STRAIGHT Bs to STRAIGHT As??? Forum

[ontopoftheworld]

I tried my best like anyone would say.
But I was different- I read all the blogs, all the posts, all the advices out there.
I allocated my time to exactly all that they have said albeit my lack of proper study habits caused some burnt out
But I know what most will say: dont brief, read e&e, practice tests, etc.
I had that knowledge and did that (mostly).

Whereas others just case briefed throughout and still got As. Idk what they did in their own time, but what exactly can I do to really get those As?
I can definitely procrastinate less. But is that it?
How do I go from 60% class rank to Top 20%?

Anyone got their median/below average rank to a TOP 10-20% rank in their overall gpa after their 1L year?
Advice from those people please!

I will continue to read supplements, practice exams, spend little time on cases, and make outlines in the beginning.
Other than that, I have nothing.
Please help, I desperately want to transfer.

[BrazilBandit]

I'm in your same situation (Straight Bs) so I am not sure it works, but I think the most important thing now is to talk to professors about what we did wrong. We did everything we could do to understand the material (I feel like I did, and really understood the material) but we "failed" at mastering the art of writing a great law school exam, which is different from knowing the law...

[clshopeful]

Some people will just be better writers than you and explain their thinking better, and some people are going to just be better issue spotters. Others in the top percentage of the class probably have really strong judgment and know which issues to allocate more time to, and probably talk about policy considerations when appropriate.

I am in the top 5% at my school, and I think a big reason is because 1.) I'm a strong writer, and 2.) I'm good at spotting issues and seeing issues from both the perspective of the plaintiff and of the defendant, so I usually give argument for/and against any issue, followed up by what I think will happen

Law school can be hard because some people will just be better at the exams. On a multiple choice test, everyone is sort-of on an equal playing field. With an open ended essay response in law school, those who can write well and talk about all the issues will score higher

[Glasseyes]

I can't tell you what to do to transform your grades, but I think the issue is in thinking that there's a single right way to approach law school. Different approaches work for different people, and what works for one class may not work at all for another class. I've honestly barely used E&E's; I find the approach tedious and the material is often either irrelevant or rudimentary. Meanwhile, I really like having access to a stripped down treatise style supplement (such as the Lexis Understanding books for Property and Criminal Procedure, both of which are absolutely stellar). But to the OP: I would step back and ask yourself if doing the exact same things you did last semester is really going to make any difference. Maybe it will: maybe you just need to procrastinate less and you'll be fine. But I would try to figure out specifically what went wrong and at least adjust that part of your approach.

For me, I find that my grades are wholly dependent upon two things: (1) depth of preparation in the days immediately preceding the exam, and (2) exam-day performance itself (time-management, organization, quality of analysis and writing, etc.). The first part is where I actually figure out what the class is about, by applying my collected notes/outline to as many practice exams as I can; the second part inevitably gets easier the more prep work I've done in those preceding days, but a simple mistake can be the difference between a half grade. I usually know how I did when I walk out of the exam, and my predictions have all been pretty accurate (besides LRW, but fuck LRW).

The simple truth is that they don't grade us on preparation, or our ability to master material from an E&E, or in-class cold-call performance (at least not usually), or anything at all besides exam performance. So my best advice is to figure out how to write a better exam, simple as that. If you get a feedback memo, study that thing carefully and analyze exactly what you did, then figure out what you could do better next time. Ask yourself if you had any issues with timing on exam day. Was there an issue of organization within the answer itself? Maybe the analysis didn't go deep enough? Maybe you just didn't figure out what your professors were specifically looking for (I can tell you with absolute certainty that every professor has a different ideal exam, and figuring out what it is is hugely beneficial). Anyway, it's impossible to offer specific advice that will really help, but definitely take a look at Brut's "tls below median" series, which discusses a lot of these issues and more. Good luck out there.

