MIDTERMS!!!!!

Ok, so i just finished taking my midterms. I only had two, which is pretty normal in law school. Most classes have an all or nothing final and just skip the midterm all together. So my first midterm was a paper which I didn't do too hot on, but not terrible.

The paper was multicase analysis of the use of deadly force in self defense. Basically we were assigned a fictional client who killed someone in self defense, and we have to defend him. We were given 3 cases to break apart and analyze to use in our defense. For this paper all we had to do was take the three cases break down the elements that proved that deadly force was used for self defense and apply our client facts to those elements to see if we come out with the same result. I rocked the analysis but i lost major points for grammar and style. Here is a tip, if you ever think that grammar rules are stupid and you don't need to learn them, go ahead and punch yourself in the stupid face. I got a C+ on an A paper because of my grammar!!!! I bought a grammar book and decided the excuse that i'm just not good at grammar isn't going to cut it anymore.

My second Midterm was in my Civil Procedures class. This was an essay and multiple choice exam, pretty straightforward. I spent a long time studying for it and I even broke down the professor's previous exams to find patterns. I went into pretty confident, and left the exam completely defeated. For starters, the essay exam mentioned a statute that i didn't realize was provided on the back of the page that gives us the hypo for the essay. So with about five minutes left for the essay portion, i realize people are flipping back and forth on the hypo page. So i flipped my page and saw an enumerated statute that we were supposed to use in essay. So at that moment I felt that sinking feeling you get when you are on a roller coaster and i became drenched in sweat . . . instantly. I was freezing and every pore in my body popped open and let out all the sweat in my body. If that wasn't bad enough, i didn't even get close to addressing all the issues i wanted to address. There just wasn't enough time, and I don't feel like i managed my time as efficiently as i needed to. So the essay portion was over and I just had to get over it and move on to the multiple choice part. I figured if i did well on the multiple choice it might balance out my poor essay grade.

The multiple choice was one of those where they give you three or four real options, then two or three options that say "only answers A and B" or "non of the above" etc. There were 15 questions and i was really confident about 5 or 6 of them, and was really struggling with the rest. I just trusted my knowledge and gave my best guess. The cool part was that the professor allows you to challenge multiple choice answers. So after each question there are lines where you can challenge or explain your decisions for full or partial credit. So i finished that portion, challenging about 7 of the questions, and rushed out of the classroom without looking back. I didn't even go to my next class because i was so down about the test. Nobody really talked about the exam after, because everyone assumed they did poorly.

The test was on a Thursday and we got our results on the next Monday, so that was about 3 days of depression. The professor put our exams out on a table for us to pick up at the beginning of class on Monday. We take exams by exam number, not name to save people some embarrassment. So I walked up and grabbed my test, and too my surprise i scored a B on the essay. I was on cloud 9, i thought i got an F, so a B was welcome surprise. The professor explained how she graded, and in the end it didn't matter that i didn't get all issues or use the statute. As long as the analysis was right on the stuff I did write about, she would award the points. I picked up my multiple choice part as well and i got a 12.5 out of 15. Not too great, but better than the 6 out of 15 I thought i was going to get. I was actually awarded a couple points for my challenges which was pretty cool. The professor mentioned that the highest score on the Multiple choice was a 13, which means i was .5 away from the highest grade in the class for the multiple choice section. Not too bad!!!! This was all without the curve, so I assumed that a curve might bump my final grade up a few points maybe too a B+ or an A-.

A week later the final curved scores came out and I was excited to see what I had earned. I opened the email with my final curved grade and I got a . . . C-!!!!! A fucking C-. Talk about the most brutal curve on the planet. Talk about a bad morning. So I emailed the teacher about the final grade and how i was very concerned about my performance. I worked really hard and that grade was a punch in the nuts. I felt pretty worthless. So the professor sent out an email about how the curve worked and why the grades were different than what we expected. She hadn't responded to my personal email yet so I assumed that there was no mistake and that is just the nature of the curve. Wallowing in self pity i tried to do my homework for the day, but i couldn't get motivated. I even started to think that law school wasn't for me and that maybe i won't cut it in the legal field. Basically i was acting like a BITCH!!!! We all have our weak moments. So by midday i finally found my testicles again and started to regroup. Then, as i was giving myself a pep talk, i received an email from the professor. It basically stated that based on my email, she reviewed the formula for the curve and found a MISTAKE!!!!

She re-worked the formula and re-submitted our final grades and at the end i came out with a B+!!!! Only a few points away from an A-. Talk about a miserable morning.