27 replies to this topic

[CalgaryHopeful]

Despite my best efforts, I think I've failed every one of my exams.

Missed issues here and there...

Literally, on every single one of my exams...

Why? oh Why? oh Why?

I thought I held it together...

I thought I was ahead...

I thought I could do well...

Why? oh Why? oh Why?

...

Hopelessness...

Absolute destruction of confidence...

Totally blinded as to the future...

Complete entrapment of the replays of my failures and grind that were the past few weeks...

Dissatisfaction from the start to finish of my 1L...

- CalgaryHopeful

ps: Is this the end?

[BradLaw]

Isn't it relative to the performance of the rest of the class though? What if everyone missed issues here and there?

[john grisham]

In one section of my 1L crim exam I went into a lengthy discussion about the accused's lack of mens rea - the problem was that it was an absolute liability offence. I still honestly don't know how I made such a stupid mistake. I put myself through hell for a couple weeks over that and then got my grade - it was a B. I've never been so happy to see a B in all my life.

Try not to put yourself through too much torture right now. You never know. The curve can be a great thing.

[ubcslogger]

It's normal to miss an issue here or there, even a BIG issue. I remember stressing about some issues I missed in Constitutional Law and I got one of the top marks in the class. I did the same thing with another course thinking I literally failed (seriously--nobody could convince me otherwise) and got a solid B that was still above the average. Missing issues and realizing it only after the exam is a regular occurrence for all grade ranges and students, IMO. Try to relax until grades come out; it's really hard to predict how you did on an exam, from my experience.

[Pamplemousse]

giggle-- calgary hopeful has 69 posts.

[Carter86]

giggle-- calgary hopeful has 69 posts.

I'm ashamed to have laughed pretty hard over this. I am more than a little immature for law school!

[Pamplemousse]

I was a little ashamed to have posted it; but, I'm a little immature... Aren't we all from time to time though?

[UpAboveIt715]

giggle-- calgary hopeful has 69 posts.

I'm ashamed to have laughed pretty hard over this. I am more than a little immature for law school!

I was worried that I would be the only immature one. I hope you go to Ottawa so we can be bff.

[Diplock]

Okay, I laughed too. Some things you never get past.

Calgary, review this discussion, it pretty much summarizes what you need to hear about this feeling coming out of exams, which is perfectly common:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=22875&start=0

Beyond that, my advice is as follows:

1. Stop talking to other students after exams. You'll find a lot of people won't talk about them. It's a very good tactic for those inclined towards panic.

2. Independent of all else, find some way to destress and calm down over the summer. There's nothing unusual about your concern, but the way you're expressing it makes me half inclined to put you on suicide watch. It's probably just melodramatic tendencies on your part, but it really sounds like you need some perspective.

As discussed in that other thread, wait for your grades to come out, and deal with whatever comes then.

[lawstudent1818]

First of all, it's almost certain you didn't fail, and you probably did better than you think. As others have mentioned, it's normal to miss some issues, even for people with very high marks. No one writes a perfect exam, and it's very easy to feel that you did poorly if you dwell on all the things you didn't address properly. Chances are there are many issues you did analyze well, some of which your classmates might not have spotted. The curve makes it extremely difficult to predict how you did on any given law school exam, especially in 1L when you don't really know how you stack up against everyone else yet. I had one exam where I misread a question, wasted a ton of time talking about something irrelevant, then barely had time to write what I didn't even think was a coherent answer. I felt literally sick after the exam, I was so sure I had done horribly, and I ended up with an A range grade because apparently the question was very tough for everyone.

If your feeling that you missed a lot of issues comes from talking to others about the exams you need to keep in mind that you might have taken a different approach to answering a question than they did. Just because they talked about X does not mean that by not talking about it your exam is necessarily worse, because maybe you wrote something they didn't, and maybe X is not even the most relevant issue. I have good marks and I still find that talking to people after an exam is almost never reassuring, and often it's discouraging, as inevitably they will have taken at least a somewhat different approach than I did, and it will make me question what I wrote. Also, there are some people in law school that are really quick to tell anyone who will listen how easy they found every exam. Don't let this kind of attitude rattle you, as these people are almost inevitably far less amazing than they would have you believe.

Even if you didn't do great on your exams by no means does it have to be the end of your law school/law career. You can learn from the mistakes you made on 1L and pull your marks up next year, and you can do other things to improve your resume to help with jobs. I know people who didn't do great in 1L but still have gotten good jobs, cool internships, or other opportunities for 2L summer and beyond. Things can absolutely still work out well for you even if you didn't do as well as you hoped on your exams so try not to stress too much about it right now (easier said than done of course).

[downinit]

Diplock's second point pretty much sums it up, except I'd probably forego suicide watch and just give you a good smacking.

