Grades suddenly dropped to the bottom of the class, not sure why- am I still smart enough to pass the bar?
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 2:01 pm
Hi all,
I just graduated (yesterday) from a Top-25 law school. By way of background, I was admitted with roughly median GPA and LSAT. My 1L year, I worked really hard and was right at median. I was happy with that, based on the requirements for the job I wanted, feeling like my classmates were brilliant, and also managing to stay fit, go out, and have fun. My 2L year, I took much easier classes and grades dropped a little but not much. 3L year, however, I took some bar classes and my grades absolutely tanked: bottom of the class in pretty much every one. 3L fall semester I didn't' work very hard- I didn't read or take notes and didn't start studying at all until 2 weeks before finals, so I chalked the low grades up to 3L laziness and overconfidence. But 3L spring, I read and outlined- not quite as seriously as I did 1L year, but I put in what I thought was enough work to learn the material and pull decent grades (apparently, it wasn't.) I have my dream job lined up and they don't care about these grades at all, plus my cumulative GPA is still halfway decent. But I'm not sure what happened that caused me to forget how to do law school after doing fine 1L (did I get a concussion I'm not aware of or something??) I'm really concerned about my ability to pass the bar with such sudden poor performance, especially because, at least spring semester, I expected my grades to come back solid. I'm taking the bar in a UBE state, where my school had an 89% pass rate last year, and I'm using Barbri. I'm not typically a nervous test taker and I tend to over-perform in high pressure situations, but this is the first time I've ever felt like I did really poorly in school and wasn't able to have some control over my grades so I'm a little freaked out. Has anyone else ever heard of/experienced something like this? I really appreciate any advice, anecdotal or otherwise. Thank you all in advance.
I just graduated (yesterday) from a Top-25 law school. By way of background, I was admitted with roughly median GPA and LSAT. My 1L year, I worked really hard and was right at median. I was happy with that, based on the requirements for the job I wanted, feeling like my classmates were brilliant, and also managing to stay fit, go out, and have fun. My 2L year, I took much easier classes and grades dropped a little but not much. 3L year, however, I took some bar classes and my grades absolutely tanked: bottom of the class in pretty much every one. 3L fall semester I didn't' work very hard- I didn't read or take notes and didn't start studying at all until 2 weeks before finals, so I chalked the low grades up to 3L laziness and overconfidence. But 3L spring, I read and outlined- not quite as seriously as I did 1L year, but I put in what I thought was enough work to learn the material and pull decent grades (apparently, it wasn't.) I have my dream job lined up and they don't care about these grades at all, plus my cumulative GPA is still halfway decent. But I'm not sure what happened that caused me to forget how to do law school after doing fine 1L (did I get a concussion I'm not aware of or something??) I'm really concerned about my ability to pass the bar with such sudden poor performance, especially because, at least spring semester, I expected my grades to come back solid. I'm taking the bar in a UBE state, where my school had an 89% pass rate last year, and I'm using Barbri. I'm not typically a nervous test taker and I tend to over-perform in high pressure situations, but this is the first time I've ever felt like I did really poorly in school and wasn't able to have some control over my grades so I'm a little freaked out. Has anyone else ever heard of/experienced something like this? I really appreciate any advice, anecdotal or otherwise. Thank you all in advance.