Whoo!
I just got notice of two more grades. I am glad to say that I now have the experience in law school of receiving a grade higher than a "B." I clapped my hands and let out a "H%*# yeah!", which was probably inappropriate since I'm at my parents' house. They promptly asked from the living room, "What did you get?"
Man, this feels good. And it was in a course whose material I considered exceptionally difficult. I really enjoyed the class, though, and I wanted to do well because I can certainly see the relevancy of this material in a field where I'd like to practice.
The other grade was not so hot. I have three grades now, with two to go. My three grades vary widely. This lets me know that, going forward, I'm likely to grasp certain areas of law significantly better than others (at least in relation to my classmates, which is what exam grades are about). I probably won't give an even performance across the board over the next two and a half years, though my effort in each of my classes this semester was fairly even.
My highest grade and my lowest grade kind of even out my mood. It also establishes that I have no idea what to expect for my last two grades.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Waiting...
After you complete one semester of law school, you can expect to be held in suspense for weeks while the professors grade the exams.
It's just the way the system is set up. The entire grade for the class rides on the exam, and there were 82 people in my class. One exam was four hours long, so I can understand how it takes the professors a while to go through and rank them.
I wish I had something substantive to tell my friends and family at the Christmas gatherings, but I really can't say how my semester went yet.
One grade has posted. It was an exam I felt pretty good about when I took it. However, just based on this one score, it looks like I'll have to continue to work as hard as I can just to stay with the pack.
That's another thing to guard against: Not getting too high or too low based on one exam. I can't say yet whether my first exam score is par for the course or an anomaly.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
It's just the way the system is set up. The entire grade for the class rides on the exam, and there were 82 people in my class. One exam was four hours long, so I can understand how it takes the professors a while to go through and rank them.
I wish I had something substantive to tell my friends and family at the Christmas gatherings, but I really can't say how my semester went yet.
One grade has posted. It was an exam I felt pretty good about when I took it. However, just based on this one score, it looks like I'll have to continue to work as hard as I can just to stay with the pack.
That's another thing to guard against: Not getting too high or too low based on one exam. I can't say yet whether my first exam score is par for the course or an anomaly.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Wise Decision
Five years ago I was an aspiring screenwriter.
I gave it a good effort and wrote four screenplays. I entered contests and sent off hundreds of letters trying to acquire an agent or manager. While I have no regrets about those ambitions, real world experiences in Las Vegas and Washington, DC made me realize that I would probably spend years not making much money while I expended most of my effort on writing.
I faced the truth that, given the choice between being a starving artist and becoming successful in another field, I would gladly choose the latter.
Writing screenplays or other types of fiction is something that I could pick up again at a moment's notice. I have half a dozen stories circulating in my head right now. Unfortunately, getting people to pay money to hear or see my stories proved too difficult. I saw myself becoming trapped in a miserable situation in Washington, and I now consider it a great decision to stop writing and focus all my efforts on my legal training.
After one semester of law school, I think there is a great world of opportunity, adventures, and learning ahead. It should be a happier life, and I will do my best not to screw it up. It is great to live in a country that affords me the opportunity to remake myself. That would probably not be an option if I had been born most other places in the world.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
I gave it a good effort and wrote four screenplays. I entered contests and sent off hundreds of letters trying to acquire an agent or manager. While I have no regrets about those ambitions, real world experiences in Las Vegas and Washington, DC made me realize that I would probably spend years not making much money while I expended most of my effort on writing.
I faced the truth that, given the choice between being a starving artist and becoming successful in another field, I would gladly choose the latter.
Writing screenplays or other types of fiction is something that I could pick up again at a moment's notice. I have half a dozen stories circulating in my head right now. Unfortunately, getting people to pay money to hear or see my stories proved too difficult. I saw myself becoming trapped in a miserable situation in Washington, and I now consider it a great decision to stop writing and focus all my efforts on my legal training.
After one semester of law school, I think there is a great world of opportunity, adventures, and learning ahead. It should be a happier life, and I will do my best not to screw it up. It is great to live in a country that affords me the opportunity to remake myself. That would probably not be an option if I had been born most other places in the world.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Friday, December 12, 2008
The End of the First Semester
Well, my first semester at FSU College of Law is finished.
