After four solid semesters of inching my GPA up, I really outdid myself this semester by putting in next to no effort and watching my grades actually suffer for it. For the first (and last) time in my law school career, my highest grade was a B+. Interestingly, the B+ was in the class I thought I might fail. The ones I thought I might do better in garnered Bs and even a C+. At the beginning of the semester, I wanted to finish strong. I suppose in the end I did, only in the opposite direction as I'd originally planned. Oops.

I don't know that I'd have done anything differently, though. My semester was unbelievably busy as it was, and I'm not sure when I would have had time to put in much more effort without giving something else up to make time for it. (I am, however, taking this as a sign that a clerkship is not in my future and perhaps I should just give up on that front.)

Despite the Great Decline of 2007, I still managed to graduate with honors. Mwahahahahahaha (evil laugh).

In other news, I had my Mom read me Real Property flash card questions last night over dinner. It should come as no surprise to people from my section that every card that went in the "I-Need-To-Spend-More-Time-With-This-Concept" pile concerned future interests. On the plus side, I now understand all the "fee blah blah blah" thingamabobs. My understanding, of course, was probably evident in my use of such precise language.

Lastly, the Torts lecturer wins the award for Most Annoying Voice so far. His inflection patterns ("When you have NEGLIGENCE, that means the defendant BREACHED a DUTY he had to the PLAINTIFF") drive me crazy, and I catch myself grinding my teeth a lot during his lecture. This makes me sad, as Torts tends to be one of my favs. Now he's sucked all the enjoyment out of it by having annoying speech patterns. The only one who annoyed me more over all is the one who said "Fill in the blank" every time we needed to do so, as if we weren't following along already. Talk about overly distracting. He could have probably shaved another five minutes off his lecture if he'd just left out his 162 uses of "fill in the blank."

Not that I'm easily irritated these days or anything...

Well, not so much breaking. But los_chupacabras beat me to it. For those of you wanting the short version of the story: the honors distribution is set to change next year, affecting the class of 2008 and moving forward. Class of 2007 gets by. The current honors cutoff is a 3.35 GPA, but next year, it will go to a percentage cutoff. I do not know the exact percentage. The reason for this change is because with raising the curve to a B+ (but failing to raise the honors GPA cutoff at the same time), the result was nearly (over?) half the class graduating with honors.

I've known about this possible change for a while now, mostly because I pester Student Affairs on a regular basis and because I talked to someone on whatever committee is in charge of that stuff. And I was prepared to make a huge fuss should the change have affected us this year. I even had a scathing rant prepared for posting, should the need arise. Now that I'm in the clear, I just don't have the energy to rant and rave about it, because I'm an inherently self-absorbed being and I have a Blockbuster Total Access Queue to fill up.

That said, I do think it's unfair to change it for people midway through the game. Start with the class of 2010. Because while in law school varying arguments can be made about how much effort I put forth and what motivated me to do so, in college we didn't have + and - grades, so 100% effort got me the same 4 points as 90% effort. I could count the number of times in college that I put forth 100% effort on one hand even if I was missing two fingers, so I can completely understand people who hover around a 3.35, because while they may not be top 1/4 of the class, they'll have their honors, dammit! It's not a hard mindset to understand.

So my condolences to those of you who fall between a 3.35 and whatever percentage cutoff they choose next year. I know I was ready to be pissed off (now I'm just relieved), so I can imagine you are. Sometimes it just sucks to be average, doesn't it?

Last semester, when I was at the height of my stress due mainly to my shoddy class attendance and the need to learn three classes just before finals, I promised that I wouldn't do it again this semester. I swore that this time I'd be better, that this time I'd learn as I go and not skip class for silly reasons like "oversleeping," "going out to lunch," or "playing 4 Square in the SBA office."

But then my final grade came in today. And despite all my freaking out, I did the same as I always do. In fact, my GPA even inched up 0.01. So, I now retract my promise. I'm a 3L, graduating, and apparently class attendance makes no difference on my grades at all whatsoever. It may even be that I need the stress of not feeling like I know anything in order to kick my butt into gear and actually study.

What does this mean for you all? Mainly that you get one final semester of Ruth's Finals Freakout. And everyone loves that.

ADDENDUM: I predicted on November 8 that I would not attend any more Oil & Gas classes and that I'd be better off learning it on my own. I feel oddly clairvoyant. And a tad invincible. I must have really brought my B+ game to that final.

From los_chupacabras.

So an anon UT 1L over at the train wreck I like to call XOXO wants to ask her small section prof whether she can redo her exam (she's hoping in order to raise her grade). As always on XOXO, there are some choice comments made toward the mixed up little 1L. My favorite being, "If you even mention raising the grade your professor will hate you. I already hate you for taking advice from LSD."

I would like to chime in and say that I hate her for even wanting to redo the exam, whether for credit, for learning or otherwise. I got a B- on my small section class my 1L year. And yeah, I was bummed about it (I might have even shed a tear or two or ten or river), and yeah, I wanted to know where I went wrong. But there was no way in Joe Jamail's millions that I was going to retake the exam. If this girl is for real about wanting to learn from her mistakes, she should make an appointment with the prof and ask where her answer derailed. Or, better yet, if she got As in the rest of her classes like she claims, she should just get. over. it. Oh, damn, now her 4.0 is going to be a 3.8 and she wants to know whether this is going to prevent her from getting a big law job this summer. Boo-fucking-hoo. People have gotten jobs with much worse grades than three As and a B-.

But what really eats me up about this girl is that she seems to have this delusional hope that redoing the exam will get her grade raised. As if this is high school freshman English where the teacher bumps your grade if you do an extra book report. She even says, "However, as long as changing my grade doesn't force the professor to bump down someone else's, I don't see why people would hate me." Because, you know, we're not on a forced curve or anything. I'm sure he can bump your B- to an A easy. I'm even more sure he'll be willing to. And then when you go out into practice and don't file some thing or another in time, I'm sure the judge will give you a do-over too (our endless appeals system and amended complaints, etc. notwithstanding).

