Thursday, May 3, 2012

The After-Finals Blogpost!

Okay, I won't talk about finals, except to say that this semester, I just didn't do very well at all.  Honestly, most days, this semester, it was all I could do not to end up in a straightjacket in a rubber room.  Nothing to do with Law School, oddly. It was just the rest of the world crashing down around my feet.  Couldn't sleep, couldn't focus, didn't keep up in school.

I know after the Fall Semester that predictions are pointless.  However, I'm going to go out on a limb again.

Legal Research and Writing:  B-
Constitutional Law:  B-
Criminal Law:  C
Contracts:  C-
Property:  C-

Yes, I know that if my prediction comes true, I'd have to repeat Contracts and Property. 

All I can do at this point is pray that my prediction is wrong. 

My LRW appellate brief will be available to pick up tomorrow.  I was going to just wait for it to be posted, but I think I'll jog down to the school and get it just to find out.  May not have a letter grade on it, but will have a raw score that will let me know how close I am to the class mean.

The rest will probably get posted anywhere from a week to a month from now.

It sorta sucks that although Law School was the one part of my life that was under control, and that I really enjoyed (outside of my son), that the rest of the world just absolutely crushed me to the point that it impacted my law school performance. 

I really, really want to come back in the Fall as a 2L.  I've got so much working against me.  Now, thanks to some probably crappy final exam performances, I'll also be looking at academic probation or something. 

So, now, after a pretty good Fall, my law school life is just as much of a mess as the rest of my life.  Will keep everybody posted as grades come up. 

Monday, April 30, 2012

When I See a Little Light

I was whining on Facebook, and a 1L classmate mentioned that Capital University is not totally out of the question as far as driving-distance from where I may be getting a job.  The only hurdle I could see is that they require a 2.75 gpa to transfer in.

Not a problem with my current gpa.  I've got about a 3.1.  However, with the grades I'm anticipating for this coming semester, this could be a challenge.  I have to get a tick higher than a 2.4 to have a cumulative of 2.75. 

That's not impossible, but again, given what I've been up against this past semester, it's going to be a more difficult feat than it should be.  However, there's also a shot at redemption if I don't get there.  Capital will let you transfer and to graduate, you need to finish 45 credit hours, there.

Which means I can keep going at UT until I get my GPA up.  So, I could take a class here and there until I get over the 2.75 number. 

As for the Fall, I think I can stay at UT and take at least six credit hours, which keeps me moving towards graduation and keeps the student loans at bay another semester.  Looking over the schedule, if they'll let me, my best bet is to try and take all flex classes.  For the most part, they are 1 credit hour classes that meet over a long weekend.  If I had to take a half-day off for drive-time, I'd be looking at only a handful of vacation days all told. 

I don't want to miss out on the chance to take some credit hours, but I don't want to overcommit if I'm going to be starting a new job, either.  I can knock out flex hour classes pretty easily. 

After the Fall semester, I should have a good idea of whether I can get telecommuting at work, and/or whether I will have the gpa to transfer to Capital.

Speaking of GPA, I feel okay about my prospects of passing crimlaw.  Need to study a little more and the exam is at 1:00 this afternoon.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Damage Control, What comes next?

I feel pretty good about my prospects in Crim Law. The long weekend should be enough to get me prepared for the exam on Monday. I also will need to get some Contracts in there, too, since I'll only have Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for that.

I actually didn't feel that bad about my Property exam (taken on Tuesday.) I know I missed a lot of points, but I think I have a shot at getting a C. Unfortunately, the more I talk about the exam with fellow students, the worse it looks for me. I missed a lot of major issues.

That's my lowered expectations for this semester. My life has pretty much been a disaster since March. Everything that could go wrong, did, pretty much beyond my most horrifying nightmares.

On the bright side, everything seems to be okay with my son. I also am not experiencing any health issues. So, thanks for small mercies, I guess.

I just don't know what's going to happen after this, but ever since March, my time-frame for planning has shortened considerably. Most days, I am just trying to get through the day.

I can't help but feel that I'll have a couple of classes from this Spring semester that I'll need to re-take. I also may have to drop out and get a job. I don't know if, when or how I'll finish law school at this point. That's just something that's largely out of my control.

I do wish I could continue law school. Even if I had to repeat two classes, that would still mean I successfully completed 8 of my 10 1L classes. Yeah, that means taking Summer classes, or taking classes beyond the proscribed 3 years, but there are worse things in the world. On the bright side, I feel confident that I got a passing grade in Research and Writing and I feel pretty sanguine about the possibility of pulling out a passing grade in a couple of my other classes.

Today is sorta nice. I feel like I did well enough on Constitutional Law to pass. The exam finished up at noon. I'm already jumping on Criminal Law. Now, I'm finally in the swing of things.

