First Exam as a 1L! Freaking Out!!!

[amw41]

I just through the most horrible experince of my life.... my first exam as a 1L. My exam was in Torts and the teacher is known for giving exams that are impossible to finish, but I totally botched this one. Going into it I felt prepared, but now I feel horrible. The exam consisted of four fact patterns with 3-4 questions each. I barely go through the second fact pattern, and ended up not finish the last two whole fact patterns. The first and second fact patterns were worth substanitally more point wise, and I feel I did okay there. I just took way too much time on the first fact pattern and screwed myself for the rest. Has anyone ever been in a similar position before, or has not finished an exam? Do you think I will fail?

[Miami88]

I'm just a measly 0L, but it sounds like you need to decompress. Play music, watch a movie... whatever. Aside from doing something unethical, there is nothing you can do about your grade now - it is out of your hands. If you can't do anything about it, there is no point in worrying about it. Put it out of your mind and move forward. With appropriate distance, reflect and learn from it, but don't obsess.

<3 much love

Good luck!

[Citylaw]

Having gone through law school myself I can tell you everybody probably feels exactly the same way. When I was in law school my first exam was torts as well and I had a similar situation I was freaking out as well and I didn't do well on my torts exam a C+ not great, but after that exam I learned the importance of time managment and got A's on all the rest of my exams 1L and ended up finishing in the top 10% of my class at graduation.

Really don't even think about your Torts exam focus on what you have next what's done is done You probably did fine, but do not let this experience mess up your property, civil procedure, contracts and whatever other exam you have. Those are in your control and focus on each one.

Also remember no school wants you to fail out a few people in my class did poorly first semester and they had to take one exam class the next semester, but they all ended up doing well graduating, passing the bar, and I was actually in Court against one of the girls from my class that had a first law school semester and she beat me on a few issues in  Court today and is a great attorney. The fact I got a better Contracts grade in 1L didn't really come up in our breach of contract case. : )

Do the best you can and don't overthink things that is number one problem law students encounter.

Good luck on the rest of your exams.

[IrrX]

The Inverse Performance Rule comes in two flavors:

1. The worse you feel you did on a law school examination, the better you did.
2. The less you care about the grade you get on a law school examination, the better the grade you will receive.

Chill out. Finish your exams. Then go get drunk somewhere until you get your grades back. You have another 2.5 years of this, so there's no sense in melting down now.