1L grade expectations

[blueleaves20]

Finished first term. Felt like the exams went well but I am scared of having any expectations whatsoever because I have no idea what a "good law school exam" looks like. How did your expectations measure up to your actual first term 1L marks?

[Whist]

I'm not sure if you're ideally asking others who just got their grades, or if you're asking for general thoughts from anyone. Often enough, how you feel about how you did on exam has no relation to how you actually performed. I mean that in the sense of unless you didn't finish half the exam or something, try not to worry about grades. I'd say the safest bet is to expect whatever your school curves to, and if you do better, great. If you are exactly average, good. If you do worse, change up your habits for next term. Some profs also want different things than others so keep that in mind.

I didn't meet my own expectations in first term 1L (or in second term either for the most part). And I wasn't someone gunning for a 1L biglaw summer spot either. I'm happier with my performance as an upper year, but I was a meh student in 1L. There is some correlation between more work = better grades, but some people are just naturals at it and it's hard to know if that's you until you actually get the grades back. So best to focus on other things until then. 

[LMP]

Exams are always a toss up for me, I end up getting identical marks on exams I feel I failed and exams I think I aced. I don't think there's really a good way to know how you did, though some people seem to predict their results with spooky levels of accuracy. Overall, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it. I know in 1L grades have this encompassing aura of importance, and to be fair they are somewhat important, but in retrospect I was likely too concerned about marks in my first year. 

[BlockedQuebecois]

1 hour ago, LMP said:

Exams are always a toss up for me, I end up getting identical marks on exams I feel I failed and exams I think I aced.

This is why my conspiracy theory has always been that law schools assign you all of your grades when you enrol and just trickle them out over the course of your three years there. 

[TheDevilIKnow]

Agree with all of the above! Grades were really hard for me to deal with in 1L, because they absolutely did not line up with how I felt I had performed. Even worse was when my mark moved down from midterms to finals, even though I subjectively felt much more on track.

There are too many other variables to hope that your marks will be closely tied to your own thoughts of how you did. Things like the performance of others, the required grade curve, idiosyncratic expectations of individual profs, learning styles, plus just sheer luck over which topics you "got" and which ones you didn't.

You might feel you had great answers in a given course, but it turns out you had a lot of keeners in your section who had even greater answers. It doesn't mean yours weren't great, because the curve just has to do what it does.

I got my lowest 1L mark on the course where I thought my work was the best (legal research and writing). In 2L I also got a very low mark from the same prof in Admin, again in an area that I thought was my strongest that term. I've had great reviews of my writing and grasp of Admin Law during my summer work. For me, the connection between those courses was that they had the same prof! It seems that Prof (who is a lovely man) just doesn't like the way I organize information. C'est la vie.

I recommend meeting with your profs for any course where you weren't happy with your mark. Not to complain, but to see what you can do to better meet their expectations on the final. It may not really be about your ability in the area, but more about what this particular prof wants. If your exams are help-not-hurt, all the better!

 

[Turtles]

11 hours ago, blueleaves20 said:

Finished first term. Felt like the exams went well but I am scared of having any expectations whatsoever because I have no idea what a "good law school exam" looks like. How did your expectations measure up to your actual first term 1L marks?

I went through first semester of 1L being told by upper years who thought they were being helpful that I should have low expectations, don't expect to get As, everyone is bright and you're not special, prepare for disappointment but don't take it personally, etc.

Even with lowered expectations, I thought I underachieved in my exams (e.g., really had to piss by the end of my contracts exam and couldn't hold it much longer, losing precious time as I ran to the washroom; didn't have enough time to do a read-through on my Torts exam at the end to find errors or clean it up; etc).

I ended up doing better than I had originally hoped for. And my grades were good enough to land a 1L recruit job. In fact, the exam I felt the worst about indeed ended up being an A. The un-proof-read rambling I feared would tank me was apparently received as nuanced analysis. First semester grades were also a kick in the butt that getting As was not something to write off as unrealistic. Honestly, I think the well-intended upper year advice kinda held me back from fully engaging. Knowing that, my grades improved further the next semester.

At the end of the day, the curve makes getting a good grade hard but a bad (failing) grade really really hard. You can gun for top grades. You can coast through. You can aim high and fall low, or the inverse. Whatever floats your boat. But just remember to take a breath, reflect on the breadth and depth of what you've learned, and be proud of yourself about how much you've learned. Regardless of what the grade ends up being, you've (presumably) learned a lot, ran through some hoops, felt some stress, and undertaken something pretty worthwhile. It can seem like 1L grades are super important, and they are, but do find some peace in knowing you tried your best, you proved you could do it and learned a lot, and that you, like 90-97+% of Canadian law schools grads (insert stat for your school), will be able to land a job and figure the rest out when you need to.

[capitalttruth]

13 hours ago, Turtles said:

I went through first semester of 1L being told by upper years who thought they were being helpful that I should have low expectations, don't expect to get As, everyone is bright and you're not special, prepare for disappointment but don't take it personally, etc.

Even with lowered expectations, I thought I underachieved in my exams (e.g., really had to piss by the end of my contracts exam and couldn't hold it much longer, losing precious time as I ran to the washroom; didn't have enough time to do a read-through on my Torts exam at the end to find errors or clean it up; etc).

I ended up doing better than I had originally hoped for. And my grades were good enough to land a 1L recruit job. In fact, the exam I felt the worst about indeed ended up being an A. The un-proof-read rambling I feared would tank me was apparently received as nuanced analysis. First semester grades were also a kick in the butt that getting As was not something to write off as unrealistic. Honestly, I think the well-intended upper year advice kinda held me back from fully engaging. Knowing that, my grades improved further the next semester.

At the end of the day, the curve makes getting a good grade hard but a bad (failing) grade really really hard. You can gun for top grades. You can coast through. You can aim high and fall low, or the inverse. Whatever floats your boat. But just remember to take a breath, reflect on the breadth and depth of what you've learned, and be proud of yourself about how much you've learned. Regardless of what the grade ends up being, you've (presumably) learned a lot, ran through some hoops, felt some stress, and undertaken something pretty worthwhile. It can seem like 1L grades are super important, and they are, but do find some peace in knowing you tried your best, you proved you could do it and learned a lot, and that you, like 90-97+% of Canadian law schools grads (insert stat for your school), will be able to land a job and figure the rest out when you need to.

I was told to similarly have low expectations from upper years, and it really pissed me off. I managed to do really well in 1L and 2L (so far). I found what worked for me and used it to my advantage. While I think some of the initial upper year advice was important for new students to hear, I didn't like that it was applied categorically. Not everyone's experience is the same. What I've learned is that, despite the daunting reality of the curve, is that you can get good grades if you develop good study habits; this has been my experience, anyway. And I don't consider myself the brightest person either.

[sageclock]

Because all grades are curved, most students likely anticipate the B range. You're amongst really bright students, and there's the curve working against you. I don't know if you're looking for Biglaw jobs, but as long as you're doing even slightly above your class average, you have a fair shot. I think I had a high Bish average in 1L and did pretty well job-wise.