84]

Has anyone felt like they didn't perform as well as they hoped on finals/know they got a few questions wrong for sure after the exam, but received A/A-s?

Yes. In fact, I talked to a bunch of friends after Con Law during my 1L year. They all talked about how easy the exam was. I told them that I thought it was difficult and that I thought I did poorly. Ended up getting an A. It's normal. And everything you think you missed tends to pop in your head right after the exam. Just part of law school. In fact, I've been dealing with that today after my exam, and I'm a 3L. Doesn't go away.(although, you do care less about it)

[TheSpanishMain]

I've found no correlation between how I feel leaving an exam and what grade I end up with.

[navykev]

On the tests I thought I did poorly -- I received As -- on the ones I felt great about -- I received Bs. When you walk out of a law school exam thinking you aced it -- everyone else walked out thinking they aced it -- curve comes in and punches most of you in the gut! In my humble opinion, the easier an exam feels the tighter the curve is going to be.

[hopefuljumbo23]

OP, I'm in your boat. I worked hard all semester, read all of my material, took good notes, etc. I totally feel like I screwed up exams, but I'm just hoping I'm wrong and get my grades back and they look alright. Honestly, I'm fine with being at median this semester. Median at a T14 still lands a job...... right? Lol.

[barprepblues]

My first year civ pro exam was the day after my contracts exam. I spent too much time studying for contracts and ended up doing civ pro in a day. I had no idea what I was doing, just transcribed parts of the FRCP and made up some analysis. Result: top 10% grade (though our school doesn't officially have grades.)

Same thing happened with securities, patents, white collar, and evidence, so don't sweat the small stuff.

[Eldon Tyrell]

The thing that made me feel better was discussing your exams with friends and classmates. Make sure to compare which issues you guys spotted. It gives you a good idea of where you stand in terms of your grades.

[SFSpartan]

Generally, the exams I walked out of feeling horrible were the ones I did the best on. The inverse was also generally true.

The same was true of the Bar exam - I was convinced I failed. Ended up passing.

[star fox]

Generally, the exams where I walked out the most confident were the ones I did best in. The ones I felt worse were the ones I received my lowest grades.

Strangely enough, the more I studied for an exam, the better I did as well, whereas the ones where I studied the least I did the worst in.

[Yeezus Wept]

OP do yourself a favor and go get drunk. To your question, I walked out of contracts feeling bad, felt a lot worse the following day when I was discussing the exam with a few friends and realized I did a major analysis on the issue spotter wrong. Like ass fuckin backwards. Lost a whole afternoon that I should have been studying to moping.

Well it turns out everyone else sucks at taking exams worse than I do, because I got an A. So yeah, plenty of people think they bombed an exam then do well. Doesn't mean you did well. But the point is that you have no idea and there is no point in speculating about it. Just move on try your damndest not to discuss it. It's all over now

[hopefuljumbo23]

OP do yourself a favor and go get drunk. To your question, I walked out of contracts feeling bad, felt a lot worse the following day when I was discussing the exam with a few friends and realized I did a major analysis on the issue spotter wrong. Like ass fuckin backwards. Lost a whole afternoon that I should have been studying to moping.

Well it turns out everyone else sucks at taking exams worse than I do, because I got an A. So yeah, plenty of people think they bombed an exam then do well. Doesn't mean you did well. But the point is that you have no idea and there is no point in speculating about it. Just move on try your damndest not to discuss it. It's all over now

That makes me feel better. I'm sick to my stomach thinking about my exams but I'm just trying to forget about them.

[EzraFitz]

I always like to tell the story of the time I had a breakdown, silent, sobbing panic attack during an exam, didn't even finish it, and got a B+. Not an A/A-, but just get it out of your head, there is no use in stewing in it.

As for the sick to the stomach feeling, I am often a victim of this post exam. From a medical side of things, stay really hydrated. This always helps me with nervous/worry stomach.

[zot1]

Only happened with the bar.

[PeanutsNJam]

There is literally no correlation between how you feel about an exam and your grade.

Plenty people felt "confident" and got lower grades than they thought they deserved.

Plenty people are also "confident" and book the exam.

There is no inverse relationship between how you feel about an exam and how you did. There is no relationship between how you feel about an exam and how you did.

Like, at the extremes, if you didn't talk about negligence on your exam and it was 1/3 of your course, then yeah, you're not getting an A, but I'm pretty sure that's not what people mean when they say "omg I failed!"

[Milksteak]

The thing that made me feel better was discussing your exams with friends and classmates. Make sure to compare which issues you guys spotted. It gives you a good idea of where you stand in terms of your grades.

A+ trolling

[hopefuljumbo23]

I always like to tell the story of the time I had a breakdown, silent, sobbing panic attack during an exam, didn't even finish it, and got a B+. Not an A/A-, but just get it out of your head, there is no use in stewing in it.

As for the sick to the stomach feeling, I am often a victim of this post exam. From a medical side of things, stay really hydrated. This always helps me with nervous/worry stomach.

Wow, lol. So glad to have posted in this thread because you guys are making me feel a whole lot better. I'm not asking for As or A-s, honestly... I'd be happy to scrape by with B+s this semester because I have a list of things that I am going to do differently next semester.