[ontopoftheworld]

Turns out, my essays were decent. I couldve racked up points more definitely but it wasn't bad enough to get bad grade.
In fact, B's aren't "BAD" but straight Bs will be bad.
I got MEDIAN PWNED and more. 60%..because I was 0.1 below 2.9 median.

THE MULTIPLE CHOICE KILLED ME.
and I DID do Q&A books and all.
WOW. I have lost hope.

[ontopoftheworld]

I can't tell you what to do to transform your grades, but I think the issue is in thinking that there's a single right way to approach law school. Different approaches work for different people, and what works for one class may not work at all for another class. I've honestly barely used E&E's; I find the approach tedious and the material is often either irrelevant or rudimentary. Meanwhile, I really like having access to a stripped down treatise style supplement (such as the Lexis Understanding books for Property and Criminal Procedure, both of which are absolutely stellar). But to the OP: I would step back and ask yourself if doing the exact same things you did last semester is really going to make any difference. Maybe it will: maybe you just need to procrastinate less and you'll be fine. But I would try to figure out specifically what went wrong and at least adjust that part of your approach.

For me, I find that my grades are wholly dependent upon two things: (1) depth of preparation in the days immediately preceding the exam, and (2) exam-day performance itself (time-management, organization, quality of analysis and writing, etc.). The first part is where I actually figure out what the class is about, by applying my collected notes/outline to as many practice exams as I can; the second part inevitably gets easier the more prep work I've done in those preceding days, but a simple mistake can be the difference between a half grade. I usually know how I did when I walk out of the exam, and my predictions have all been pretty accurate (besides LRW, but fuck LRW).

The simple truth is that they don't grade us on preparation, or our ability to master material from an E&E, or in-class cold-call performance (at least not usually), or anything at all besides exam performance. So my best advice is to figure out how to write a better exam, simple as that. If you get a feedback memo, study that thing carefully and analyze exactly what you did, then figure out what you could do better next time. Ask yourself if you had any issues with timing on exam day. Was there an issue of organization within the answer itself? Maybe the analysis didn't go deep enough? Maybe you just didn't figure out what your professors were specifically looking for (I can tell you with absolute certainty that every professor has a different ideal exam, and figuring out what it is is hugely beneficial). Anyway, it's impossible to offer specific advice that will really help, but definitely take a look at Brut's "tls below median" series, which discusses a lot of these issues and more. Good luck out there.

Thanks for the in-depth reply. Truly appreciate it.
I think what screwed me over in a sense is that idea of how the exam is THE ONLY thing that mattered, thus allowing me to goof off during the semester thinking that I didn't have to try so hard. I definitely tried hard for exam- reading period- leading up to the exam. But overall, I would say that I didn't spend every hour during the semester focused in my readings. In fact, I am not sure if that still matters. So I need a more guided way to approach the semester. I dont want to do more work than necessary and I dont want to be unprepared. It's hard because people write about how the exam is everything and I dont have to case brief and all, but what then do you do during the first half of the semester?

[Glasseyes]

Thanks for the in-depth reply. Truly appreciate it.
I think what screwed me over in a sense is that idea of how the exam is THE ONLY thing that mattered, thus allowing me to goof off during the semester thinking that I didn't have to try so hard. I definitely tried hard for exam- reading period- leading up to the exam. But overall, I would say that I didn't spend every hour during the semester focused in my readings. In fact, I am not sure if that still matters. So I need a more guided way to approach the semester. I dont want to do more work than necessary and I dont want to be unprepared. It's hard because people write about how the exam is everything and I dont have to case brief and all, but what then do you do during the first half of the semester?

It's hard to say. To brief or not is a personal choice; personally, I got much more out of the readings when I did take the time to brief, but by second semester my course load was such that I never would have had time to finish the readings and brief every case (we jumped from 14 creds in the fall to 17 in spring). I know a ton of people that still brief every case even as upperclassmen. I don't, but I do try to take detailed notes of every reading assignment. I like to treat each class and homework session as if you're building something for the end of the semester; it means trying to see the larger context of where an individual topic fits into the whole of the class. The other way to look at it is that you're building a rough draft of your outline class by class, reading by reading. Briefing can be a part of that in the sense that it's definitely good to document the main proposition that each case stands for and save that in your notes for later use during outlining.

