28

2.5 for 1L classes (my class at least, they have now gone to pass/fail for 1L classes), 2.667 for 2L classes and 3.0 for 3L classes

shouldn't be too bad to get 3 B+ and 1 B considering the 3.0 curve

4/18/2010 9:12:34 PM

ahhhh. they don't give us that info (that i know of)

that is awesome that 1L classes are pass/fail. i think that would be a lot better.

4/18/2010 9:34:19 PM

Our grading scale is kind of weird:
1L year:
Percent Grade
35% A/A-
55% B+/B/B-
10% C+/C

2L/3L
Most Courses 3.2-3.3 mean GPA
Writing Courses 3.4-3.6 mean GPA

4/18/2010 9:43:51 PM

yea we can't graduate if our gpa goes below a 2.8.

which is kind of annoying. i mean just because that is still like a C+ average. i don't get the big deal. but below a 2.8 gets you kicked out of school or at least put on academic probation if you are allowed to stay.

4/18/2010 10:22:37 PM

Ours is a 3.25 curve for most classes. For classes with 24 or less students the curve is a 3.6. Also, I believe if the collective course GPA is above a 3.25 it gets bumped up to that average but, I'm not certain on that one. From what I have seen, this usually ends up benefiting people who take the easier classes (foreign enrichment) that don't fill up or are capped below 25. Since we do have that system, I wish it somehow rewarded people for taking the harder courses instead. One of my friends here might as well be getting a foreign enrichment degree with a concentration in law.

Right now I really wish some of the 2L students who decided to be brave hadn't been for partnership tax. Sadly, we are 2 or 3 over the limit in that one. When they offered it last fall only 9 people were in it.

4/19/2010 2:30:55 AM

all of ^, ^^, ^^^ is why my 2.99 looks like shit, but in reality, its top 27% of my class

since we are a smaller, relatively unheard of school, you would think that they would implement a grading curve higher than what it is

oh well, hopefully i can pull it up above a 3.0 and make top 25%

4/19/2010 12:11:01 PM

so this really rich girl i went to HS with went to UNCC and then Charlotte School of Law and I'm pretty sure her parents just bought her her own downtown practice

must be nice...

4/19/2010 1:11:51 PM

^Yep--this other blog I follow had a girl complaining how she had to decide whether to turn down the full ride to Columbia or Harvard Law....

[Edited on April 19, 2010 at 1:18 PM. Reason : ]

4/19/2010 1:18:15 PM

^^ having your own downtown practice bought for you doesn't mean shit if you can't pull in the clients and be successful in the clients' cases

that's how you make a name for yourself, and ergo, $texas

(however, it would still be nice to have someone else pay your bills)

4/19/2010 10:29:47 PM

Quote :

"having your own downtown practice bought for you doesn't mean shit if you can't pull in the clients and be successful in the clients' cases"

It definitely helps though. The hardest part about opening your own office is getting clients. A good friend of mine found some office space in downtown Charleston and half of his clients came from looking him up in the yellow pages and seeing that he had a "downtown office"...they said that they thought it meant he had to be good if he had an office in downtown Charleston.

It definitely doesn't hurt.

4/20/2010 10:22:33 AM

I got into 2 summer study abroad programs, both in Costa Rica, opposite ends of the summer. I get to stay in Costa Rica and do whatever the fuck I want for over a month. I'm going to Nicaragua, Panama, and Columbia on a roadtrip too. This summer is gonna rock.

And I got my first "hey, keep your grades up and you have a job with us when you graduate" last week too (friend's father's firm).

4/20/2010 12:05:57 PM

I was going to do a study abroad this summer too. In Jordan, but it ended up getting canceled .

4/20/2010 3:00:11 PM

just getting started on my last evening of studying in law school - final exam of 3L tomorrow

4/20/2010 4:37:17 PM

UGH I AM SO JEALOUS

we aren't even done with classes yet! NOT FAIR!!!

well i do kinda like the trimester system though. but it makes us get out later than everyone else. GRRRR.

i have 0 i mean ZERO motivation left. i don't know how i'm going to study for finals.

