My fifth round of law school exams is now behind me. As exam seasons go, this time was less stressful than the other four. Most probably, it was due to experience and that I was pleased with how much I learned in studying for exams. A couple of classes came together for me more clearly over the last three weeks once I started preparing for the exam.
Still, it was a push. I remember one day this week, being in the library at a table and reading my class notes. A very bright friend of mine walked past the table. He is a fellow third year student, and on the law review. He was also in my "section" during the first year, meaning we had all of our first year classes together. You make a special bond with those students. As he walked past my table, he and I exchanged knowing looks. We'd both been through this before, and at that moment we were both in the thicket. We both knew what had to be done to be successful. He returned to his desk, and I looked back down to my notes as we continued our hours and hours of review... Now, I wait for the grades.
Before exams began, though, I took time to enjoy a huge annual event that alternates between Tallahassee and Gainesville- the football game between the Florida State Seminoles and the University of Florida Gators. Well over 80,000 people crowded into Doak Campbell Stadium on November 27th to watch the game.
At the tail gate prior to the game, I had the opportunity to taste gator tail for the first time in my life. This was not alligator meat that someone bought from the grocery store. One of my law school friends has a brother who actually went into the swamp on a fan boat and killed this gator with a bang stick.
They deep fried the meat right at the tail gate. It looked like chicken nuggets, and at first it tasted like chicken nuggets, too. After my fourth bite, though, a sort of gamey flavor covered my tongue- almost like a chemical. I was done. It was neat to try this new food, but I am also glad that they had hamburgers.
The football game itself was enjoyable, too. Florida State routed the Gators for the first time in several years. A large number of Florida State Law students were unhappy about that, though, as they spent their undergraduate years at UF...
A few days later, another new thing happened to me. I was walking back from the Suwannee Room dining hall, up Jefferson Street toward the law school. The sky had been patchy grey with clouds all day. Now it was after dark, but the weather was pleasantly warm enough to be dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. I reached the intersection of Macomb and Jefferson Streets, where the law school is. Cars were parked everywhere. Across from the law school is Leon County Civic Center, where Florida State plays its basketball games. At that moment, the men's team was taking on the #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes as part of the ACC/Big 10 challenge.
As I crossed the street to go into the library, a gust of frigid air struck me from out of nowhere. It suddenly became very windy, with tree limbs bending and leaves and twigs flying all over.
I realized that I had just experienced the very front edge of a cold front. This was the night of November 30th. By the next morning, the temperature had dropped drastically. I went for a run that day in ear muffs for the first time this season. On the morning of December 2nd, I had to scrape ice off of my car windows. It is still getting below freezing at night right now...
So, exams are done. I debated going out to celebrate with the first year students. I remember well what a huge relief it was to be done after both my first and second semesters of law school. But I think I will let the first years have this moment to themselves. They have their own "sections" with whom they have bonded, and I would have to work hard to match their energy level tonight, anyway.
So, it is off to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas with the family.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Showing posts with label Exams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Exams. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Stress
The three week span from the last day of class, through the "dead week" of no classes or exams while students study and prepare, through the day of the last exam is the most stressful time of the semester for a law school student.
This was my fourth time going through it. A person's reaction to stress varies in expression. I am no exception. Once classes ended this semester, I noticed a strange tickling twitch in my stomach almost every night when I laid down and tried to sleep. During one stretch when I had exams three days in a row, my sleep pattern got completely screwed up. I woke up in the morning at 3am and, unable to get back to sleep, decided to just go on to the library. I was there from 4:30 in the morning studying until my exam started at 8:30am.
In other students, I saw a need for physical comfort. Some guys and girls would suddenly become affectionate couples- if only for these three weeks. I remember a female friend of mine saying last year during exams, "I just need to be held." Another student would go off by herself and cry and then come back normal in time for the exam. Yet another good friend of mine had to seek professional help to get through this semester. He has other things going on in his life, though. I really hope he makes it through law school.
Why these rather extreme reactions? As I have explained before, exams mean more in law school than in undergraduate classes. In most law school classes, your exam grade IS your grade for the class. You receive no other feedback from the rest of the semester. There is a mandatory curve grading system in most classes: The top 5% receive As, the bottom 5% receive Ds and Fs, with the remaining percentages divided between Bs or Cs. We are all aware of what our individual class rank is. Job offers may appear or not based on how well you perform on your exams. Differences of many thousands of dollars in future pay ride on your grades on these exams.
It is a credit to the students of Florida State Law that we do not become cut-throat competitive over exams the way I have heard they do at other law schools. We frequently study in groups and share notes or outlines. I have yet to see a student slicing pages out of a library text as sometimes happens in other places.