I realize that because her other grades were As, it's hard for her to accept the certain amount of randomization that goes with law school grading. But sometimes you get a B-. It happens. Get over it, and while you're at it, please get over yourself. Your earnestness is embarrassing.

And now I fully understand the beauty of being completely anonymous online. Because if I had even an inkling as to who posted that shit, I'd be tempted to do the following (1) ridicule them publicly, (2) aim spit wads at them and/or (3) throw my George's Cafe soda at them a la Nicholas Cage in The Weather Man.

Law students... *eyeroll*

Worried that you didn't spend enough time studying this semester? Went out a few more times than you ought to have? Not really understanding the hearsay exceptions? Fear not, for despite all your slackery, you still have a decent chance at making that coveted A+. This post by Concurring Opinions on grading exams explains how and even contains helpful photos in a step-by-step guide.

Now I'm going to go soak my right hand, wrist, and forearm in hot water after taking 34 pages of notes (front and back) by hand in the past two days. Which wouldn't have been so bad in my younger day, but after years of writing 97% of everything in my life by computer, my hand isn't used to the beating. Ouchie. :(

My last grade to trickle in ended up being my worst ever in law school. The amazing part is that I ended up with the exact same semester GPA as last fall (which was sans the sucky grade) and even with the sucky grade, my overall GPA still managed to go up by 0.01. Ah, law school grades.

The last time I got a sucky grade (which was also the first time), I was devastated. This time I just laughed. I'm glad to see I'm in a better place with these things. But I hated the class, hated the prof, never went, and didn't read. I should be happy that I didn't fail, to tell you the truth. According to prior grade distributions, he wasn't above failing people.

But with the lack of damage to my GPA, I couldn't help being amused.

I used to think that it was just a myth that one could work really hard in a class and have it pay off. But today, it happened to me. I'd say that my faith in law school grading has been somewhat restored, but the rest of my grades are too random to really have had much faith to begin with. My best grade prior to this was in a class that (a) I learned nothing in and (b) didn't really test us on what we learned. Now I can say that my best grade was in a class I worked my ass of for.

On the other hand, I don't plan on ever working that hard again, so I suppose I'd better enjoy it while it lasts...

Most of the websites I actually WANT to get to from work are blocked. UT Direct is one of the few places I visit regularly that I can reach from work. You'd think this small allowance by the network nazi administrator would lead to uncontrollable amounts of grade-checking. Oddly enough, it hasn't. In fact, some days I forget to check them at all. Last summer, I checked my grades several times a day from work. This summer, checking grades is like the only thing I can do from work, and it's rare that I check them more than once, if that. I'm not sure why I'm not more eager. I was eager for fall grades this past January. I even checked for my BA grade non-stop for a day or two. But now? I feel like I can wait. And I don't know that I like feeling like I can wait.

BA grades have been up since Tuesday.

At first, I was relieved about my grade. After all, I did call my friend to ask him why a balance sheet had to... balance. Yeah. I know. So I told myself that I should be thrilled to receive that grade, all things considered.

A few hours after I first saw the grade, I started to wonder if I couldn't have done better. Maybe if I'd left a few more True/False questions blank, I would've scraped a few more points. Maybe if I'd been able to buckle down more while studying. Maybe if I'd actually paid attention during the last three weeks of class, I could've earned a higher grade.

I spent the next two days disappointed in myself for not trying harder.

Then I woke up this morning, checked my grades, saw that BA was still the only one up, and I reminded myself that I had no business background, didn't even know what LLP stood for prior to taking this class, and that I asked my friend why a balance sheet has to balance. So once again, I'm totally thrilled with my grade.

After all, someone in the class got an F, and I'm not that someone.

Now the biggest decision of the day is: do I go sans sun screen when I lay out a little later today? Or do I put on some SPF 4? It's way past time to get rid of this pasty I've-Spent-The-Past-Month-In-The-Library look.

All my grades are in, but I got so used to checking them every hour that now I'm not sure how to stop. When I get online I feel like Pavlov's dog, only instead of salivating I'm clicking on my Fall Grades bookmark. It's usually not until after I've entered in my UTID that I realize I've already seen them all.

I'm thinking of taking up smoking to help me break my grade checking habit...

What I Should Be Doing:

1. Laundry. I leave in two days to head back to the ATX, and I'd rather do laundry now while it's still free.
2. Gathering my things. Not quite packing, as laundry has not been done yet, but my stuff is scattered everywhere, guaranteeing that I'll forget something.
3. Sending out more unsolicited resumes. Faithful readers will recall that OCI wasn't so kind to me. But I still need a job for this summer.

What I'm Actually Doing:

1. Blogging (duh).
2. Mentally planning a trip to the mall to spend some Christmas gift cards. (Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale is going on.) (For the perfumes.) ;)
3. Still sitting in bed, making no progress towards anything, including the abovementioned trip to the mall or more basic things like showering.
4. Drinking a Diet Cherry Crack Coke. It's almost gone. Hate.

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In other news, the discussion about grades in this entry led me to a question. 2Ls, do you check your grades more often or less often than you did this time last year? I find I check them less (but still every day). But mainly I was wondering if any of you became more obsessed with grades since 1L year. I'm sure that it happens; I just want to hear from someone that it happened to. I'd also like to hear from any 1Ls who don't check grades.

And now I should do something with my morning day.

You know how when you watched scary movies when you were younger, you put your hands over your eyes and watched the scary parts through your fingers?

Is it normal to check your grades that way?

Just checking...