4/20/2010 7:41:14 PM

^

Quote :

"i have 0 i mean ZERO motivation left. i don't know how i'm going to study for finals. the bar"

fixed it for you. graduation means very little without a bar license.

studying for adv crim pro and came across this great quote from J. Blackmun

“If there is any truth to the old proverb that ‘one who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client,’ the Court by its opinion today now bestows a constitutional right on one to make a fool of himself.”

4/20/2010 9:55:30 PM

well it doesn't mean THAT little with out a bar license

you can still get jobs with just a JD ya know!

4/20/2010 10:41:55 PM

My last boss only had his JD, he was making close to figs. He didn't attempt the bar yet.

4/21/2010 2:38:16 PM

figs?

4/21/2010 4:19:38 PM

FIGGAS SON

4/21/2010 4:23:10 PM

I'm not saying that there aren't jobs out there for people with a JD and no bar license, I'm just saying its obviously better to have a bar license - opens more doors.

btw, what did your previous boss do? might need a backup plan

4/21/2010 8:02:26 PM

^ truth

and yes. do tell us terpball. i definitely need a back up plan. or 5.

4/21/2010 8:59:50 PM

He was the guy between me and the supervisor of the docketing dept / database manager. There's lots of money in docketing and litigation support at huge firms... you just have to be kinda lucky to get one of those jobs I guess.

4/23/2010 7:31:42 AM

I am officially done with classes at the JD level! Two more exams (Grat Tax and Partnership Tax) and I am done with school until August.

Starting next January I get to take the same course (Partnership Tax), with the same professor, with the same text book, and with the same problems book. I could do the exact same thing with Grat Tax and Income Tax of E+T in the Fall. The difficulty will be ramped up though.

4/23/2010 12:58:53 PM

my exam schedule blows. i just looked at it because i've been putting off reminding myself of the horror

may 7th AM: crim pro
may 8th AM: bar prep
may 11th PM: income tax
may 13th AM: con law II
may 13th PM: law and humanities
may 14th: 20 page paper due

may 15th: the 6 day kaplan course starts

booo.

may 23rd GRADUATION

may 24th: KAPLAN COURSE STARTS FOR REALZ.

goodbye, life.

4/23/2010 5:24:03 PM

Wow, that is a terrible exam schedule. Mine are April 30th and May 7th.

4/23/2010 7:30:49 PM

i know. am i going to die?

that is why tom and sun are dedicated to studying. i hope to make it through con law II and tax.

4/23/2010 8:52:17 PM

only two more exams left

bar prep on monday, which is a 6 hr exam formatted similar to the bar...six 30 minute essays and 100 MC questions to be completed in 3 hours testing contracts, torts, property, crim law, crim pro, evidence and con law

conflicts on weds

graduation on next saturday

4/23/2010 11:46:12 PM

Just took my last final--only a paper left and I'm done with my 2L year.

On that note, I did something in my exam today that I have NEVER done--I missed a question. Like, completely skipped it. The professor all semester has said "3 Question Exam" the cover page said "Question are labeled as Problems I, II, III." The pages ended up being stuck together, and I didn't even see there was a fourth. Obviously it's totally my fault, I should have checked more thoroughly. But the damn professor should have made a note to point out that there was an extra question than what had been promised!

So--immediately starting with a 25 point deficit, even though I actually rocked the rest of the exam. I was the ONLY student that participated in that class, and adequately prepared for the lecture. Nice to see that will reflect in my grade

Oh well. Who needs a good GPA anyways?

4/30/2010 1:20:39 PM

^ wow, that sucks. Who is the professor Gz? Maybe send podger-smith an email???

4/30/2010 3:31:48 PM

Professor Daye with Housing (class sucked major ass btw). Even checked the "exam instructions" on blackboard. "There will be Three (3) Essays, each worth 60 points for a total of 180 points"--Spring 2010.

