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Best and Worst of 1L

As the 2009-2010 school year gets underway around the country, several other blogs have written about the topic "Best and Worst of 1L." Basically, just share your best memory and your worst memory of your 1L year- for all of you out there who have made it through the 1L battle please chime in!

Worst 1L Memory.
Despite how much I have complained on this blog during law school about arbitrary grading and grades in general, I made it a point never to talk specifically about what kinds of grades I got in any particular class. I've always had a rule against it, I just don't think grades are anyone else's business and I don't like it when people talk about their specific grades. But my worst memory of 1st year revolves around a grade, so I'm going to have to break that rule.

The very first law school exam I took was a mid-term in Torts. I thought I understood torts, I liked the subject matter liked the professor and studied my ass off for the exam. I felt totally prepared walking into the exam and I walked out feeling like I was at least somewhat competent. I found out a week later that I got a D on the exam. I had never gotten a grade that low in my life. It was by far the biggest blow I think I suffered in law school. I was kind of a slacker in undergrad, I did papers at the last minute, never did my reading for class, and didn't put 100% effort into any of my science classes and yet I got by with grades that were still above average most of the time. At my worst my non studying would usually leave me with a C. I knew law school was different and I knew law school was hard so I put 110% effort into getting ready for that exam because I was terrified of it. I was devastated when I found out that after all that work I managed to get the lowest grade of my life. I literally cried for at least an entire day and then contemplated dropping out of law school without finishing the first semester for at least the next week.

I was absolutely terrified going into my first round of finals thanks to that grade because I was convinced that all of my grades were going to be that bad and that I was going to flunk out. In the end I ended up with a not so great, but not an abysmal grade in Torts and respectable grades in my other first semester classes and everything else after that turned out just fine. So moral of the story is, don't let one bad exam, bad day in class, bad grade, or even bad semester get you down. Ironically enough my highest grade that first semester was in the class I studied the least for, hence why I returned to my undergrad ways of procrastination and minimal preparation for the remainder of law school. Not sure it helped my overall GPA, but it definitely saved my sanity.

Best 1L Memory
Best day of 1L hands down was the day that I found out that I was accepted onto the international law journal. I got that news about a week after finding out about my bad grade on the Torts midterm and was worried that I wouldn't be on the journal long, but I was nonetheless over the moon that I had passed both sections of the write on. It was the first time I felt like I had a place where I belonged within the law school and it turned out to be one of the best things that I got to do while I was in law school. I was truly lucky to have been able to work with the group of people who were on that journal and I definitely made some long time friends in the process. That being said, the actual journal work itself wasn't glamorous or even always fun, but if I had to do law school all over again that is definitely one thing I wouldn't change on the second go around.

Full post as published by [ Useless Dicta ] on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).