Again, every class/professor/exam is different, and every law student finds different tactics work for him or her, so just try to evolve your methods until you find what works, and be flexible to accommodate different professors. There's no one trick that will solve law school for you, and there's no way of getting around the fact that law school is an utterly obscene amount of work. Even if it doesn't have to be as much work as it is (and it doesn't), the fact that you're competing on a curve means that you do have to work really damn hard to have any shot at outperforming your peers.

[inter-associate]

Some people will just be better writers than you and explain their thinking better, and some people are going to just be better issue spotters. Others in the top percentage of the class probably have really strong judgment and know which issues to allocate more time to, and probably talk about policy considerations when appropriate.

I am in the top 5% at my school, and I think a big reason is because 1.) I'm a strong writer, and 2.) I'm good at spotting issues and seeing issues from both the perspective of the plaintiff and of the defendant, so I usually give argument for/and against any issue, followed up by what I think will happen

Law school can be hard because some people will just be better at the exams. On a multiple choice test, everyone is sort-of on an equal playing field. With an open ended essay response in law school, those who can write well and talk about all the issues will score higher

This is probably an underappreciated post that every law student considering going to a school with the express purpose of transferring should read. The reality is that almost every law school exam plays to the same set of strengths, so a small handful of students tend to do really well on every exam while most students have occasional good exams that get negated by occasional bad exams. In my experience this was true for both multiple choice and essay exams and it also explains why transfer students generally do well even in much higher ranked schools. For this reason, you should probably began preparing yourself for the reality that you will remain at the same school for three years with average grades. The sooner you begin preparing to succeed in your current situation the better off you will be in three years.

The caveat to this is that some students have the strengths needed to perform well on exams but it takes them a little longer to figure out how to use them. You may be one of those students, so you should review every exam from last semester and ask your professor to explain where you could have gotten more points. Some professors will even show you better answers from other students. What you will likely notice is that the highest scorers tend to have very concise answers that clearly lay out an issue, the applicable rule, an analysis from both sides and a conclusion. This can almost always be accomplished in just 3-4 short sentences. If there is an issue within the issue it should be a separate analysis following the same format in a separate paragraph. Note that this result on any given issue can be achieved by most students with practice, but it is useless without the ability to instantly spot issues and recall the relevant rules and then effortlessly translate those into concise responses (hence the same students doing well on multiple choice as on essay exams). The ability to execute quickly, concisely and accurately is the key to maximizing points on exams and it is not a skill that is easy to develop.

[CountingBlue]

Turns out, my essays were decent. I couldve racked up points more definitely but it wasn't bad enough to get bad grade.
In fact, B's aren't "BAD" but straight Bs will be bad.
I got MEDIAN PWNED and more. 60%..because I was 0.1 below 2.9 median.

THE MULTIPLE CHOICE KILLED ME.
and I DID do Q&A books and all.
WOW. I have lost hope.

How did you approach the multiple choice when you read them during the exam?

[Bildungsroman]

Is English not your first language? That could explain why other people got better grades than you even though they seemed to work less. Another potential explanation is that your natural aptitude for law school is lower than your peers'. Either way it's possible there is nothing you can do to become a straight-A student.

Also, if your school's median is a 2.9, how many people get straight As in the first place? You should lower your expectations. Going from below median to top of the class is not reasonable. Consider quitting.

[twenty]

Please help, I desperately want to transfer.

Drop out. You can retake the LSAT in June. Work for a year in the meantime.

