Thursday, June 12, 2014
Score!
Got my letter from the office of financial aid today. I get to go to school next year for free!
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Summer Associate
Two and a half weeks into my summer associate gig at a big law firm here in San Diego. It's very interesting. A lot different than what I was expecting, but I think I am adjusting to it and have gotten into a groove.
The social aspects of interacting with the other summer associates, the associate attorneys, the partners, and the support staff is heavily emphasized. As I've come to realize, the summer associate experience isn't really so much about the work that you do, as much as it is about getting to know everyone. At this point, after getting your foot in the door, everyone there realizes that you are capable of doing the work and being an attorney, otherwise you wouldn't have even received an offer as a summer associate. The emphasis is finding out what kind of person you are, your personality and whether or not you are going to be a good fit for the practice group that you'll be working with.
A large aspect of being an attorney, has a lot more to do with being able to interact and socialize with the clients without coming off as a complete tool, and being able to carry an intelligent interesting conversation. And if the objective of the firm is to hire associates they hope will eventually become partners, the types of associates they want to hire are those that are going to be assets to the firm in both their work product and eventually those that are capable of growing the business by procuring new clients. And if you can't ingratiate yourself and get to know and be comfortable with the other attorneys in the office, how are you ever going to be able to do business generation and get new clients? Makes sense, and attorneys work long hours, and if you're not the kind of person they are going to like hanging out with and working closely with, it's not going to be a good fit. So all those social events, there's an underlying motive behind them. Which means you're kind of under a microscope at all times. That part is a little distasteful, but it is what it is.
Got my spring grades back, and I rocked it. A+, A, A, A, A-. The A+ was in my favorite class last semester. I suspect that I got the highest grade in the class, but am not sure. I'll find out later, when the CALI awards for the spring semester are announced. But I am most proud of the A that I got in a different class. I bombed the midterm as apparently I was completely lost in the subject. Initially at the time, I thought I did well on the midterm, until I got it back. For the final, I studied my butt off, essentially taught myself the subject from reading a lot of different sources, since the professor for the most part was useless. And after I re-read my midterm, I realized that I got the score I deserved, because as my understanding of the material coalesced into coherent knowledge, I realized my midterm essay was a complete pile of crap. So for me to pull of an A, I must have really rocked the final.
Class ranks were released today, and I am happy to say that I should be going to school for free next semester and hopefully the entire year. Not sure if any future scholarship awards are contingent on continued academic performance, but I suspect that they are. But I see no reason as to why my performance would substantially decline, so I am not overly concerned about that. However, that means I spent an inordinate amount of time doing the write-on competition for law review, as my grades have guaranteed me an invitation. C'est la vie. Extra practice writing a legal memo, I suppose.
As you might suspect, all of these other life events have really put a damper on my poker playing. Haven't played a hand of 40/80 in over a month, and may not until August, assuming the game is still alive come August. Otherwise, I guess I'll be playing 8/16 just for fun a few weekends a month on Saturday nights just to relax. I might try and get up there this Friday evening after work, if I don't go out for drinks with the attorneys from the office. But even if I do make it up there, there is certainly no guarantee that a 40 game will even still be going at that time.
I get the 4th of July off from work, and it's on a Friday this year. Might see if I can sneak a trip to Vegas for a few nights. Alternatively, depending on summer interviews for next year I might be able to sneak a trip in after my summer gig is up and before classes start in the fall. Or maybe both.
The social aspects of interacting with the other summer associates, the associate attorneys, the partners, and the support staff is heavily emphasized. As I've come to realize, the summer associate experience isn't really so much about the work that you do, as much as it is about getting to know everyone. At this point, after getting your foot in the door, everyone there realizes that you are capable of doing the work and being an attorney, otherwise you wouldn't have even received an offer as a summer associate. The emphasis is finding out what kind of person you are, your personality and whether or not you are going to be a good fit for the practice group that you'll be working with.