Dean Smith said there's nothing that can be done. That it's my fault (I know ultimately it is, it just sucks). But that she'll let Daye know.

4/30/2010 3:41:58 PM

Grat Tax down, Partnership Tax to go

4/30/2010 6:28:54 PM

dont start exams until the 7th. going to suck

i REALLY lucked out on our bar prep final though. the MBE shit was the midterm so the final is just 4 essays. he was nice and gave us the topics (THANK GOD). so they are crim pro, con law, ethics and NC real prop. but i lucked out cause i'm actually in crim pro and con law II right now SOOOO i don't have to study that much extra. which would have killed me. cause i have 5 exams and 2 papers (17hours this semester FML).

WHEW cannot wait to graduate!!!!!!! may 23rd cannot come fast enough

and my kaplan books came in the mail yesterday. booooo. they are glaring at me from the corner of my room

4/30/2010 6:52:36 PM

I got my packet of Bar Bri books the other day. I think not so good, Al would describe how I feel about that stuff.

It is a LITTLE daunting to be working my ass off now for my current courses, doing the bar studying/exam, then 3 weeks later jumping into the tax LL.M. courses/studying.

I think I need to find my Happy Gilmore happy place or something to relax. I do like tax though, so maybe it won't be that bad. I just don't like the idea of JD/bar/LLM in a row very much. I'm not sure that I am going to practice in Florida. In fact, I would love to come back to Charlotte. But, wheel sea about that. I'm pretty open to Virginia, DC, NC, Florida, or Georgia at this point.

5/1/2010 1:10:35 AM

^Don't mean to whine though. It is my decision and I do really like tax. Just seems like a bunch of studying until next July or so.

5/1/2010 1:41:38 AM

^ dude i know. but at the same time i KINDA wish i had applied to some llm programs too - although i'm not sure how helpful they are unless they're in an area like tax. i'm just jobless so i dunno what the fuck i'm going to do. i just applied to work as a receptionist at a law firm this summer. that is like - rock bottom. but i mean its a 15 hours a week job and i need extra $$$ while i'm unemployed studying for the bar. and i figure i'll at least be in the right kind of office hahaha. and i mean maybe get a good job rec from an attorney. goddddd life sucks right now.

i have still finals. then grad. kaplan starts in the middle of all that. then bar then i haven't taken the mpre yet so i won't be done until after that in august. hopefully in between there i find a job?

i slacked all this semester more than a normal 3L i feel like. i mean it was just a difficult semester for me personally. so i missed some deadlines for jobs i REALLY wish i had applied to (ie: Navy Jag). but obviously i can still apply next year. i'm just kicking myself for being an idiot about it now.

OHHH LIFE. i love this thread though because it makes me feel like at least other people are in the same "woe is me" boat lol.

5/1/2010 3:56:24 PM

One more stupid fucking exam (Torts II) then I'm off to COSTA RICA FOR THE SUMMER!

5/2/2010 11:42:56 AM

^^I hated the MPRE. Why not make that a part of the bar exam? I knocked it out in March after studying for about 3 or 4 days semi seriously. If you just take it serious for a few days you'll be fine on that.

That damn Grat Tax exam about nuked my brain. It wasn't an especially difficult exam but, there was a billion things you could write about/had to address. 17 total pages but, If you smashed it together I wrote down about 14-15 pages in 3 hours (he made us hand write the exam). It is amazing that a 3 line and 10 line fact pattern could produce so much stuff to write about. He designed the exam to make sure no one left early.

5/2/2010 4:39:55 PM

done and graduated!!!

grading papers and packing this week. got to sign my lease in Raleigh on Saturday.

May 17 is when the 60 hr/wk studying starts

Almost there

5/3/2010 10:37:32 PM

where did you get a jobbbb?

5/3/2010 11:52:55 PM

Quote :

"May 17 is when the 60 hr/wk studying starts"

You really plan on studying for 60 hours a week?