Is your version of reality really so skewed that you think 'missing issues here and there' is grounds for failure? I've 'missed issues here and there' on every single exam I've written, and some of them have garnered As, so you'll have to forgive me right now as I ask you to cry me a fucking river.

[CalgaryHopeful]

Thanks for the solid advice some of you. I'm not at all contemplating suicide. Nevertheless, some of the issues I've missed were pretty major. And true, talking to other students did not help my situation.

Thanks...

- Calgaryhopeful

My number of posts is now at 70... just to make that clear

[Adrian]

In my first year property exam one of the very first things that had to be discussed in the long fact pattern was whether the property was held jointly or as a tenancy in common. While the parties said joint tenancy, the facts made it a tenancy in common (that was the test, if you remembered that this is a fact driven situation as opposed to a formal one). A lot of people left the exam and discussed it, only to be crushed to find out that the right answer was a tenancy in common, mainly because that answer changed many different parts to the question. Many of those people did just fine to very well.

In a three hour exam it is impossible to hit upon every issue that is relevant, and often things that are obscure when writing the exam become obvious once you have time for sober second thought (which invariably starts once the exam is finished). Everyone has this problem, and therefore, since the marking is relative, then your exams may not look very bad, hell they may look great, in comparison to others. The only time you'll know is once you get your exams back, but its not fruitful to feel that you failed them, but better to just feel good about being marked on a curve, move on, and start enjoying the summer (because summer after 1L is the sweetest).

[almostnot]

Barely anyone fails one course, let alone all their courses in first year. Failing every single one of your classes would make you a pretty rare species.

[Adrian]

On other other hand almostnot getting straight Cs or mainly Cs with some low Bs may not be technically failing but it is cause for some concern. I'm not saying this is what Calgary is looking at, there is no way to know how they did, but if this is how first year shapes up you have to face the reality that your second year should be spent bumping up your academics.

[liveitout]

1. Stop talking to other students after exams. You'll find a lot of people won't talk about them. It's a very good tactic for those inclined towards panic.

THIS THIS THIS! After my property midterm, I felt pretty confident, but then I made the mistake of talking to another student and I realized that I misinterpreted some part of the description of the property. I was really disappointed because I had thought I nailed it. But once I got my mark back, I found out that I did nail it, relatively speaking. I got one of the highest marks in the class. So I worried about it for no reason. Definitely not worth it! Unless you're the kind person who enjoys the drama of having a melt-down over suspected failure. You don't want to be that kind of person!

[Mal]

Law school exams make you feel terrible.

I felt like I bombed a couple (contracts, criminal went really poorly ). And did mediocre on the rest. Oh well, I didn't need a job :/.

[km662]

hahah property today just destroyed my life you are not alone

[Pyke]

Law school exams make you feel terrible.

I felt like I bombed a couple (contracts, criminal went really poorly ). And did mediocre on the rest. Oh well, I didn't need a job :/.

I'm sure it's not as bad as that Mal.

[schroed]

The curve can be a wonderful thing. If it makes you feel any better, I wrote a final (I'm only a Criminology undergrad) for crim evidence and procedure last Sunday. I felt I was well prepared. Unfortunately, it was a 3hr exam crammed into two hours, and I wasn't even able to complete one of the fact patterns, and missed easy points for pointing out key issues in another, because I was so rushed. In short, I bombed the exam and It was worth 80%; I have never had a class in Criminology that graded on a curve either. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as others have said, you're most likely in the same boat as a number of other people...I bet you'll come out with better grades than you anticipate.

[foozeball]

I'm only a Criminology undergrad

No

[HoFChaos]

I'm only a Criminology undergrad

No

A dig at criminology undergrads? If so, I laughed

[Mal]

I'm only a Criminology undergrad

No

A dig at criminology undergrads? If so, I laughed

It is a dig at undergrads. Every law student thought it.

[Pyke]

A dig at criminology undergrads? If so, I laughed

It is a dig at undergrads. Every law student thought it.

Meh. I'm a 2L, and some of my UG exams were more challenging to do well on then my legal ones. It's true that the law ones are much more intense and you go for the full time period, all the time... but if you attend a faculty with a C+ curve, I swear getting a B+ or A- on some of those exams seemed harder then it does to get B+s on the law exams....but then again, given I study 5x as much; maybe it's a terrible comparison since I might have gotten the A+'s if I'd studied the amount I do now...

[mysterioust]

I'm only a Criminology undergrad

No

this was funny.

[endroit]

Hey, I'm just realizing that it's been over a month since the OP made his first post on this subject. I'm wondering how this all ended.

CalgaryHopeful, have you gotten your marks yet? Was your fear of failure unfounded, or acutally true? Did all our encouragement on this board help you at all?

[CalgaryHopeful]

Dear all,

Did worse in subjects I was confident in; Did better in subjects I thought I failed.

In total, 5 B-s and 2 C-s.

[Tenrick]

Well you didn't fail so that's good.