A large aspect of being an attorney, has a lot more to do with being able to interact and socialize with the clients without coming off as a complete tool, and being able to carry an intelligent interesting conversation. And if the objective of the firm is to hire associates they hope will eventually become partners, the types of associates they want to hire are those that are going to be assets to the firm in both their work product and eventually those that are capable of growing the business by procuring new clients. And if you can't ingratiate yourself and get to know and be comfortable with the other attorneys in the office, how are you ever going to be able to do business generation and get new clients? Makes sense, and attorneys work long hours, and if you're not the kind of person they are going to like hanging out with and working closely with, it's not going to be a good fit. So all those social events, there's an underlying motive behind them. Which means you're kind of under a microscope at all times. That part is a little distasteful, but it is what it is.
Got my spring grades back, and I rocked it. A+, A, A, A, A-. The A+ was in my favorite class last semester. I suspect that I got the highest grade in the class, but am not sure. I'll find out later, when the CALI awards for the spring semester are announced. But I am most proud of the A that I got in a different class. I bombed the midterm as apparently I was completely lost in the subject. Initially at the time, I thought I did well on the midterm, until I got it back. For the final, I studied my butt off, essentially taught myself the subject from reading a lot of different sources, since the professor for the most part was useless. And after I re-read my midterm, I realized that I got the score I deserved, because as my understanding of the material coalesced into coherent knowledge, I realized my midterm essay was a complete pile of crap. So for me to pull of an A, I must have really rocked the final.
Class ranks were released today, and I am happy to say that I should be going to school for free next semester and hopefully the entire year. Not sure if any future scholarship awards are contingent on continued academic performance, but I suspect that they are. But I see no reason as to why my performance would substantially decline, so I am not overly concerned about that. However, that means I spent an inordinate amount of time doing the write-on competition for law review, as my grades have guaranteed me an invitation. C'est la vie. Extra practice writing a legal memo, I suppose.
As you might suspect, all of these other life events have really put a damper on my poker playing. Haven't played a hand of 40/80 in over a month, and may not until August, assuming the game is still alive come August. Otherwise, I guess I'll be playing 8/16 just for fun a few weekends a month on Saturday nights just to relax. I might try and get up there this Friday evening after work, if I don't go out for drinks with the attorneys from the office. But even if I do make it up there, there is certainly no guarantee that a 40 game will even still be going at that time.
I get the 4th of July off from work, and it's on a Friday this year. Might see if I can sneak a trip to Vegas for a few nights. Alternatively, depending on summer interviews for next year I might be able to sneak a trip in after my summer gig is up and before classes start in the fall. Or maybe both.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Update
Life is going well. Law school is keeping me extremely busy. First quarter of the year is almost in the books. I think I will get one more poker session before the quarter ends this Friday. I've been looking over my limit holdem results for year to date, here are the raw stats:
Big Bets Won : 240.8417
Total Hours Played : 124.9167
Weighted Hourly Big Bet : 72.2962
Big Bets / Hour : 1.928019
So overall, not bad stats for a little over 100 hours. In reality, it doesn't mean much. It's such a small sample size, and in terms of actual dollars I'm not actually winning all that much due to one bad 75/150 session. And of course in terms of dollar amounts, that one bad 75/150 session dominates the actual dollar results, but in terms of the overall statistics doesn't have that large of an effect. C'est la vie.
Things will get interesting as we move into the home stretch of this semester. During the month of April, I should be able to get some more significant hours in, but once May hits and finals start, I'll be pretty much out of action. And then I start my summer job on May 27. That runs for 10 weeks until August 1, and then a few weeks off before the fall semester starts again on August 25.
Will the game survive my absence? I certainly hope so. If not, I'd better get my fair share before it dries up any more than it already has.
Big Bets Won : 240.8417
Total Hours Played : 124.9167
Weighted Hourly Big Bet : 72.2962
Big Bets / Hour : 1.928019
So overall, not bad stats for a little over 100 hours. In reality, it doesn't mean much. It's such a small sample size, and in terms of actual dollars I'm not actually winning all that much due to one bad 75/150 session. And of course in terms of dollar amounts, that one bad 75/150 session dominates the actual dollar results, but in terms of the overall statistics doesn't have that large of an effect. C'est la vie.