I would say there's about a 50/50 shot that I passed Property. However, I feel pretty good about Constitutional Law, the exam I took today.

I think I'm in good shape for Crim Law based on what I see here, and the fact that I have 3 full days before the exam.

I need to allocate some of that time to Contracts, and I think I can pass that, too.

So, all in all, trying to thread the needle. Maybe I'll get through with only Property to repeat. It's not that it was hard stuff to master. It's just that it's hard to focus and stay current when the events in your life have kept you from sleeping more than a couple of hours a night since late February.

I'll need a liberal dose of luck this time around. I truly am testing the question: "how bad can an exam be and still get a C." No offense to my classmates, but I sure wish there were a lot more dumb ones. This curve is seriously tough. I've already seen how tough it is to try to break into the better grades. Now, I'm going to see how hard it is to stay out of the bottom ones.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

WTF is going on?

Okay, a brief break during finals to explain a little of what is going on in my life.

First, I may not be back next semester.  When I started this law school thing, it was sort of on a wing and a prayer.  Held together with duct-tape and chicken wire.  I really needed things to go well in other parts of my life for me to be able to do this.  Fall semester, everything went pretty well.  I was able to devote a lot of time to school.  Did fine with grades.  Was in no real danger of flunking anything.

Spring semester, without going into too many details, has been a disaster in every imagineable way, other than two important ones.  Knock on wood, but my health is still good, and my son is still doing well.  Pretty much everything else in my life got in serious trouble after January first.  Again, don't want to go into too many details, but it was, without doubt, one of the most trying times of my life.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong for me, did.  It was utterly horriffic.

Starting early in March, I wasn't able to sleep.  Really, not until about mid-April when I finally got a little luck and things got a little more under control.  So, I'm still sleep deprived.  It's been difficult to find time to devote to school with all the other fires I've had to put out in my life.  Since March 1, I've been completely exhausted, totally stressed out, sleep-deprived.

The smart thing to do would probably have been to withdraw from all my classes.  I went into finals completely unprepared.  Realistically, I will have difficulty passing any classes.

In the final analysis, though, I figure I'll just cram what I can, take the exams I can take, and see if I pass any of them.  Even if I only pass 2 classes, that's still 2 more than dropping everything.

So, what does the future hold?  Right now, I'm not that sure I'll be back in the Fall.  For one thing, it's entirely likely I'll get into some academic trouble after this semester.  Might be put on probation or kicked out, or whatever.  At a minimum, I will probably have to repeat a couple of classes.  So, things aren't good on the academic front.

I'm also looking for a job, which is problematic in this economy.  Though, I may have a line on a job down in Dayton.  We'll see.  After so many years of trying to keep the business afloat during this recession, it'd be welcome to have a steady paycheck again.  This particular job is one I'd have wanted after law school, anyway.

If I get that job, I guess I could try to transfer down to U of Dayton or Ohio Northern law.  Who knows.  The idea of spending 5 more years getting my degree, part-time, isn't very appealing, in all honesty.

So, that's what's been going on.  It's not been a great few months and everything just became way too much.  The irony is that all these things that I don't like, and that largely I can't help, intruded on one of the parts of my life that I do like, and that I do have some control over:  law school.

It's just that sometimes, the tank is empty and you just don't have anything left.  As things stand, I'm shooting for Cs, and anything higher would be a miracle.  Also, I'm very, very ready to get grades lower than a C based on how I've prepared. 

In my life in general, I think after all these years, you just get sorta stubborn and get a determination that quitting just isn't an option.  I have a son to think about and take care of.  Everything else is a mess, but who knows.  It's not impossible that I could straighten everything out before I die, but it just might take that long.

At this point, for perhaps the very first time in my life, I set a goal every morning of making it through to bedtime.  More than that?  It's just too much to think about and is too overwhelming. 

I know I'll be right as rain someday.  However, I know that it won't be any day soon.  I also don't know how I'll do it. 

Ya just pull up your bandana and cowboy up.  That's what cowboys do.

All in all, it's sort of funny to think that 1L is over.  What a year!  Went by so very quickly.  I wish the stars would align to let me finish this thing out.  Just don't know how I'd make that happen, but who knows. 

Monday, March 12, 2012

Back from Spring Break

Okay, time to get down to crunchtime at law school.  Spring break is over and I stretched it out by taking the previous week off to work on my memo.  I still have 2 absences left in each class, but don't intend to use them.

At this point, there are 6 more weeks of classes and 2 weeks of finals to go.  I'm really limping towards the finish.  This is the crunchtime period, though.  I need to start prepping for finals. 

