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