Things will get interesting as we move into the home stretch of this semester. During the month of April, I should be able to get some more significant hours in, but once May hits and finals start, I'll be pretty much out of action. And then I start my summer job on May 27. That runs for 10 weeks until August 1, and then a few weeks off before the fall semester starts again on August 25.
Will the game survive my absence? I certainly hope so. If not, I'd better get my fair share before it dries up any more than it already has.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Spring Break
My spring break from law school was uneventful. I had jury duty one day and took care of that. It was a minor criminal matter, and I never got into the jury box. Pretty sure I would have been dismissed anyways. I studied for two days and then got to play some pokers on Wednesday night and Thursday. My wife had her sisters in town, and they spent the weekend in Los Angeles, so I had the kids the rest of the weekend.
Thursday night was an interesting night to stay the least. Machine gun Peter was in the house and lagging it up in the 8/16 game with a big stack of chips. I, of course get a seat in the game, and have minor position on Peter (8) vs (2). Most of the players in that game have no idea how to deal with Peter's aggression and fold way too much to him, or play back at him at the wrong times and allow Peter to own them.
I, however, get to simply own Peter, over and over again. And he doesn't seem to adjust. I end up winning $1,441 in 3.5 hours. Eventually Peter gets moved over to the main game, and I follow him over about 30 minutes later. In the main game, Peter's big stack is now down to less than a rack. Peter's been chirping all night about getting a 15/30 6-max game fired up.
Eventually the game goes at 12:30am, starting 6 handed. This time Peter has position on me (1) v. (5), but it doesn't matter. He literally DID NOT FOLD A HAND PREFLOP for the 4 hours that I played. When you're up against Machine Gun, you need to make a hand.
I ran good, won $1,565 in 4 hours and booked it and got into bed a little after 5 am. Always seems to happen, when I need to be up early the morning, a great game breaks out that I have to leave early. Probably for the best anyways, but I really didn't want to leave that game. I would've left earlier, but Cabbie Dave made a cameo appearance and blasted off his deposit in about 40 minutes.
Back to school starting today, thankfully.
Thursday night was an interesting night to stay the least. Machine gun Peter was in the house and lagging it up in the 8/16 game with a big stack of chips. I, of course get a seat in the game, and have minor position on Peter (8) vs (2). Most of the players in that game have no idea how to deal with Peter's aggression and fold way too much to him, or play back at him at the wrong times and allow Peter to own them.
I, however, get to simply own Peter, over and over again. And he doesn't seem to adjust. I end up winning $1,441 in 3.5 hours. Eventually Peter gets moved over to the main game, and I follow him over about 30 minutes later. In the main game, Peter's big stack is now down to less than a rack. Peter's been chirping all night about getting a 15/30 6-max game fired up.
Eventually the game goes at 12:30am, starting 6 handed. This time Peter has position on me (1) v. (5), but it doesn't matter. He literally DID NOT FOLD A HAND PREFLOP for the 4 hours that I played. When you're up against Machine Gun, you need to make a hand.
I ran good, won $1,565 in 4 hours and booked it and got into bed a little after 5 am. Always seems to happen, when I need to be up early the morning, a great game breaks out that I have to leave early. Probably for the best anyways, but I really didn't want to leave that game. I would've left earlier, but Cabbie Dave made a cameo appearance and blasted off his deposit in about 40 minutes.
Back to school starting today, thankfully.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Random Musings
Things are going well for me. I successfully finished my first semester of law school. I rocked it grades wise. I received a CALI award for one of my classes. I had heard about these in passing but didn't really know what it was until I got an e-mail indicating that I had received one. Apparently, it's somewhat of a big deal, so that's cool. And I got an invitation from the school to be a legal research assistant, based on at least one professor's recommendation. So that's cool, too. Although I am worried about committing too much time to different things next year, so I haven't really decided if I am going to do that, yet.
I haven't been playing much lately. With my school schedule being so full, I have been scheduling all of my interviews for Fridays after my morning class, so I haven't gotten too many hours in since I started interviewing. Since January 31st I have had three interviews on each successive Friday. Two in San Diego, one in Los Angeles. I feel like all of them went really well, but we'll see. The LA firm called me back today and let me know they'd be sending me an official offer letter in the mail. Not sure how much time I'll have to respond. Hopefully, enough that the other firms will still have time to give me an offer so I can choose wisely. No interview scheduled for this Friday, but I am really interested in at least two other firms and I am still working on getting interviews with them as well.