Strange how my perspective is different.  Used to be if I studied the night before an exam, I felt completely prepared.  Now, if I start studying 6 weeks out, I have this nagging feeling that I should probably have started earlier. 

Not sure if I'll be able to continue full-time after this semester.  I have so much up in the air.  The business has been doing so poorly, I probably need to find a job.  If I can't find one, I might need to move to a city with a more vibrant economy. 

Like pretty much everything in my life, my plans for getting through law school are a bit hazy.  However, I know what I have to do for the next 2 months.  Whatever happens after that is anybody's guess.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Spring Break!

I just finished my appellate brief.  Nice to have that weight off my shoulders.  No more real writing assignments this year.  I'll have an upper level writing requirement eventually, but not sure when that will happen. 

Still totally lacking in motivation.  I'm going to take this Spring Break away from school entirely.  Won't study much if any.  I also need to devote some attention to non-school stuff.  I have a couple of training classes I need to attend, for instance.

Hard to believe that there is only 6 more weeks of class after Spring Break.  If you don't obsess about it, the time goes by pretty quickly.  Hard to believe that in 2 months, my first year of law school will be in the bag.

1 down, 2 to go.  Not that encouraging, really.  However, I'll have the Summer to recouperate.  I am not looking for any internships or legal employment over the Summer.  Probably should, but won't.  The Summer classes are all offerred in the evening, when Logan's mom works.  So, taking a class here or there won't work, either.

If I can just get through this semester without having to repeat any classes, it'll be a wonderful thing.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Fall 1L Grade Post Mortem

I've met with all my profs to discuss my exam results from the Fall semester.  There were quite a few surprises in there.

The biggie is that I missed an A- in Civ Pro by one point.  Literally by one point. 

Second, in Torts, on the MCQ section, I was 1 point away from having the highest grade in the class.  I thought I killed the essays, but apparently the prof disagreed.  Might have done a little better than average on those, but nothing too extraordinary.  The prof did say I had one of the higher B+s. 

Contracts, I forgot to mention consideration on a short essay and it cost me 9 points.  Probably the difference between a B- and a B.

So, if things had gone a little differently, I'd be looking at more like a 3.3 instead of a 3.1. 

Not to sound like I'm rationalizing, but there's really not a significant difference between, say, a low A- and a high B+.  I think my grades were fair, but it does look like I didn't get a lot of luck, here. 

Where things could have gone one of two ways, it looks like more often, they went the other way.

Not sure to be encouraged by that.  Initially, it does sort of suck to think I was so close to an A- in Torts and Civ Pro.  On the other hand, I guess I could tell myself that it was basically a coin toss in a couple of my classes.  I just happened to come up tails twice. 

I also am coming to grips with the fact that all my other committments probably are hurting my grades.  I would be doing this differently if not for the time I need to spend on them.  How much difference?  Who knows.  I don't think it's huge, but it might be enough to make a 1 point difference on a couple of exams. 

Okay, on to semester two.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

3 weeks in...

3 weeks in.  11 weeks to go.  It already feels like we've been in this semester forever.  All I can think is how much I'll enjoy setting my own schedule next Fall.  It's been a strain to be here 5 days a week.  Only 11 more weeks of it, but I really need to move past the 1L phase.  Although we're not allowed to have jobs, I still have the biz and the kid.  This 5-day schedule blows.

Brief due tomorrow in writing.  I just can't get going on it.  I have all day after school today, and all morning tomorrow for it, though.  Not sure if it's graded or whether we just get a completion grade on it.  I'm hoping for a completion grade.  After this, the only remaining written assignment for Legal Writing is our final trial brief.  It'll be nice to kiss this class goodbye.

So, survive, survive.  Finals aren't for a while.  Study group starts next week.  I think that'll help some.  Didn't do any last semester.  If it can help me get one tick higher on one or two grades this semester, it's more than worth it.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Post Mortem on Fall Semester, 1L Year

All my grades are in.  Two B+, Two B, and one B-.  Overall GPA is 3.088.  So, just a tick shy of a 3.1.  I need a 3.2 to keep my scholarship.  So, basically, I need a 3.3 in the Spring Semester to keep it.

If I don't, I honestly don't think it will change my plans at all.  All in all, I'm not unhappy with my grades.  I feel like I did my best, or at least an approximation of it.  The difficulty I had was mostly in trying to write good answers during pretty severe time constraints on the exam. 

The only thing I could have done, but didn't, was work harder to put together a study group or two.  I am starting one up, now. 