5/4/2010 10:05:59 AM

hahahaha i know people are so hardcore about the bar. i mean i'm going to be hardcore too but fuck 60 hour studying weeks. jesus. did people learn nothing in law school?

i plan on going to my class everyday, working a part time job, and studying maybe 2-3 hours a day outside of class

then once july comes i'll probably step it up more but i mean really. i don't want to burn out.

5/4/2010 3:09:54 PM

^ I actually did learn quite a bit during law school. However, why not put in the time now and assure that I pass it the first time? I'd rather put in the time and work now and have no regrets, than fail it the first time, have to study whole another 3-4 months (after results) and take it a 2nd time - all the while not working and earning money.

^^ Yes, well, sort of. It will actually be more like 57 or 58 after the 10 minute study breaks add up. 8-9:30 study, 9:30-1:00 barbri, 2:00-6:00 study, and then an hour of flex time between 8 and midnight. Saturdays will have a different schedule, but still have 10 hrs.

I've been told that the bar passage statistics are [in]directly correlated to the amount of time you put in. Therefore, I want to put in as much time this summer as possible and knock this thing out the first time. Plus, even if I aim for 60 hrs/wk, if I don't hit it, I'm sure to hit 50, which would probably be sufficient.

5/4/2010 3:14:28 PM

i don't think i'm going to fail just because i don't study 60 hours a week. i'm going to study but i also have to work to earn money to pay bills etc at the same time.

such is life.

i'm sure in july i'll do hardcore studying but i don't want to burn out before then so - i'm going to try to just do 2-4 hours a day outside of class. which could still be almost 30 hours a week cause i might study more on the weekends. hopefully i'm going to find a PT admin job so no working on weekendssss.

and if i fail, yes it will suck a lot. but all of the people i know who took it last year and failed and then took it the second time passed the second time. i know that isn't something to focus on though. but i wouldn't just not work during the time i failed and the second test taking. that seems impossible unless you have an unlimited supply of money, which i don't. i guess i'd just get a regular old job that a college degree would suffice for while i attempted to pass. but hopefully that won't happen. i'm just saying, i'm not going to kill myself if i fail or anything.

5/4/2010 4:18:08 PM

Quote :

"I actually did learn quite a bit during law school. However, why not put in the time now and assure that I pass it the first time? I'd rather put in the time and work now and have no regrets, than fail it the first time, have to study whole another 3-4 months (after results) and take it a 2nd time - all the while not working and earning money. "

Not to scare you, but I know plenty of people who put in 60+ hour weeks studying for the Bar exam...and still failed. And I'm not talking dumb people...I'm talking, top 10-20 in the class, gunners in the class. I think that can happen for several reasons:

(1) They burned themselves the fuck out.
(2) They just aren't good at taking tests like that. You might say, "well they did well in law school exams, why not the Bar...similar essays, etc." True...but when it comes down to it, some people just freak out for the final exam. Like the LSAT and SAT before it, I know of people that just blanked out when the test started.
(3) Just got unlucky. The shitty thing about the bar exam (at least in South Carolina), was that you could ace all 6 essay sections, but fail the Multi-state by one point and you're fucked. Or ace the multi-state and fail one essay section, and you're fucked.

I'm not saying don't put in the time...but you can put in 3 hour days for several months preceding the Bar exam, and as long as you're studying the right things the right way, then you'll be fine. You'll also be a lot healthier and a lot more fresh when test time comes.

My personal experience:

I tried to start off studying a lot. I went to all the classes, went and got some lunch, then went to the local coffee shop and tried to study until 5 or 6. Went and got some dinner, maybe watched a movie. Then maybe I would go over some flash cards before going to bed.

