Post Midterms Blues…How to
Make Good out of a Bad Situation
You were always
a great student in high school; in college you could cram for a midterm or
final and still pull an A in the class.
You get to Law School, and you think, “my writing is good, and I’m a
pretty good test taker.” Then you get
into your first exam, think you did well, and the grade that comes back says
otherwise. If you’re like me, you
probably are panicking now…debating if you can even handle this, or even
freaking out that you will bomb the entire course because of one bad
midterm. Well if you are freaking
out…stop! Freaking out, especially in
Law School does not lead to much good, in fact, it can be completely
contradictory to success. However, if
you are like I was, thinking that bombing an exam will lead to bad grades, bad
job prospects, and questioning your ability to be a lawyer, these bits of
advice may help to calm you down as they helped me.
1.
You’re not the only one who did terrible
on the exam-even if you
were one of the lower grades; chances are, more than just you struggled on this
exam. Law School exams are different
then any other exams because they challenge you to apply the law you learned to
a scenario, not just questions on whether you read a case or not, so go easy on
yourself, this is new, and you gave it a shot.
2.
Use this as a learning experience and
talk to your Professor-I
know, the last thing you want to do is talk to the person who gave you a bad
grade. I recall getting my contracts
midterm back and freaking out at the thought of talking to my professor. However, when I finally did meet with him, he
was helpful in giving me the guidance on how to improve. He showed me where my strengths were, and
where I can improve. Even though Law
School professors may not always be the warmest people, they really want you to
succeed, use them as a resource to learn what they want on an exam and how to
prepare accordingly.
3.
Be glad its not the final-I’m sure the last thing you want to
think about is the final after a terrible midterm. However, be glad that this was only a few
percentage points of your final grade and not the final exam. This midterm is practice, you get to see how
the professor tests, what to expect of their grading, and how they like your
responses to read. Work on this from
after the midterm until the final, you will thank yourself later.
4.
Practice, Practice, Practice-Now that the midterms are over, or will
be over soon, use this score as an opportunity to practice for the final. Practice from the midterm you were given as
a hypothetical, and use past midterms (if your professor will let you use them)
to build model answers. That way, when
the final comes around, you will know exactly what your professor will want,
and can put a strong answer to paper.
I
cannot stress this enough, but midterms are not to hurt you, they are to help
you learn and understand the professors testing style and where your strengths
and weaknesses might lie. During 1L,
they are one of the few opportunities you have to practice for the final
exam. As you reach upper level courses,
many professors do not offer a mid term exam, so take these as a gift to
practice and perfect your craft before the final exam rolls around.
Image taken from fastweb.com
