Every law student has to learn to deal with one of the biggest paradoxes in law school. At some point you’ll feel great about an exam, fly through, convince yourself that you’ve aced it, and end up right on the median. Then you’ll struggle through an exam, want to drop out of law school, and end up acing the test. What gives?
What gives is that when the test seems easy, either it actually is easy and everyone did well, or it was deceptively easy, and only a few people found the hidden issues that determined who would actually do well on the exam. Switch that around when you do well on an exam that seems hard. Either everyone did poorly and you just did less poorly than everyone else, or you feel like you struggled because you wrestled with difficult issues everyone else missed.
The problem comes up when law students can’t learn to deal with these situations by realizing that you need to judge your performance on exams by something other than your grade. Another key is to learn that it’s during the difficult times that you gain ground and do well when you’re fighting the curve. As Seth Godin puts it, you make it up on the downhills:
Now, I look forward to the uphill parts, because that’s where the work is, the fun is, the improvement is. On the uphills, I have a reasonable shot at a gain over last time. The downhills are already maxed out by the laws of physics and safety.
There’s only so much you can do when the test is easy and the curve bunched toward the top. If everyone is getting almost all the points, it takes a massive effort just to get half a grade above the median. It’s when it’s difficult in law school that your best work shines the brightest.
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So true!! My worst grade in 1L year: finished early and had ticked off every issue on my mental checklist. Best grade: wrote and wrote and revised and re-wrote (something you usually don’t have time for in an exam!) , while many others left early, smiling. Left that one slapping my forehead after the buzzer – so many more subtle things I should have covered; ended up doing very well. Rising 1Ls should keep your advice in mind for studying, practice exams and for exam time.