Classes ended on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but the exam period is more extended than for undergraduate classes. My last exam was yesterday, December 11th.
I've held some tough jobs (among them working for the Post Office in Washington, DC), and the exam period was much easier than those. Still, this is my 18th year of school, and the previous 2 and 1/2 weeks were the most intense of my academic life.
I love law school. Studying new material and getting ready for class is enjoyable. Honestly, though, exams and preparing for exams is not that fun. You either sit for hours a day re-reading your own notes again and again, or you join a study group and let everyone else's stress infect you. I did both. It is the first time in my life that my entire grade for a semester's worth of work in a class was based on a single exam.
My main source of stress was making sure I actually got to the law school on the day of the exam and took the test. It was a real concern about getting in a car accident or some fluke thing happening that would cause me to miss the exam. I'm not sure what the makeup policy is, but the school did not present missing the exam as an option. Though I sit on the front row, my professors generally don't know my name outside of class. I'd done all this work with nothing to show for it. I finally began to relax a little after my third exam. That meant I had turned in 11 hours worth of credit and had done the prerequisite exams for next semester's courses. Now I should have some standing with the College of Law.
In law school, it also takes a long time to get your grades. I've been told by a couple of second year students that I probably will have started classes in the spring semester before all my grades from the fall have posted, and I will definitely have started classes again before I know my overall class rank.
I have no idea how I did, but I can truthfully say this was my best effort. I can't go any harder as far as studying and conditioning my life to make me perform as well as possible in law school. My diet, exercise routine, sleep habits and down time were all focused on maximizing the results on my grades. So we'll see if I'm in the top ranks of the class, or if I have to bust my butt to just stay average. Grades are completely relative (the law school curve) and based on how everyone else did. Like I said before, I 'm competing with people from Duke, Stanford, and Ivy League schools. So I have no idea what to expect.
My Civil Procedure professor tried to encourage us on the last day of class when she said, "We let you in here for a reason. We usually don't make a mistake. You'll be fine."
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Classes ended on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but the exam period is more extended than for undergraduate classes. My last exam was yesterday, December 11th.
I've held some tough jobs (among them working for the Post Office in Washington, DC), and the exam period was much easier than those. Still, this is my 18th year of school, and the previous 2 and 1/2 weeks were the most intense of my academic life.
I love law school. Studying new material and getting ready for class is enjoyable. Honestly, though, exams and preparing for exams is not that fun. You either sit for hours a day re-reading your own notes again and again, or you join a study group and let everyone else's stress infect you. I did both. It is the first time in my life that my entire grade for a semester's worth of work in a class was based on a single exam.
My main source of stress was making sure I actually got to the law school on the day of the exam and took the test. It was a real concern about getting in a car accident or some fluke thing happening that would cause me to miss the exam. I'm not sure what the makeup policy is, but the school did not present missing the exam as an option. Though I sit on the front row, my professors generally don't know my name outside of class. I'd done all this work with nothing to show for it. I finally began to relax a little after my third exam. That meant I had turned in 11 hours worth of credit and had done the prerequisite exams for next semester's courses. Now I should have some standing with the College of Law.
In law school, it also takes a long time to get your grades. I've been told by a couple of second year students that I probably will have started classes in the spring semester before all my grades from the fall have posted, and I will definitely have started classes again before I know my overall class rank.
I have no idea how I did, but I can truthfully say this was my best effort. I can't go any harder as far as studying and conditioning my life to make me perform as well as possible in law school. My diet, exercise routine, sleep habits and down time were all focused on maximizing the results on my grades. So we'll see if I'm in the top ranks of the class, or if I have to bust my butt to just stay average. Grades are completely relative (the law school curve) and based on how everyone else did. Like I said before, I 'm competing with people from Duke, Stanford, and Ivy League schools. So I have no idea what to expect.
My Civil Procedure professor tried to encourage us on the last day of class when she said, "We let you in here for a reason. We usually don't make a mistake. You'll be fine."
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
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