Is it possible to fail an exam at a top school? Forum

[badatlawschool12345]

Hi everyone throwaway bc I’m spiraling, tldr I go to a top five law school and I just did so poorly on an exam I’m not sure how I would’ve gotten any credit. I got the day of the final wrong and showed up late with no notes no outline no nothing. I tried to answer all of the questions from knowledge/having been to class, which you can guess how that went on an open note exam. Have you heard of people failing at a T14 and how little did they do to fail?? Please ease my anxious mind

[cavalier1138]

Check your school's (I'm going to pretend that calling it a "top five" wasn't specific enough for everyone to know) grading policy. I can pretty much guarantee that you didn't fail. At that level, grades below a B- are generally discretionary, and professors usually need to get approval before failing someone.

The only instance I've heard of someone getting a failing grade is when they didn't even provide an answer (i.e. literally nothing written) for two out of three questions.

[QContinuum]

Check your school's (I'm going to pretend that calling it a "top five" wasn't specific enough for everyone to know) grading policy. I can pretty much guarantee that you didn't fail. At that level, grades below a B- are generally discretionary, and professors usually need to get approval before failing someone.

The only instance I've heard of someone getting a failing grade is when they didn't even provide an answer (i.e. literally nothing written) for two out of three questions.

So, OP's unlikely to get an actual F, but based on OP's description, assuming they aren't exaggerating, I'd hazard that a B- is likely, and a C is entirely within the realm of possibility. (Of course, it's also possible - if unlikely - that OP "lucks out" and gets a B.) All comes down to the professor - some are much more willing to give "off-curve" bad grades than others. There are some professors who'd never give a C (barring a literal blank exam or the equivalent), and others who wouldn't hesitate to give a C for exceptionally awful performance.

I'm using conventional letter grades to keep this simple, but the above applies equally to the equivalent numeric grades at Chicago. If Harvard, I'd say a LP (roughly equivalent to a B-/C) is likely, but an F quite unlikely. If Stanford, I'd say an unlikely but still possible chance of getting restricted credit - would depend heavily on the prof. If Yale, OP's in the clear; they're not going to get no credit (this assumes they're a first-semester 1L).

[dvlthndr]

The good news is that top schools usually require a professor to go out of their way and "justify" grades that are off the normal curve. Also, trying to outright fail somebody may cause a lot of paperwork and headache because it can trigger investigations and/or academic probation.

The bad news is that many 1L professors will go out of their way to give out at least a few C-F range grades (or the equivalent). If your exam was dramatically worse than all your classmates, it might get ugly.

[Halp]

The good news is that top schools usually require a professor to go out of their way and "justify" grades that are off the normal curve. Also, trying to outright fail somebody may cause a lot of paperwork and headache because it can trigger investigations and/or academic probation.

The bad news is that many 1L professors will go out of their way to give out at least a few C-F range grades (or the equivalent). If your exam was dramatically worse than all your classmates, it might get ugly.

I question whether this is true of *many* law professors. Some, certainly, but many? Definitely doesn’t jibe with my experience at least.

[dvlthndr]

The good news is that top schools usually require a professor to go out of their way and "justify" grades that are off the normal curve. Also, trying to outright fail somebody may cause a lot of paperwork and headache because it can trigger investigations and/or academic probation.

The bad news is that many 1L professors will go out of their way to give out at least a few C-F range grades (or the equivalent). If your exam was dramatically worse than all your classmates, it might get ugly.

I question whether this is true of *many* law professors. Some, certainly, but many? Definitely doesn’t jibe with my experience at least.

Let’s put it this way, most schools publish some kind of numbers on their grading policy / curve. Even if only 1-2% of people will get a low grade that is off the curve—what does that mean in a lecture class of ~150?

[Wild Card]

I know exactly two people who got a C+ and couldn't get them to tell me how they pulled it off.

Maybe if an exam has three questions and you make a good faith but bumbling effort on one and leave the other two blank.

[Dcc617]

OP, law school is graded on a curve. It’s not unusual to feel like you bombed an exam and then do completely fine because of the curve. There’s no point in stressing, it’s probably fine. If you have any other exams focus on those, if you don’t, then chill.

Worst case, you have the insurance of going to a top school so you’ll still get a good job if your grades are iffy. You’ve already won, so chill.

[RecruiterMan]

I remember one person in my class who wrote a poem by way of answer on our torts exam; they still got a B-

You'll be fine OP, although it likely won't do your gpa any favors

[thegrayman]

If you truly tanked, I would assume you might get a discretionary C, but I doubt you would get an F. I went to NYU and one of my friends didn't study at all for our 1L admin final. The lowest grade is supposed to be a B-, but the professor dinged him with a C.

[Anon-non-anon]

It's also totally possible OP knew more than they thought, especially if they recognized places where they didn't know the law exactly, they might have still spotted the issues. Try to stay positive, there's nothing you can do now and as OP said, you're still at a T5.

[nealric]

The only F I ever saw at Georgetown was from a visiting professor from a lower ranked school. It was a tax exam that had a decent number of questions that were binary right/wrong. My only guess is someone just got every question wrong. Never found out who actually got the grade or the circumstance - the grade software just showed the number of students with each letter grade, so you could see an F had been awarded. Besides that, C was usually the absolute worst and rarely given out.

T5 should be even more forgiving.