While they are no fun, I would much rather deal with the pressure of three exams in a row than trying to complete two mail routes before 9pm in Washington, DC, as I had to do in times past. But that is an analogy unique to my life experience. . .
After two years of law school, I've taken a number of different styles of exams. Some are more fair than others, in my humble opinion. Professors work hard in crafting an exam that challenges students and covers the material taught in the course. The professors here are much smarter than me and have put many more hours into thinking about their exam than I have, but I do have some suggestions that may or may not be useful. While a "fair" exam will probably do nothing to relieve the stress students feel prior to taking an exam, it can help during the test itself and afterwards when we are replaying the questions and answers again and again in our heads.
My number one pet peeve is to encounter an exam that is a typing race. Some of my colleagues are amazingly fast typists, and almost everybody in law school types faster than me. About once per semester, it seems I get an exam designed so that you are not supposed to finish, and the person who can type the fastest and get the most information in a "word vomit" on paper wins and gets the best grade.
One friend who is a very fast typist heard me commenting about this after one exam. She came up to me in the library and asked me to show her how fast I could type. I went to a computer and gave her a demonstration. Her eyes got a little wide after watching me for a minute and she said quietly, "Yeah, that's pretty bad."
During a four hour marathon typing race exam, I managed to get out 8 typed pages, though I could have continued typing for another four hours. One of the highest grades in that class, on the other hand, was an exam of 18 typed pages.
A pet peeve of other students (though not me) is the multiple choice exam. I tend to do better on multiple choice exams, but many students complain about these. When a client comes off the street and presents you with their problems, the students say, you are not going to have multiple choices magically appear before you to select the correct advice to give the client. Some professors in the law school will not give multiple choice exams for this reason, though much of the Florida Bar Exam is in multiple choice format.
The exam software can throw off the fairness of the exam. "Exam 4" is the software we use, and it allows for the professor to have the exam administered in "open" or "closed" format. The closed format shuts down access to any files on your laptop while you take the exam, but open format allows access to these files. Open format gives a great advantage to the students who type and save their notes on their laptop during the semester. They can use the Control F key to locate specific terms instantly in notes that may span well over a hundred pages. A person who hand writes, obviously, does not have this ability. When an exam is open book/note but closed mode on the "Exam 4" software, students who have typed their outlines or notes simply print them off prior to the exam, which levels the playing field with those who hand write. Some professors are unfamiliar with the differences between open and closed mode on "Exam 4."
The most fair exams, in my opinion, are those which present fact patterns like you would receive as a lawyer practicing in the particular subject being tested. The student would then write an essay, identifying the issues and explaining the legal advice that student would give. The exam could be open or closed book/notes, depending on the complexity and amount of material covered during the course. The exam software would be in closed format, with a word limit imposed for those typing or a set number of blue book pages for those hand writing. The test would be one that every student could easily finish in the time allotted. This style of exam would also minimize problems that occur when a student's computer malfunctions- which has happened in several of my exams.
I am sure there are students who would argue that my suggestion is also an unfair exam style. We are in training to be lawyers, after all. And personally, I will defend the multiple choice exam format, though I can see the other side's point.
Part of this blog entry is just me venting some of the ideas and emotions I felt during the stress of exam season. But at the end of the day, all of the students at Florida State Law are in a pretty good position. The style of an exam is a petty thing to bicker about when millions of gallons of oil are beginning to hit the Gulf Coast. There are thousands if not millions of people who would trade places with the students at Florida State Law, who would instantly trade the pressures and stresses of their own lives for the pressure of doing well on school exams. If the format of a law school exam is all I have to complain about in my life, then I should not be complaining at all.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
This was my fourth time going through it. A person's reaction to stress varies in expression. I am no exception. Once classes ended this semester, I noticed a strange tickling twitch in my stomach almost every night when I laid down and tried to sleep. During one stretch when I had exams three days in a row, my sleep pattern got completely screwed up. I woke up in the morning at 3am and, unable to get back to sleep, decided to just go on to the library. I was there from 4:30 in the morning studying until my exam started at 8:30am.
In other students, I saw a need for physical comfort. Some guys and girls would suddenly become affectionate couples- if only for these three weeks. I remember a female friend of mine saying last year during exams, "I just need to be held." Another student would go off by herself and cry and then come back normal in time for the exam. Yet another good friend of mine had to seek professional help to get through this semester. He has other things going on in his life, though. I really hope he makes it through law school.
