I finally looked at my grades from last semester (at my school, they trickle in one by one as the professors submit them, so many of them have been in for quite a while. I made a vow, however, not to look at the grades until they were ALL in, because looking at them one by one just prolongs the agony and messes with my head. Hence, the band-aid rule: only look at them once, getting it over with fast to minimize the pain. Grades were due a couple of weeks ago, but one of my classes was about the 3rd-to-last of all to post, so I wasn't able to look until today).
Anyway, I'm quite happy with how they turned out, but they prove the immutable law of law school: it is IMPOSSIBLE to predict your grades. Seriously. I know everyone says this, it's a law student blog cliché. Which, sadly, is because it's true.
My highest grade: The class I -- well, hated is a strong word, but let's just say it was my least favorite? and I kind of stopped doing the reading partway through the semester? and it met at a time of day when my brain checks out anyway? and I disagreed with the instructor's pedagogy? and I didn't really prepare for the exam until three days before? and I know other very smart people in the class who got their lowest grade in that class? Yeah, my highest (and very good) grade was in that class.
My lowest grade: Perhaps my favorite class of the semester, fascinating subject, brilliant prof, just all around really, really interesting. I worked my ass off to prepare for the exam and I worked my ass off taking the VERY LONG take-home exam. Grade: very very ordinary. (Mind you, the class was full of 3Ls who've taken classes on related subjects before, often with the same prof, so I like to think my exam was fine, everyone else was just especially brilliant.)
The class in which I completely forgot that the exam had a word limit until after ExamSoft had kicked in and shut the test down? Good grade. (Guess I wasn't as wordy as I thought!)
The class in which I completely utterly had NO IDEA what the first exam question was asking for? Good grade. (That said, no one else I talked to had any idea what the first exam question was asking for, either, so I guess our collective ignorances canceled each other out?)
So, yeah. The one predictable thing about law school is that you can't predict your grades. Thank God I only have three more semesters to go through this roller-coaster!
I've had the opposite experience (although I don't have all my grades, so far). My grades have been predictable relative to each other, not in absolute scale.
You have much more self restraint than me. I've been checking madly. Yet I remain without the last.
Posted by: idwsj | Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 09:49 PM
Hubby's school holds all the grades until the last one is in... today (Friday) they are supposed to release them -- wish him luck!!
Posted by: Patty Steck | Friday, January 22, 2010 at 02:29 AM
Are the courses graded on a curve, so that other people's grades affect yours? That would drive me crazy!
Posted by: What Now? | Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 06:48 AM
Oh, yes, EVERY* class is graded on a curve (that's why the last class took so long to get its grades in, is the rumor -- there was an issue about one student's grade, and no one can get grades till everyone does, because you can't calculate the curve till you have all the correct grades). So that's the other factor weighing against predictability: your grade depends ENTIRELY on how everyone else did. I think this hurt me in my lowest-grade class, as I suggested, because everyone else did awesomely, but I think it helped in the class where I had no idea what the first question was asking! (because I highly doubt my raw grade was as high as my final grade...)
*I think if the class is a seminar (<15 people) the curve is higher, however.
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 10:55 AM
Oh, and Patty, I hope hubby was pleased with his grades! (For me it was more helpful to focus on rank than literal grades, although I don't know that the school calculates ranks for 1st-semester 1Ls - mine doesn.t)
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 10:56 AM
So, um, not to state the obvious, but ... doesn't grading on a curve essentially make it each person for him or herself and work against student cooperation? How does that work with the fabled law school study groups? And is the theory that law is a dog-eat-dog world, so that one might as well get a head start on competing with others? But don't lawyers actually work with one another a lot of the time?
Am I being hopelessly Humanities in being appalled at the grading on a curve?!
Anyway, I'm glad you did fairly well on your grades -- it must be really hard in such a system!
Posted by: What Now? | Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 01:22 PM