Poker-wise, I've only put in 19.5 hours of play in since January 31st. I have won 11.25k in that time span, but am still stuck 4 figures on the year. Go figure. Why? One bad session of 75-150 will do that to you. Oh well. Last Friday, Valentine's Day, I wasn't even planning on playing. I got home around 6:30 from my interview and had dinner with my family. Unfortunately, my wife wasn't feeling the greatest, and she went to bed early. I figured I would too, when I got the magic text that the game was super good and I needed to get my butt up there.
So I did, and I won a little over 5k in 4 hours. That's pretty good.
Spring break is coming up soon, my appellate brief is due before then, and then just oral arguments are left and then Legal Writing & Research will be done for the semester. Which will free up my Fridays after that, so I should be able to start the 40 games on Fridays. During spring break, I have jury duty scheduled for Monday. That should be an interesting experience, particularly if I actually make it into a jury box and have to go through the potential juror interview. And my wife is planning a trip to Los Angeles to visit her sisters for the weekend, so I will have the kids all weekend. If everything plays out ok, and I can massage my wife, I might try and sneak in a trip to Vegas. Probably not, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Even if I don't, my birthday gift from myself via my wife's blessing, of getting tickets for opening weekend of March Madness at Viejas arena in late March makes up for it.
Ok, that's enough of an update for now. Run well, know when to value bet ace-high, and when to fold middle pair and you'll never be a loser.
I haven't been playing much lately. With my school schedule being so full, I have been scheduling all of my interviews for Fridays after my morning class, so I haven't gotten too many hours in since I started interviewing. Since January 31st I have had three interviews on each successive Friday. Two in San Diego, one in Los Angeles. I feel like all of them went really well, but we'll see. The LA firm called me back today and let me know they'd be sending me an official offer letter in the mail. Not sure how much time I'll have to respond. Hopefully, enough that the other firms will still have time to give me an offer so I can choose wisely. No interview scheduled for this Friday, but I am really interested in at least two other firms and I am still working on getting interviews with them as well.
Poker-wise, I've only put in 19.5 hours of play in since January 31st. I have won 11.25k in that time span, but am still stuck 4 figures on the year. Go figure. Why? One bad session of 75-150 will do that to you. Oh well. Last Friday, Valentine's Day, I wasn't even planning on playing. I got home around 6:30 from my interview and had dinner with my family. Unfortunately, my wife wasn't feeling the greatest, and she went to bed early. I figured I would too, when I got the magic text that the game was super good and I needed to get my butt up there.
So I did, and I won a little over 5k in 4 hours. That's pretty good.
Spring break is coming up soon, my appellate brief is due before then, and then just oral arguments are left and then Legal Writing & Research will be done for the semester. Which will free up my Fridays after that, so I should be able to start the 40 games on Fridays. During spring break, I have jury duty scheduled for Monday. That should be an interesting experience, particularly if I actually make it into a jury box and have to go through the potential juror interview. And my wife is planning a trip to Los Angeles to visit her sisters for the weekend, so I will have the kids all weekend. If everything plays out ok, and I can massage my wife, I might try and sneak in a trip to Vegas. Probably not, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Even if I don't, my birthday gift from myself via my wife's blessing, of getting tickets for opening weekend of March Madness at Viejas arena in late March makes up for it.
Ok, that's enough of an update for now. Run well, know when to value bet ace-high, and when to fold middle pair and you'll never be a loser.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
I'm still alive
Don't worry. I am still alive and kicking. Just been extremely busy. I know that I owe you all a trip report from my Vegas jaunt in December, and it will be forthcoming here eventually. Let's just say it was a profitable trip. I made legendary craps status twice for 50/100/50 on this silly bet. First time I hit it, I need to roll 1,1. Second time I hit it all I had left was 6,6. Fitting and symmetric, so I was stoked about that little bit of yin-yang in my gambling life.