Why these rather extreme reactions? As I have explained before, exams mean more in law school than in undergraduate classes. In most law school classes, your exam grade IS your grade for the class. You receive no other feedback from the rest of the semester. There is a mandatory curve grading system in most classes: The top 5% receive As, the bottom 5% receive Ds and Fs, with the remaining percentages divided between Bs or Cs. We are all aware of what our individual class rank is. Job offers may appear or not based on how well you perform on your exams. Differences of many thousands of dollars in future pay ride on your grades on these exams.
It is a credit to the students of Florida State Law that we do not become cut-throat competitive over exams the way I have heard they do at other law schools. We frequently study in groups and share notes or outlines. I have yet to see a student slicing pages out of a library text as sometimes happens in other places.
While they are no fun, I would much rather deal with the pressure of three exams in a row than trying to complete two mail routes before 9pm in Washington, DC, as I had to do in times past. But that is an analogy unique to my life experience. . .
After two years of law school, I've taken a number of different styles of exams. Some are more fair than others, in my humble opinion. Professors work hard in crafting an exam that challenges students and covers the material taught in the course. The professors here are much smarter than me and have put many more hours into thinking about their exam than I have, but I do have some suggestions that may or may not be useful. While a "fair" exam will probably do nothing to relieve the stress students feel prior to taking an exam, it can help during the test itself and afterwards when we are replaying the questions and answers again and again in our heads.
My number one pet peeve is to encounter an exam that is a typing race. Some of my colleagues are amazingly fast typists, and almost everybody in law school types faster than me. About once per semester, it seems I get an exam designed so that you are not supposed to finish, and the person who can type the fastest and get the most information in a "word vomit" on paper wins and gets the best grade.
One friend who is a very fast typist heard me commenting about this after one exam. She came up to me in the library and asked me to show her how fast I could type. I went to a computer and gave her a demonstration. Her eyes got a little wide after watching me for a minute and she said quietly, "Yeah, that's pretty bad."
During a four hour marathon typing race exam, I managed to get out 8 typed pages, though I could have continued typing for another four hours. One of the highest grades in that class, on the other hand, was an exam of 18 typed pages.
A pet peeve of other students (though not me) is the multiple choice exam. I tend to do better on multiple choice exams, but many students complain about these. When a client comes off the street and presents you with their problems, the students say, you are not going to have multiple choices magically appear before you to select the correct advice to give the client. Some professors in the law school will not give multiple choice exams for this reason, though much of the Florida Bar Exam is in multiple choice format.
The exam software can throw off the fairness of the exam. "Exam 4" is the software we use, and it allows for the professor to have the exam administered in "open" or "closed" format. The closed format shuts down access to any files on your laptop while you take the exam, but open format allows access to these files. Open format gives a great advantage to the students who type and save their notes on their laptop during the semester. They can use the Control F key to locate specific terms instantly in notes that may span well over a hundred pages. A person who hand writes, obviously, does not have this ability. When an exam is open book/note but closed mode on the "Exam 4" software, students who have typed their outlines or notes simply print them off prior to the exam, which levels the playing field with those who hand write. Some professors are unfamiliar with the differences between open and closed mode on "Exam 4."
The most fair exams, in my opinion, are those which present fact patterns like you would receive as a lawyer practicing in the particular subject being tested. The student would then write an essay, identifying the issues and explaining the legal advice that student would give. The exam could be open or closed book/notes, depending on the complexity and amount of material covered during the course. The exam software would be in closed format, with a word limit imposed for those typing or a set number of blue book pages for those hand writing. The test would be one that every student could easily finish in the time allotted. This style of exam would also minimize problems that occur when a student's computer malfunctions- which has happened in several of my exams.
I am sure there are students who would argue that my suggestion is also an unfair exam style. We are in training to be lawyers, after all. And personally, I will defend the multiple choice exam format, though I can see the other side's point.
Part of this blog entry is just me venting some of the ideas and emotions I felt during the stress of exam season. But at the end of the day, all of the students at Florida State Law are in a pretty good position. The style of an exam is a petty thing to bicker about when millions of gallons of oil are beginning to hit the Gulf Coast. There are thousands if not millions of people who would trade places with the students at Florida State Law, who would instantly trade the pressures and stresses of their own lives for the pressure of doing well on school exams. If the format of a law school exam is all I have to complain about in my life, then I should not be complaining at all.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Done with the 2nd Round of Exams
All right,
I just finished my last exam of my 1st year of law school. It feels pretty good, but not quite the relief that I expected. I think when I know my grades, maybe then I'll actually feel like the first year is behind me.
A lot has happened since I last wrote. Most importantly, I landed a job this summer with Parks & Crump, one of the most successful personal injury firms in Florida. One of the partners told me that my clerkship will be "baptism by fire," but I am looking forward to seeing how a law office works and learning from some very successful trial attorneys.
