Are you competitive?

[pinkybella]

How competitive are you? Describe. Do you think your competitive-ness will increase, decrease or stay the same in law school?

My answer: I'm pretty competitive but I'm a fair competitor. I wouldn't sabatoge anyone by giving them the wrong answers or anything. I often compare myself to others to gauge how I'm doing. I don't mind not being the best but I would be upset if I was at the bottom of my class (or even close to the bottom).

I think my competitive nature may increase in law school.

What about all of you soon-to-be 1Ls?

[Alamo]

I voted very.  I'm the kind of guy who will play 1-on-1 basketball with an 11-year-old, let him score a few to think he's doing well, but then start blocking his shots, and I will ALWAYS beat him in the end.

Seriously, I look forward to some good-natured competition.  I always enjoy seeing good people who work hard do well.  I have no idea what law school will do to my competitive nature

[pinkybella]

I voted very.  I'm the kind of guy who will play 1-on-1 basketball with an 11-year-old, let him score a few to think he's doing well, but then start blocking his shots, and I will ALWAYS beat him in the end.

Seriously, I look forward to some good-natured competition.  I always enjoy seeing good people who work hard do well.  I have no idea what law school will do to my competitive nature

I agree about enjoying fair, good-natured competition. I hope that's the type competition that will take place in law school.

[Jolie Was Here]

I'm not inter-person competitive about most things, and definitely not in the context of school.  It's just not in my nature to worry about how I stack up next to my peers -- partly out of arrogance or indifference, I guess.  But I'm still pretty intense, and beat up on myself plenty when I don't feel I'm doing what I'm capable of. 

[Towelie]

I put not really, and I echo a lot of what Jolie said.

I'm not competitive against other people - I'm competitive against myself. I like pushing myself hard. I try to do the best I can possibly do at everything that's important to me (the rest, I half-ass). If the best I can do puts me towards the bottom, then so be it, but if the best I can do puts me at the top, then I am happy too.

[thenextstep]

I chose somewhat because I tend not to be super competitive with others, but still I do want to be on top or close.  I hold myself to pretty unreasonable standards, so I don't really have to compete with others to get the job done I guess.  But at the same time, I've never been in a true forced curve situation so it might bring out more of my competitive spirit since basically I don't accept less than an A for myself.

[Officer Rod Farva]

I am at once competitive and fairly lazy.

[Jolie Was Here]

I think my take on academic competition is skewed because of my undergrad experience.  Basically, I was supposed to be a super-brain (like most LSDers, I imagine).  Then I got really really sick in undergrad and left with the most heinous marks you can imagine.  At the time, I totally internalized it -- I was a failure at 23 because I had earned some grades I never dreamed I would see.  And then I got over it.  Did really well in my career.  Somehow fooled Cornell into letting me in, and did very well there.  It was like -- whaddya know?  You don't shrivel up and die from getting a C.  Or a D.  Or an F.  

[dbgirl]

I'm extremely competitive and like to be the best of everything.
But law school smacked some of that out of me.

[queencruella]

I'm not competitive at all. My high school class was horribly competitive and I hated it with a passion and didn't participate in it at all. I just do my own thing and don't really pay attention to what other people are doing. If I do better than them, great, if not, oh well.