As for law school, first semester grades are in and I rocked it. 3.85 GPA. Here's how that compares to last year's class after first year classes. A in Criminal Law. A in Civil Procedure. A- in Torts. A- in Legal Writing and Research. I am very stoked about the A- in Torts. I got a B on the midterm in that class, and to pull off an A-, means I must have absolutely rocked the final! And I am very happy with the A- in Legal Writing and Research. I did very middle of the pack on our first two graded assignments in that class as well, as I adjusted to how to properly do legal writing, and I rocked the final paper, getting the second or third highest grade in the class.
As to be expected in a competitive law school, there is a flip side to that coin. For everyone who did well, there is likely someone who did not do as well. And there really is no upside to disseminating your grades to others in your class. If you did extremely well, it only breeds contempt, jealousy, and other potentially negative feelings. If you did poorly, well everyone is going to think you're an idiot. So if anyone asks, the best response to give is a well thought out neutral response, such as, "I think I got the grades that I deserved and am happy with how I did." Hopefully, that's neutral enough.
I am well into my summer job search. Given my background, I have been using a different strategy than is typical for most 1L's. After extensive consultation with the career services offices, I have been applying for the nation-wide and very competitive diversity fellowships and patent fellowships that various big law firms offer to 1L's. I think I have reasonable chance, but am for sure not banking on that. I have been contacting partners directly who are in charge of the practice groups, or are big enough fish to have some clout at their firms. I have had about a 50% response rate of some sort from all e-mails I have sent out. I have already had one phone interview, have a second phone interview tomorrow, and an on-site interview with the same firm that phone interviewed me already on Friday, and I'm in the process of lining up another interview in Los Angeles too. All with top tier big law firms in the intellectual property space. So I am super stoked about that. I'd like to have all my employment stuff wrapped up before spring break, so I can just enjoy the break and focus on my studies and finals and not worry about where I'll be working for the summer.
All right, break over. Time to read some Constitutional Law, which by the way, is by far the most interesting class I have this semester.
As for law school, first semester grades are in and I rocked it. 3.85 GPA. Here's how that compares to last year's class after first year classes. A in Criminal Law. A in Civil Procedure. A- in Torts. A- in Legal Writing and Research. I am very stoked about the A- in Torts. I got a B on the midterm in that class, and to pull off an A-, means I must have absolutely rocked the final! And I am very happy with the A- in Legal Writing and Research. I did very middle of the pack on our first two graded assignments in that class as well, as I adjusted to how to properly do legal writing, and I rocked the final paper, getting the second or third highest grade in the class.
As to be expected in a competitive law school, there is a flip side to that coin. For everyone who did well, there is likely someone who did not do as well. And there really is no upside to disseminating your grades to others in your class. If you did extremely well, it only breeds contempt, jealousy, and other potentially negative feelings. If you did poorly, well everyone is going to think you're an idiot. So if anyone asks, the best response to give is a well thought out neutral response, such as, "I think I got the grades that I deserved and am happy with how I did." Hopefully, that's neutral enough.
I am well into my summer job search. Given my background, I have been using a different strategy than is typical for most 1L's. After extensive consultation with the career services offices, I have been applying for the nation-wide and very competitive diversity fellowships and patent fellowships that various big law firms offer to 1L's. I think I have reasonable chance, but am for sure not banking on that. I have been contacting partners directly who are in charge of the practice groups, or are big enough fish to have some clout at their firms. I have had about a 50% response rate of some sort from all e-mails I have sent out. I have already had one phone interview, have a second phone interview tomorrow, and an on-site interview with the same firm that phone interviewed me already on Friday, and I'm in the process of lining up another interview in Los Angeles too. All with top tier big law firms in the intellectual property space. So I am super stoked about that. I'd like to have all my employment stuff wrapped up before spring break, so I can just enjoy the break and focus on my studies and finals and not worry about where I'll be working for the summer.
All right, break over. Time to read some Constitutional Law, which by the way, is by far the most interesting class I have this semester.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Now this is not the end
It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
-- Winston Churchill, London, 1942
Finals are almost over for my first semester. I took my first final yesterday, and then have two finals next week. One on Monday and one on Wednesday. Then I am off to Vegas on Thursday for a few days.