That job will start in mid-June, but I was also hired as a mentor for the Summer for Undergraduates program at the law school. 60 very bright undergraduates from universities all across Florida, the country and the world will come to the law school in a couple of weeks to see if law school and perhaps FSU College of Law is the direction they wish to head in life. My job for one month will be to give them advice and help them with the program. I will show them around Tallahassee and FSU. The students will get to see the Florida Supreme Court in action, and we will meet various attorneys from the area.
There is a lot more information that I will post in the coming days. Right now, I intend to get something to eat, and then head over to Potbelly's (the club across from the law school) where many of my colleagues are already celebrating.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
I just finished my last exam of my 1st year of law school. It feels pretty good, but not quite the relief that I expected. I think when I know my grades, maybe then I'll actually feel like the first year is behind me.
A lot has happened since I last wrote. Most importantly, I landed a job this summer with Parks & Crump, one of the most successful personal injury firms in Florida. One of the partners told me that my clerkship will be "baptism by fire," but I am looking forward to seeing how a law office works and learning from some very successful trial attorneys.
That job will start in mid-June, but I was also hired as a mentor for the Summer for Undergraduates program at the law school. 60 very bright undergraduates from universities all across Florida, the country and the world will come to the law school in a couple of weeks to see if law school and perhaps FSU College of Law is the direction they wish to head in life. My job for one month will be to give them advice and help them with the program. I will show them around Tallahassee and FSU. The students will get to see the Florida Supreme Court in action, and we will meet various attorneys from the area.
There is a lot more information that I will post in the coming days. Right now, I intend to get something to eat, and then head over to Potbelly's (the club across from the law school) where many of my colleagues are already celebrating.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Exam Season Again
There is one month left of classes, and then exams. I noticed that the mood of many of my colleagues became more intense this week. I started meeting with a study group this week as well.
So, the blogs are going to be skimpy for a while.
Even now, I need to get back to a brief that I'm writing for my Legal Writing and Research class. I want it to be good because in addition to this project being the majority of my grade for the class, I will use it during the Moot Court tryouts and as my "writing sample" for job interviews in the future.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
So, the blogs are going to be skimpy for a while.
Even now, I need to get back to a brief that I'm writing for my Legal Writing and Research class. I want it to be good because in addition to this project being the majority of my grade for the class, I will use it during the Moot Court tryouts and as my "writing sample" for job interviews in the future.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Exam Advice from the Professors
I thought I would use this entry to pass along some exam advice that my class received from a couple of professors...
One instructor told us before the exam to relax, that the exam we were about to take was worth just three hours of credit. We need 88 hours of credit to graduate from law school. In the scheme of things, one exam is not going to greatly impact our lives. We've studied and prepared, he said, but there will be exams where we don't perform as well as we should, and other exams where we get a better grade than we deserved. Our results should even out over the course of three years. There was nothing we were going to do over the next three hours of the exam that would greatly impact our legal career, he said. "Nothing, that is, unless you cheat."
Another professor echoed this advice when she said, at some point over our law school careers, we will probably have to take an exam when we are sick.
I thought both of these were good efforts on the part of the instructors to try and keep things in perspective as the class readied itself for the tests.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
One instructor told us before the exam to relax, that the exam we were about to take was worth just three hours of credit. We need 88 hours of credit to graduate from law school. In the scheme of things, one exam is not going to greatly impact our lives. We've studied and prepared, he said, but there will be exams where we don't perform as well as we should, and other exams where we get a better grade than we deserved. Our results should even out over the course of three years. There was nothing we were going to do over the next three hours of the exam that would greatly impact our legal career, he said. "Nothing, that is, unless you cheat."
Another professor echoed this advice when she said, at some point over our law school careers, we will probably have to take an exam when we are sick.
I thought both of these were good efforts on the part of the instructors to try and keep things in perspective as the class readied itself for the tests.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Thursday, January 1, 2009
My Changing World
All of my grades from my first semester of law school have now posted. I feel pretty good about them. Given how hard I worked, I would have liked to score higher. I think, however, that my grades establish me as a solid student. In an earlier blog, I wondered if my exam performance would put me at the top of my class, or if I would have to continue to work as hard as I can just to remain average. Based on the first semester, the answer is closer to the latter.
My world is changing yet again. Now that I know a career in law is for me and that I am on my way at a solid school, I feel the need to be more careful. All of a sudden, I have more to lose. FSU College of Law is presenting me with a great opportunity to become successful, and I don't want to blow it. I find myself becoming more reserved and thoughtful in social settings... more careful with the image I am trying to present to others. Hopefully, this does not mean I am becoming pretentious or cliquish. But I feel my value system changing.