I'm not really that optimistic that I'll be able to pull a 3.3 in the Spring, but I'll do what I can.  Just a couple of grades break my way and it could happen.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Contracts Grades Are In

Contracts is really the only exam where, when I look back, I feel like I just booted the thing.  The grades are posted and I got a B-.  This one, frankly, it would not have surprised me to get a C.  I was praying for a B.  I ended up with something in the middle, shading towards the B.  So, I'm pretty happy.

At this point, my GPA is ever so slightly higher than a 3.0, because my one B+ was in my 4 credit hour class.

The other class I'm worried about is Civ Pro, and I'm not confident about that one, but I'm certain I did much worse in Contracts.  I'm thinking I have a good shot at a B, which would put me in at the end of the semester with just a tick higher than a 3.0.

Today is actually the deadline to post grades.  So, the suspense should be over, soon.

Freakin' 1L.  It's funny, but they say that 1L classes really bond because they went through 1L together.  I can totally see that.  It's not that the classes, themselves, are that bad.  It's that there's so much emotion surrounding almost everything that happens.

Friday, January 6, 2012

In a foul mood...

I'm just generally in a bad mood for all sorts of reasons, but one of them is my disappointing Law School grades.  With three grades in, I have a B+ and two Bs.

Not so bad, but that's with my two strongest subjects in there.  The remaining classes were my weakest.  The deadline for reporting grades is tomorrow, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're posted a lot later than that, especially for one prof who had to grade another prof's exams after having to take over the class on short-notice due to an emergency.

I'm worried about both exams.  Made big mistakes on both of them. 

Now, I do think my grades are fair.  I guess I'm just in awe that so many people kicked my ass.  Property was the real stunner.  I thought I nailed that thing, but if I got a B, that means that probably 10 other students, give or take, did a better job than I did.  Smart people in this class, no doubt. 

Also, the gravitational pull of the B is starting to dawn on me.  We have roughly a 3.0 curve at the school.  I think only about 10% get As, but there's a little latitude in there.  Not sure how many get B+ or A-.  Figure if another 5% or so get those grades, then we're talking maybe 8 people in a class of 50 would get something higher than a B.

I'm also hoping it works in reverse:  that on a 3.0 curve, that also means that only 8 people or so will get less than a B. 

This means that, in a class of 50, about 35-ish will get a B.  An unlucky 8 or so get less than a B.  A very smart 8 or so get more than a B. 

Also, it's hard to guess how you did in a class. I thought I did pretty poorly in my legal writing class, but when the points were tallied I was almost spot-on for being right at the mean.  I honestly feared a C in that class.

Torts?  Felt really good after that one, and did end up with a B+.  So, who knows.  Property, I honestly thought that was my strongest exam and I got a B. 

I'm hoping the gravitational pull of the B will also keep me from getting a C in Civ Pro and Contracts.  I should know tomorrow.  That's the deadline, but like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if I only knew one of them by then.

It sorta sucks knowing that I'm an average student.  I did work pretty hard on this and put in a lot of prep, even before the semester started.  It does remind me a bit of b-school.  I was always getting my ass kicked by the touchy-feely types in classes like organizational behavior and labor and human resources.  I was always getting my ass kicked by the engineers in all my quantitative classes.

In the end, I got a 3.5, which wasn't competitively graded, but if I had to guess, was probably about average for the program.

In Law School, it's looking a lot like I may end up with a 3.0.  Average for the program.

Of course, both b-school and law school attract a lot of driven people who want to do well because a lot of money can be at stake.  Figure you take the general population.  Only 1 in 3 get a bachelor's degree.

Of those, most feel like they have more than enough school and never go back.  Then, you have the folks who think about law school.  You pretty much need an average or better LSAT to even get into an accredited law school.  In the end, my peer group in law school might very well be representative of something like the top 4% of the general population.

(33% of population gets a bachelor's degree.  25% of them even think about going on for graduate school.  50% of them can't test well enough to get into law school.  That works out to roughly 4% of the population.  Being average in that cohort means you're at about the 98th percentile in academic chops.  Also, being top 10% means you're in the top 4/10ths of a percent of the population as a whole.  Sort of shows why it's hard to get an A.  Those percentages aren't authoritative, by the way.  They're just my guesses as to what they should be.)

Now, on the bright side, I won't have to spend all that time working on law review! 

Ah well.  Schtuff happens.  My only worries related to my GPA are that I won't maintain a high enough GPA to keep my scholarship.  I need a 3.2 and as it stands now, I'd have about a 3.08 if I pull Bs in my two other classes.

The other worry is that I would like to gain some experience working for a law firm before I graduate.  Preferrably a personal injury firm.  However, if my grades aren't good enough, I won't be able to score an internship. 

All in all, not the biggest deal.  Really, in the final analysis, I need to remind myself that my A plan at graduation was to hang out a shingle and start a solo practice.  Nothing has really changed about that.