[andythefir]

I was bottom 10% fall of 1L (including a discretionarily low grade) and graduated top 10-15%. It happens, but often when it's really too late for it to matter. Realistically this next semester will be the last one that could maybe track you onto the better firms/clerkships.

As far as specifics go, law school gives you virtually no reps at actually applying the law. Therefore, to do comparatively better on exams, take every single opportunity you have to practice. CALI, Lexis Q&A, E&E, old exams with model answers. Take every single opportunity you can get your hands on, and practice applying the law.

[sflyr2016]

I know ppl who made that jump in their second semester. So it is possible. Plus it sounds like you are doing the right stuff to learn what you need during the exam, but maybe you haven't practiced how to write an exam enough. In my opinion, what separates exams more than anything else is organization. The better one can organize their exam, the easier it makes it for the professor to grade. After my first semester, I bought LEEWS to help me learn how to organize my essay exams. I also sat down with a friend who Aced every substantive course during our first semester to compare my exams to his. What I found was that substantively our exams weren't all that different. The only real difference was that he organized his answers much better than I did, which in turn made it really easy for the prof to grade his paper. Since then I've just tried to apply the LEEWS approach and combine it with some of the organizational techniques my friend taught me in my exams -- basically, making sure to outline, using headings, analyzing each issue on its own and discussing no more than one issue per paragraph, etc. Doing so really helped me improve my grades and get into the top 5 or so %.

[ontopoftheworld]

This was my second post here on TLS and I forgot about all the trolls that come here when theyre bored.
Or maybe you guys are bottom 30% looking to see same type of advice.
First language? doesnt matter at all.
Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.
Average hurts but it doesn't mean anything if I weren't so set on transferring.

Thanks yall I will get that 4.0
It will make me be Top 11%.


I definitely need to apply more and write it out.
I did it all in my head and during exams, jumbled and barfed out things. Completely unorganized.
Turns out, A grade and B differs by 2-5 points.

[ontopoftheworld]

I was bottom 10% fall of 1L (including a discretionarily low grade) and graduated top 10-15%. It happens, but often when it's really too late for it to matter. Realistically this next semester will be the last one that could maybe track you onto the better firms/clerkships.

As far as specifics go, law school gives you virtually no reps at actually applying the law. Therefore, to do comparatively better on exams, take every single opportunity you have to practice. CALI, Lexis Q&A, E&E, old exams with model answers. Take every single opportunity you can get your hands on, and practice applying the law.

I dont think you get my point- I dont care about graduating top. I need to transfer. For all I care, I can graduate as average but if I cant transfer then that defeats the purpose of my concerns. I need you to tell me that you became top 10% after spring semester of 1L!

[twenty]

No one on this thread is "trolling" let alone giving you bad advice.

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Yes it does, anything that slows down your ability to type really quickly on a law exam is going to hold you back. Northwestern Law even has a policy in place granting extra exam time to non-native speakers.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Since you're below median, you are literally not better off than most of your peers. If you are absolutely set on attending a different law school, don't make the mistake of finishing out 1L and then being forced to transfer (but being unable because of your grades) - drop out now so that you can start 1L again somewhere else.

[xael]

No one on this thread is "trolling" let alone giving you bad advice.

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Yes it does, anything that slows down your ability to type really quickly on a law exam is going to hold you back. Northwestern Law even has a policy in place granting extra exam time to non-native speakers.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Since you're below median, you are literally not better off than most of your peers. If you are absolutely set on attending a different law school, don't make the mistake of finishing out 1L and then being forced to transfer (but being unable because of your grades) - drop out now so that you can start 1L again somewhere else.

op could always blue lotus it and just repeat the year four times till he/she is top 1%.

[ontopoftheworld]

No one on this thread is "trolling" let alone giving you bad advice.

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Yes it does, anything that slows down your ability to type really quickly on a law exam is going to hold you back. Northwestern Law even has a policy in place granting extra exam time to non-native speakers.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Since you're below median, you are literally not better off than most of your peers. If you are absolutely set on attending a different law school, don't make the mistake of finishing out 1L and then being forced to transfer (but being unable because of your grades) - drop out now so that you can start 1L again somewhere else.