This time last year, I was in graduate school at Western Carolina University. Last year was probably the happiest of my life. I had the chance to go back to my alma mater and live life like I wish I had done when I was there as an undergraduate. It was a great year and I had a fantastic time with a lot of new people. But I also knew it was temporary. I couldn't stay in that world for long, cushioned from the responsibilities and pressures of the "real" world.
Law school, on the other hand, is a more serious and competitive environment for me. It is a long term game and more like a job than studying at WCU could ever be. Still, law school is a job that I enjoy. Since I have to choose a path that will enable me and my family to survive and thrive in the "real" world for years to come, a career in the law is at the top of the list. FSU College of Law is showing me that I chose correctly and that I belong here.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
My world is changing yet again. Now that I know a career in law is for me and that I am on my way at a solid school, I feel the need to be more careful. All of a sudden, I have more to lose. FSU College of Law is presenting me with a great opportunity to become successful, and I don't want to blow it. I find myself becoming more reserved and thoughtful in social settings... more careful with the image I am trying to present to others. Hopefully, this does not mean I am becoming pretentious or cliquish. But I feel my value system changing.
This time last year, I was in graduate school at Western Carolina University. Last year was probably the happiest of my life. I had the chance to go back to my alma mater and live life like I wish I had done when I was there as an undergraduate. It was a great year and I had a fantastic time with a lot of new people. But I also knew it was temporary. I couldn't stay in that world for long, cushioned from the responsibilities and pressures of the "real" world.
Law school, on the other hand, is a more serious and competitive environment for me. It is a long term game and more like a job than studying at WCU could ever be. Still, law school is a job that I enjoy. Since I have to choose a path that will enable me and my family to survive and thrive in the "real" world for years to come, a career in the law is at the top of the list. FSU College of Law is showing me that I chose correctly and that I belong here.
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
Monday, December 22, 2008
Now We're Talking!
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
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
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
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
Friday, November 7, 2008
Now Entering the Zombie Zone
My blogs are going to be sparse for the next month or so. It is exam season. The grade for every one of my classes except legal writing is based entirely on the final exam. We as students are graded on a curve system. About 50% of the class has to score a "C." At the most, I think 5% can score an "A." A certain percentage of the class has to be awarded a "D" as well. While professors are not required to fail anyone, if you get a "D" in all of your classes you will eventually be kicked out of school. The students here come from Duke, Stanford, Davidson, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Dartmouth, etc. One lady who sits close to me in class has a master's degree from the London School of Economics.
So here we go.
The 2L I spoke with and wrote about in an earlier blog was right. People have stopped speaking to each other much, and we sort of look like zombies here in the library. I find myself walking past people I know without speaking. It's not that we're being rude, it's just that we have a lot on our minds. I'll be thinking about some concept of contract law rather than paying attention to faces.
Before I sign off, I will tell one story:
One of my professors was trying to help us relax.
"The first grade I got in law school was the lowest one I ever got," she said. "I was miserable. I thought I was terrible at law school, that I was worthless and that my life was over."
One of the students behind me said quietly, "It was a 'B,' wasn't it?"
The class laughed. But the professor blushed and froze for a second. The class's laughter turned into astonishment.
"Oh my gosh!" One student exclaimed. "You mean you got 'As' for the rest of your time in law school?"
"Well," the professor said, "Would you rather have someone up here who didn't make those kind of grades?"
"Yes!" another student said. "We need someone we can relate to."
"Okay," the professor replied. "Which one of you wants to teach the class today, just so you all can relate?"
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
So here we go.
The 2L I spoke with and wrote about in an earlier blog was right. People have stopped speaking to each other much, and we sort of look like zombies here in the library. I find myself walking past people I know without speaking. It's not that we're being rude, it's just that we have a lot on our minds. I'll be thinking about some concept of contract law rather than paying attention to faces.
Before I sign off, I will tell one story:
One of my professors was trying to help us relax.
"The first grade I got in law school was the lowest one I ever got," she said. "I was miserable. I thought I was terrible at law school, that I was worthless and that my life was over."
One of the students behind me said quietly, "It was a 'B,' wasn't it?"
The class laughed. But the professor blushed and froze for a second. The class's laughter turned into astonishment.
"Oh my gosh!" One student exclaimed. "You mean you got 'As' for the rest of your time in law school?"
"Well," the professor said, "Would you rather have someone up here who didn't make those kind of grades?"
"Yes!" another student said. "We need someone we can relate to."
"Okay," the professor replied. "Which one of you wants to teach the class today, just so you all can relate?"
Until Next Time,
Nathan Marshburn
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