May 09, 2004
Masochism
The worst thing a law student can do for his/her sanity is to run GPA scenarios. After the Property debacle, I spent a good chunk of Friday night trying to guess my grades and tallying the possible GPAs. There is no comfort in such an activity. I vowed to not do it again. I managed to hold out until this morning. As I sat looking at my Ethics notes, wondering if I'll be able to tap into the long-lost touchy-feeliness, which this Prof seems to require, and questioning whether I'd be able to dust off the formidable BSing skills acquired during undergrad, I decided to take a break and run some more scenarios. I even whipped up a quick spreadsheet to automate the torture. I began to bleed from the ears.
There is no such thing as complacency during the 1st year of law school. For anyone. If you did really well in the first semester, the pressure to maintain is incredible and the grades necessary to do so nearly impossible. If you did pretty well (above the curve), the pressures are pretty much the same, with the added desire to do a bit better with the hopes of bumping yourself up to the next ranking bracket. If you were right at the curve, there's still no relief from the pressure, given the irrepressible desire to separate yourself from the rest of the pack. Finally, if you underperformed, you simply must do well in order to salvage the GPA and any hope of a successful life (as a group, law students are fatalists). It simply doesn't matter where your 1st semester grades landed, the situation is equally bad for all.
For my sanity's sake, however, there can be no more GPA scenarios. It's beyond my control and I don't need any extra fuel for my neuroses. 31 hours to go...
There is no such thing as complacency during the 1st year of law school. For anyone. If you did really well in the first semester, the pressure to maintain is incredible and the grades necessary to do so nearly impossible. If you did pretty well (above the curve), the pressures are pretty much the same, with the added desire to do a bit better with the hopes of bumping yourself up to the next ranking bracket. If you were right at the curve, there's still no relief from the pressure, given the irrepressible desire to separate yourself from the rest of the pack. Finally, if you underperformed, you simply must do well in order to salvage the GPA and any hope of a successful life (as a group, law students are fatalists). It simply doesn't matter where your 1st semester grades landed, the situation is equally bad for all.
For my sanity's sake, however, there can be no more GPA scenarios. It's beyond my control and I don't need any extra fuel for my neuroses. 31 hours to go...
