Law School Grades
So a bunch of students from my law school in CA have showed up in Germany to take part in the University of Augsburg's Summer Program. I was very happy to see them all, and a bunch of us went to dinner last night. As it inevitably does whenever there are two or more law students involved, the conversation turned to law school grades.
It's one of the great unexplained mysteries of the universe why law students are so obsessed with grades. Actually, unexplained goes too far -- partially explainable is probably a better way to say it. How I see it is that a lot of law students probably have similar personalities to mine (that's why we're in law school) -- passionately competitive, generally hardworking, with a slight inferiority complex that leads to putting more weight on other's evaluations of us than is usually merited AND unnecessarily comparing ourselves to others and never matching up.
So yes, we were talking about grades last night. To qualify, none of us were (are) top-10% people. So we collectively marveled at those who can do it, while wondering how we can be so average after working so hard (harder than we've ever worked).
Platitudes may be trite, but they're comforting and probably mostly true -- we are smart but we don't know how to take those kinds of tests, etc.
But I thought more about grades this morning (after hanging out with this crew last night). Germany has given me some perspective on grades because law students here aren't nearly as fixated on them as Americans are. It's as much of a product of the system over here as anything else, but they also take time to have coffee in the afternoons and to go out for drinks at night, all in a leisurely way (no pounding 6 drinks in an hour to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible). In Germany, owntime is seen as as high a priority as studying.
I don't think this is bad. I've had a lot of downtime here and I've enjoyed it very much. I'm ready to go back and tackle third year by the end of this. I have also, with the distance afforded by this experience away from home, can look at grades a little differently. Even though mine are not the best (strictly average, I admit it), those mere numbers represent a hell of a lot of hard work. I think about everything I KNOW now, after the hell of first year and the one very difficult semester of second year I did at home (I loaded up there to be able to take it easy over here). It's a lot. We law students are asked to process a ton of information very quickly, and to be able to use that information, quickly and completely, in a high-pressure, too-short exam situation. This is no easy task, and those who can do it well enough to earn top grades are blessed with a remarkable gift. I don't have it, nor do most people. But that doesn't mean what we others accomplished should be seen as any less remarkable.
So CELEBRATE your law school grades. I'm learning how (it's a process -- some days I still think I'm the biggest idiot), and it can be liberating. It's okay if they prevent you from getting that clerkship or big-firm job. You're going to graduated from LAW SCHOOL for pete's sake. How many people can realistically accomplish that?
It's one of the great unexplained mysteries of the universe why law students are so obsessed with grades. Actually, unexplained goes too far -- partially explainable is probably a better way to say it. How I see it is that a lot of law students probably have similar personalities to mine (that's why we're in law school) -- passionately competitive, generally hardworking, with a slight inferiority complex that leads to putting more weight on other's evaluations of us than is usually merited AND unnecessarily comparing ourselves to others and never matching up.
So yes, we were talking about grades last night. To qualify, none of us were (are) top-10% people. So we collectively marveled at those who can do it, while wondering how we can be so average after working so hard (harder than we've ever worked).
Platitudes may be trite, but they're comforting and probably mostly true -- we are smart but we don't know how to take those kinds of tests, etc.
But I thought more about grades this morning (after hanging out with this crew last night). Germany has given me some perspective on grades because law students here aren't nearly as fixated on them as Americans are. It's as much of a product of the system over here as anything else, but they also take time to have coffee in the afternoons and to go out for drinks at night, all in a leisurely way (no pounding 6 drinks in an hour to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible). In Germany, owntime is seen as as high a priority as studying.
I don't think this is bad. I've had a lot of downtime here and I've enjoyed it very much. I'm ready to go back and tackle third year by the end of this. I have also, with the distance afforded by this experience away from home, can look at grades a little differently. Even though mine are not the best (strictly average, I admit it), those mere numbers represent a hell of a lot of hard work. I think about everything I KNOW now, after the hell of first year and the one very difficult semester of second year I did at home (I loaded up there to be able to take it easy over here). It's a lot. We law students are asked to process a ton of information very quickly, and to be able to use that information, quickly and completely, in a high-pressure, too-short exam situation. This is no easy task, and those who can do it well enough to earn top grades are blessed with a remarkable gift. I don't have it, nor do most people. But that doesn't mean what we others accomplished should be seen as any less remarkable.
So CELEBRATE your law school grades. I'm learning how (it's a process -- some days I still think I'm the biggest idiot), and it can be liberating. It's okay if they prevent you from getting that clerkship or big-firm job. You're going to graduated from LAW SCHOOL for pete's sake. How many people can realistically accomplish that?
posted by Jennifer at 01:11
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