During the previous two weeks, as I studied for and took my finals, I kept thinking of things I wanted to say when I was done. Now all I can think to say is, “Phew!” What a ride.
By my calculation, I spent approximately 15 hours a day, at least six days a week, for the past four weeks studying for my five finals. I lived on Chipotle and Starbucks (Beaner’s doesn’t have a drive-thru).
The feeling when I walked out of my Con Law final at 4:45 on Friday afternoon was surreal. The closest thing I can compare it to is my graduation day from Ohio Northern. It was that much of a sense of accomplishment.
The first question everyone asks me, of course, is, “How do you think you did?” And the answer to that – ask any law student and you’ll likely get the same answer – is, “Who knows?”
It’s not a question of how well you did. It’s how well you did in comparison to everyone else. That’s all that matters.
Ah, the joys of curve grading.
You can come out of an exam thinking you hit a home run, only to find out that everybody else in the class thinks they hit a home run too. Conversely, you can come out of an exam thinking you just signed your expulsion papers, only to find that everyone else feels the same way.
It’s like the old joke about the question of “How fast do you have to be to outrun a lion?” “Faster than the guy next to you.”
That’s why it gets so cutthroat at some law schools. Students will do anything to sabotage their classmates. Fortunately I haven’t seen too many signs of that here, especially amongst my circle of friends. One in particular bent over backward to help me make up for last semester. I owe him so much.
Now just comes the waiting game and another inevitable question, “When will you get your grades?”
Not soon enough.
If first semester was any indication, I’ll be three or four weeks into the summer semester before I found out how I did on my spring exams.
Speaking of summer semester, I start back a week from today. I had my first assignments for my classes a week ago. I have 59 pages of reading for Torts on Monday and 27 pages for Property II on Tuesday.
I actually feel like I’m ready to go for the summer. I felt like things started to click for me the last month, like I was starting to figure out how the whole game worked. (I know; it took me long enough.) It’ll be nice to have a couple days to unwind, then I’m ready to get back to it.
The first year of law school was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But by the grace of God, literally, I survived it. Thanks to everyone for their prayers. They meant everything to me.
7 comments:
Yep, I know the feeling.
It feels great to walk out and be done with finals and feel the sun on your face and hear the birds singing!
It feels like freedom...
For those of you who don't know about grading on a curve, it is a system invented in the bowels of hell by Satan himself.
If the test isn't put together correctly and it's either too easy or too hard, it ends up measuring nothing and the final grades end up being pretty arbitrary.
I once took a class with a hundred point test and the diffence between getting an "A" and a "C" was two points.
Normally if you take a 100 point test and one percent gets a 96 and the other person gets a 94, they both get "A's" right?
Well not in this case. In this case, the person with a 96 gets an "A," the person with a 95 gets a "B" and the person with the 94 gets a "C." That was not a good test, it was too easy and the students had to end up paying the price for it.
And there is noting you can do about it! Plus you are competing with a group of people who are normally the group of people who were getting all the "A's" in college. Only now, no matter what happens on the test you know that only the top 10 percent will get "A's" the next 20 percent will end up with "B's" and everybody else will get "C's" or worse.
No matter what...
Fun, huh?
We are very happy for you that this part is done and over.(now just the waiting for the grades....aaaagh!!!!) We are hoping and praying for you that all will continue to go well!
By the way, we really enjoyed getting to spend some time with you guys on Sunday!! Good meal, great company.....always a nice combination!! =) Hopefully something will work out this Saturday! We have to grab the time we can get with summer school starting up now.
Have an enjoyable week off....hopefully with no more hours of labor and blown lawn mower engines!!! ;)
BTW, Israel, is there a reason(that you know of)why they grade tests that way? It sounds horribly unfair and crazy.
"BTW, Israel, is there a reason(that you know of)why they grade tests that way? It sounds horribly unfair and crazy."
Because the Geneva Convention doesn't cover law students.
Because they want you to be meaner than a junkyard dog when you get through with law school.
I guess they also want you to be ready to take the Bar Exam, which is ten times more grueling and stressful.
Because the Geneva Convention doesn't cover law students.
Hilarious. Ironically grading on the curve was initially used to make grade distribution fairer. You can't pass everyone right?
Unfortunately, as Israel pointed out, if a test is too easy then almost everyone is going to score very high, which means missing one question could result in a 'B'. Even worse if the test is being graded based on phrasing, thought completeness, and handwriting.
Really the only time it benefits you is if everyone scored poorly (below 'C'). As a general rule the average 'nice' teachers only use it in that situation. Unfortunately for John I don't think any 'nice' teachers exist in law school.
John, congrats on your first year down!
Hey there Mr. 2L!
Glad to hear you've survived and just an FYI, most of us feel like we've just hit our stride. You are not alone!
Enjoy a few days of sunshine, my friend, it's back to the library/well-lit corners soon enough!!
And I have a feeling about your property exam, it was a magical day all around, I mean, it was my birthday, after all!
Ciao!
Post a Comment