That lasted maybe a week. You honestly don't get shit out of maybe 90% of the classes. It's pretty much a re-hashing of what's in your books...almost verbatim. I would show up in the morning and get whatever extra materials you might need. Then head straight to the coffee shop and work on multi-state questions or flash cards. Sometimes I would finish up at lunch and go to the beach or do something else. Sometimes I would do a little more studying in the afternoon. But that's it. I probably maxed out at about 4 hours a day...maybe 5 days a week. I made sure I went to the gym consistently, got plenty of sleep, and ate well.

I honestly thought I was going to fail. I felt very unprepared in Civil Procedure and they threw a Probate Law question at us, which they hadn't done in over 20 years. I knew I aced the multi-state, which in South Carolina, if you make a certain score on that, you can fail at least one essay portion. I was positive I failed Civil Procedure and thought it pretty much came down to the Probate question...which apparently I did well enough (or everyone else did as bad as I did) that I was able to pass.

You should honestly spend half your time making sure you can ace the multi-state (which I think is possible...it's the easiest part to study for IMO). The next 40% of your time should be studying the basics of each section. Because if you know the basics, then you can get that 70 easy...which is all you need. The rest of the 10% of your time should be spreading yourself out over the rest of the sections getting the random stuff that might show up that might save you in a section if you go blank and forget the basics.

Things that I didn't do that most people do...I didn't study in groups and I didn't do practice essays. I never studied in groups in law school, so I didn't study in one for the Bar either. I also didn't do practice essays...which everyone told me was suicide. I know how to write, I know how to write under the pressure of an exam. I READ practice essays...but never did them myself. They gave us a booklet of practice essay answers and then write-ups analyzing the answers. The caveat was that they weren't tailored to South Carolina law...but it's not like it was California law, so it was pretty close. I just read those answers several times over and got a feel of what I thought the graders were looking for.

I didn't study a lot in law school and got by with about a B- average. I barely stepped it up for the Bar exam and got similar results (with the exception of the Multi-State...which I fucking owned). When talking with people after each section...lots of kids wrote more than me and identified issues that I'm pretty sure I missed. But I knew the basics, and I wrote as much about them as I could. Then I would add random issues I thought I saw.

Do not burn yourself out studying for this thing. Put in reasonable time. There were lots of kids who looked like zombies going into that test.

5/4/2010 5:11:33 PM

^ i like your style

and i fucking HATE group study

elon does this "project pass" thing where a bunch of people (its open to everyone) move to main campus to like be able to study together and all live in the same place during the summer

i said "OH HELL NO" i will live in my grown up apartment with MY shit, without a roommate, NOT in a dorm room without a kitchen and other things that i like to have. so. hopefully i don't fail because of that decisions but i don't play well with others so i thought it was for the best. no likey group study AT ALL. in fact, the only time i studied in a group in law school i did horrible on an exam.

HOWEVER i don't mind HELPING people. if someone doesn't get it and we're in kind of a group situation and i explain it all to them then i'm down cause it helps me review it. i don't really care if it ended up helping me or not.

5/4/2010 5:20:40 PM

done with law school


it feels fucking great

5/4/2010 7:33:25 PM

jealous.

i haven't even started finals yet.

MAY 14th! well i'll be done with finals then. grad is the 23rd.

i just want to make it through the 14th.

5/4/2010 8:39:23 PM

^ where are you, that seems late....


I hope you find it easier to study than I did. I was useless this last semester. And what made it worse, I actually had a closed book exam for my last ever final.

5/4/2010 8:45:47 PM

Just turned in my 47 page paper--and I am DONE with my 2L year!! Woo hoo. Start the summer job on Monday, so 4 days to recoup!

5/5/2010 12:00:59 PM

^^ elon. it is late cause of the trimester thing that we have. which i don't HATE cause i went abroad during it but still.

and yea i'm pretty useless too with 0 motivation and on top of that i'm struggling (hours wise, not grades wise) to finish this year after missing an entire semester last year i had 17 hours last semester and 17 this semester and i have FIVE exams and 2 papers. i think i might die

its ok though i'll make it. somehow!!

5/5/2010 1:29:59 PM