On my midterms, I got two A's and a B. The B was in Torts, on a multiple choice exam, which I very much dislike, but will need to get used to it, as part of the California Bar Exam, is multiple choice. On Civil Procedure which was just an essay, I did well, and on Criminal Law, I got one of the highest grades in the class. The Criminal Law midterm was a combination of an essay and multiple choice. The criminal law midterm multiple choice was extremely challenging. After the exam, I thought to myself, self, there was only 1 question out of 9, that I actually know I got right. The other 8, I had to think about and make arguments for why each answer could be correct, and then pick the best one. It turns out, I got 7 out of 9 correct on the multiple choice and when I went to look at my exam, figured out why I missed the other two. Interestingly enough, the professor posted the raw exam scores and the distribution was very telling.
The distribution approximates a mirrored chi-squared with a long tail, or another way of thinking about it is a "chi-squared" distribution with a long left handed tail as opposed to the normal long right handed tail. What does all of this mean? Well, law school is interesting in that raw scores don't really matter all that much. Mean and standard deviation aren't really relevant. What's relevant is the median and your ranking. And the distribution is telling. There are a couple of outliers at the far right, who did very well on the exam, and then you have a large middle section where lots of people are bunched together and all within a few points of each other, and then a very long tail as you get to people who clearly either a) are not getting it, b) don't belong in law school, c) don't care, or d) all of the above. So why does all of this matter? Because USD School of Law, and many other law schools have a mandatory curve for their 1L class.
Grading for all first-year courses, except Introduction to the Study of Law, can use any grade from A+ to F on a mandatory curve. The average of the grades for each course must be between 2.95 and 3.05. The grade distribution must be as follows.
So there's a couple of quick observations I have about this system, both from a personal practical point of view, and from a 10,000 foot view on institutional implications of law school and grades. From a personal practical point of view, EVERY LITTLE POINT MATTERS, and it matters a lot. Because your grade is determined, not by how well you do in the abstract, but it is determined by how well you do relative to everyone else in the class. I guess this is why I've heard the stories and I'm sure others have as well, as to why law school can be so competitive and cut-throat. There are two ways to get a better grade, get your score to go up, or make someone else's score go down.
So instead of the mean giving you a wealth of information about the class, it is now all centered on the median. And remember how the distribution looks? Yep, lots of people clustered together in a big center of mass. And remember those arbitrary lines and GPA's that need to be set? That means 1 point, yes 1 point, simply because it kicks you in into the next highest grouping could make a very significant difference in your grade. And since a lot of financial aid in law school is also tied to your ranking within your class, well you see where this is going.
Next, there is an inherent bias in the system across the different sections and professors. You'll notice the rules simply say the class average must be between 2.95 and 3.05, and what the requirements are on the top and bottom. No requirements that says something like students ranked in the top 5% will receive an A+, etc, etc. What are the implications of this? Well a professor, who really doesn't want to fail anyone, or give grades no lower than a C-, or to minimize D's and F's, can help push the average down, by giving everyone in the top 20% A-. There is nothing explicitly in the rules against this, and it would conform. Now, it may not be in spirit with the rules, but aren't lawyers by nature, trying to push the rules at every possible corner? So what is the impact of this? Well, at USD at least, there are approximately 225 total students in the 1L class, divided into 3 sections of approximately 75 each. But your class rank is not specific to your section, but to the overall class. Each section takes its substantive law classes together and will do so for the full year, consisting of 26 units. So there are some potential issues, if let's say Crim Professor I versus Crim Professor II and Crim Professor III don't get together and grade similarly. If one professor wants to give 2 or 3 A+'s, but another doesn't, well that's going to have an effect on class rank when the entire 1L class of 225 is ranked. And since there's money on the line, as well as things like admission on to law review, well yeah, stuff like this kind of matters. Now, maybe the school has this stuff all figured out, and behind the scenes they take steps to make sure that things are done properly. But then, again, maybe they don't.
