I don’t think marks are the be all and end all of success in law school. If you know of a job or career path that you are determined to follow, your marks may matter some, but there are plenty of ways to get where you’re going (see “schmoozing” below). That being said, our marks generally still matter to us in 1L.
So, do our December exam marks actually “matter”? It probably makes sense to start with a definition of “matter,” but that may just be where the problem lies. Do marks matter – for our overall grades? Not necessarily. For getting jobs? Maybe. For our self-esteem? Come on, we’re better than that.
All throughout the fall term, profs kept telling us not to worry too much about our December exams. To a certain extent, this was well founded. December exams are fail-safe, so if you do better on your final exams, your December marks don’t count. The pressure’s completely off, right?
Not exactly. December exams DO matter in some respects. First off, for the small subset of people who want to work at a firm this summer, getting decent December grades is fairly important (although I’ve heard schmoozing – or “networking” as some call it – can make up for a bad grade or two). Same goes for a handful of other 1L jobs that are mostly merit based.
Applicable to a larger subset of the student body (not only those who are already chomping at the Bay Street bit), December exam marks are also an indicator of how well your approach to law school is working. Did you think your studying methods were rock solid, yet were you shocked by the plethora of Ps on your exams? Did you “wing it” and still come out on top of the HHill? Either way, how well you did might make you re-think and re-tool the way you’re working, or reaffirm that you’re right on track. In this respect, your December marks might matter in that it will likely affect how you approach your second term of 1L (the “important” term, as we’re led to believe).
Do the marks matter? Do they not matter? Does this question really matter at all?
While I may be over-generalizing, I am fairly confident in saying that the reality is most 1Ls work hard, sometimes really hard, to try and do well on these exams. It would be better if professors didn’t brush them off and downplay their importance. Yes, December exams may not leave a lasting impression on our letter-grades, but if profs placed more of an emphasis on how to do well, and less of an emphasis on ignoring their existence, it would be beneficial in the long term.
Brushing off the importance of these exams just procrastinates dealing with student stress to the spring. If professors paid more attention to these exams and focused more time on strategies to prepare for them, we would be better equipped to deal with how to write them, and how to deal with the stress when we come face-to-face with April exams and the threat of permanent marks.
The most helpful thing professors could is outline what they’re looking for on their exams. This is especially important as different professors like varying types and styles of answers. I had a few professors who did this and it made a world of difference when studying for their exams.
My aim here is not to scare people into thinking the first marks they got in law school are the be-all end-all. Not at all. I just wish professors would take the December exams as seriously as their students do, and help us prepare for them with the long-view goal in mind: April.