1. English is my native language.
2. Technically I am 50.8% which is not considered Top 50% but Top 60%. I am better than 50% of the students. Do the math right, haha.
And no, I'd rather not spend my years doing LSAT when I can make money being average. It's just my perfectionist personality mixed with lazy study habits that drowned me. Doesn't matter because I won't be a lazy perfectionist. Just a perfectionist

[NYC2012]

.

[xael]

No one on this thread is "trolling" let alone giving you bad advice.

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Yes it does, anything that slows down your ability to type really quickly on a law exam is going to hold you back. Northwestern Law even has a policy in place granting extra exam time to non-native speakers.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Since you're below median, you are literally not better off than most of your peers. If you are absolutely set on attending a different law school, don't make the mistake of finishing out 1L and then being forced to transfer (but being unable because of your grades) - drop out now so that you can start 1L again somewhere else.

1. English is my native language.
2. Technically I am 50.8% which is not considered Top 50% but Top 60%. I am better than 50% of the students. Do the math right, haha.
And no, I'd rather not spend my years doing LSAT when I can make money being average. It's just my perfectionist personality mixed with lazy study habits that drowned me. Doesn't matter because I won't be a lazy perfectionist. Just a perfectionist

you are at a tier 3 school so I doubt this is true.

[ontopoftheworld]

No one on this thread is "trolling" let alone giving you bad advice.

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Yes it does, anything that slows down your ability to type really quickly on a law exam is going to hold you back. Northwestern Law even has a policy in place granting extra exam time to non-native speakers.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Since you're below median, you are literally not better off than most of your peers. If you are absolutely set on attending a different law school, don't make the mistake of finishing out 1L and then being forced to transfer (but being unable because of your grades) - drop out now so that you can start 1L again somewhere else.

1. English is my native language.
2. Technically I am 50.8% which is not considered Top 50% but Top 60%. I am better than 50% of the students. Do the math right, haha.
And no, I'd rather not spend my years doing LSAT when I can make money being average. It's just my perfectionist personality mixed with lazy study habits that drowned me. Doesn't matter because I won't be a lazy perfectionist. Just a perfectionist

you are at a tier 3 school so I doubt this is true.

clearly you have too much time on your hands.
you probably can prove that wherever you went to led you to be an unemployed tls troll.

[CaptainLeela]

Welcome to TLS

[052220152]

how can you be both a perfectionist and lazy at the same time? i feel like those two are mutually exclusive

[Clearly]

Kiddo these people you are accusing of attacking you are giving you reaaaallly sound advice. I improved my grades a lot between first a second semester, and you've gotten some great advice. By the way, pretty much all the people you're attacking as unemployed are either employed, or at elite schools (where they could do much worse than you and still get prestigious firms). My first piece of "advices" for you is to stop being an arrogant fool and start being receptive to people that are giving you good advice.

[Bildungsroman]

First language? doesnt matter at all.

Probably makes your reading and writing slower, which is an impediment on law school exams. And it likely lowers your comprehension, which is a problem for exams that rely on little details and recognizing small differences.

Drop out? Please, I am better off than most of my peers.

Sounds like a majority of them are better off regarding grades. But it's possible you have a lawyer relative who has made an unequivocal promise to hire you after graduation.

Thanks yall I will get that 4.0
It will make me be Top 11%.

That's not what the people in this thread are saying. You're delusional.

I definitely need to apply more and write it out.
I did it all in my head and during exams, jumbled and barfed out things. Completely unorganized.

This is not a novel strategy that will bring you from worst to first. This is barely more helpful than a reminder to try hard and believe in yourself.

Turns out, A grade and B differs by 2-5 points.

Raw or scaled? And out of how many? For all we know, "2-5 points" could signify a large performance gap.