Do lackluster first semester grades close all doors?

[sollicitus]

All law school should be required to curve to a 2.5 or lower (2.0 preferably)

It would get rid of grade inflation and weed out half the "bad" attorneys the clog the system as well as lowing overall grad rate, and the alleged inflation in overall attorneys that is bringing down employment stats.

A 2.9 curve basicly means you get a B average for showing up and not pooping your pants.

[legend]

I don't know if law school grades are necessarily illustrative of good attorneys. A three hour law school exam with some MC questions doesn't mean someone can handle the pressure of long hours, client control, opposing counsel being a-holes, and all the other stuff inherent in practice that you don't deal with in school.

It would be nice if the ABA required a uniform curve though it seems like law schools are really giving out A's & B's only now and any school that actually hands out C's or says this passing, but barely gets in trouble. The manipulation of the numbers in law school just needs to stop period.

This is getting of topic from the OP and as you can see first semester grades are far from everything there are numerous problems with the current system. Problems exist in every system anyways, but your going to be fine with a 2.9.

[sollicitus]

I don't know if law school grades are necessarily illustrative of good attorneys. A three hour law school exam with some MC questions doesn't mean someone can handle the pressure of long hours, client control, opposing counsel being a-holes, and all the other stuff inherent in practice that you don't deal with in school.

It would be nice if the ABA required a uniform curve though it seems like law schools are really giving out A's & B's only now and any school that actually hands out C's or says this passing, but barely gets in trouble. The manipulation of the numbers in law school just needs to stop period.

This is getting of topic from the OP and as you can see first semester grades are far from everything there are numerous problems with the current system. Problems exist in every system anyways, but your going to be fine with a 2.9.

True. Everyone believes the part about the grades being ok for him.

As for the exams, are you saying you don't have to do essays?

[legend]

No my school had essays and MC's, but I wouldn't say a law school exam essay translates to the practice of law. Maybe to some extent issue spotting, analysis, might be somewhat indicative, but if you got the model Contracts Exam answer in Contracts that won't really help you in an actual contract case deposing witnesses, sifting through files, researching, negotiating, on and on. Being able to determine there was no consideration is a piece in all of that, but not the end all be all of your skills as an attorney.

[sollicitus]

No my school had essays and MC's, but I wouldn't say a law school exam essay translates to the practice of law. Maybe to some extent issue spotting, analysis, might be somewhat indicative, but if you got the model Contracts Exam answer in Contracts that won't really help you in an actual contract case deposing witnesses, sifting through files, researching, negotiating, on and on. Being able to determine there was no consideration is a piece in all of that, but not the end all be all of your skills as an attorney.

ok. The Grade Inflation is still ridiculous though. There should be a set standard for what is what grade. If you get an expert class that gets all A's fine. If you get a retard class that all Fail out, that's on them and society is better off to not have them in it as lawyers.

Can you imagine if Surgeons could get away with a "curve"? 

[hellhounds88]

Thanks again for all of the advice. A few of my second semester grades have started to trickle in, and it looks like I've made substantial improvements, particularly in legal writing, which jumped from a C- to a B+. The median at my school is 3.0. Biglaw is not part of my dream. In fact, it never was, but I guess I just got so overwhelmed by all of the pessimism on the internet that I panicked. I thought that in order to have any chance whatsoever at a legal job, I had to be in the top 10% of my class. I know this was an irrational, unfounded belief, but I plead that I'm young and the legal job market is bad right now; so I allowed myself to be won over to pessimism by random internet commentators.

[jack24]

I know this is a side note, but law school grades are statistically ridiculous.  Granted, those who managed to consistently get A's obviously have some desirable skill, and those at the bottom of the curve all three years have some deficiency.

My class had 130 students.  The curve was a 2.9, and 60% of the students fell between a 2.8 and 3.2.  So if one student had  B, B, B, C grades, and another had B, B, B, A grades they would only be separated by one class, but one would be in the bottom 20% and the other would be in the top 20% after the first semester.    I remember one long test was out of 400 points (semi-arbitrary) Someone who got 190 got an A, and someone who got 165 got a C.
My friend and I had identical grades our first semester except I got a B+ where he got a B.  Because we were both semi average, that one B+ put me 30 students ahead of him in the Rankings.
Add participation points balogna to this and it gets even dumber.   At my school, 10% of your grade was in-class participation but it could be applied pre-curve. 
So, for example, the final is worth 90 points and participation worth 10.   Well if the entire class gets between 70 and 85, then those 10 participation points have a HUGE impact on the curve because the spread is only 15 points.

Once you get into 2L and 3L it's even more ridiculous.  I remember during 2L my friend signed up for federal courts and I signed up for 1st Amendment/Media Law.  Most of the law review board was in federal courts, and a bunch of slackers were in media law.  Also, Federal courts only had 12 students and media law had 40.   So I had a chance at one of several A's against a bunch of internet surfers, and my buddy had a chance at the 1 or 2 available A's against the biggest bunch of law geeks in the state.

He got a C, I got an A.