What's the point of all this? In the sense of having a mandatory curve, and assigning what the average grade should be? Unless you attend an elite school like Harvard or Yale, where everyone who graduates from there is going to get a job that they want, you need a way of evaluating your students. But, there has been a problem with grade inflation among higher education institutions for decades now. Mommy and Daddy, want to make sure little Junior is getting good grades, and since they are paying so much, the school feels compelled to hand out the grade. Take a look at this article. So what, you say? Well, think about if you are USD and you need your graduates to compete with other graduates from like institutions and those institution's graduates have GPA's higher than yours? That doesn't look good. Well how do you fix it? Renorm the average, that's how. So instead of the average being a C, (which I recall it being that way when I was an undergraduate), it has been inflated to a B. And with the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see it go higher, as other schools will be tempted to make their graduates look better, and what you end up having is a nuclear arms grade race, also known as an unstable positive feedback system. So in reality what does all of this mean? Once again, your grade doesn't really matter. What matters is your ranking. And employers know how law school works. And guess what employers want to know? Are you in the top 10% of your class, top 15%, top 25%, top 33%, top 50%, etc. At the more prestigious universities, the lower they are willing to dip to find talent. At the weaker schools, the higher up you need to be, in order to be even considered.
So where am I? I don't know. The official rankings for the 1L class, don't come out until after spring grades are released in May. From what I have seen so far, I should be in the top 25% without a problem after the fall term ends, even though it will be unofficial. I hope I can get at least a B+/A- in Torts. Getting that B on the midterm, really sucks, and it is going to be hard to overcome, now that I know a little better how the system actually works.
-- Winston Churchill, London, 1942
Finals are almost over for my first semester. I took my first final yesterday, and then have two finals next week. One on Monday and one on Wednesday. Then I am off to Vegas on Thursday for a few days.
On my midterms, I got two A's and a B. The B was in Torts, on a multiple choice exam, which I very much dislike, but will need to get used to it, as part of the California Bar Exam, is multiple choice. On Civil Procedure which was just an essay, I did well, and on Criminal Law, I got one of the highest grades in the class. The Criminal Law midterm was a combination of an essay and multiple choice. The criminal law midterm multiple choice was extremely challenging. After the exam, I thought to myself, self, there was only 1 question out of 9, that I actually know I got right. The other 8, I had to think about and make arguments for why each answer could be correct, and then pick the best one. It turns out, I got 7 out of 9 correct on the multiple choice and when I went to look at my exam, figured out why I missed the other two. Interestingly enough, the professor posted the raw exam scores and the distribution was very telling.
Grading for all first-year courses, except Introduction to the Study of Law, can use any grade from A+ to F on a mandatory curve. The average of the grades for each course must be between 2.95 and 3.05. The grade distribution must be as follows.
- 20-25% of all grades for the class must be above B+. Within this group of grades, the mean must not exceed 3.85.
- AND 20-25% of all grades for the class must be below B-. Within this group of grades, 8-12% of all grades for the class must be below C.
So there's a couple of quick observations I have about this system, both from a personal practical point of view, and from a 10,000 foot view on institutional implications of law school and grades. From a personal practical point of view, EVERY LITTLE POINT MATTERS, and it matters a lot. Because your grade is determined, not by how well you do in the abstract, but it is determined by how well you do relative to everyone else in the class. I guess this is why I've heard the stories and I'm sure others have as well, as to why law school can be so competitive and cut-throat. There are two ways to get a better grade, get your score to go up, or make someone else's score go down.
So instead of the mean giving you a wealth of information about the class, it is now all centered on the median. And remember how the distribution looks? Yep, lots of people clustered together in a big center of mass. And remember those arbitrary lines and GPA's that need to be set? That means 1 point, yes 1 point, simply because it kicks you in into the next highest grouping could make a very significant difference in your grade. And since a lot of financial aid in law school is also tied to your ranking within your class, well you see where this is going.
Next, there is an inherent bias in the system across the different sections and professors. You'll notice the rules simply say the class average must be between 2.95 and 3.05, and what the requirements are on the top and bottom. No requirements that says something like students ranked in the top 5% will receive an A+, etc, etc. What are the implications of this? Well a professor, who really doesn't want to fail anyone, or give grades no lower than a C-, or to minimize D's and F's, can help push the average down, by giving everyone in the top 20% A-. There is nothing explicitly in the rules against this, and it would conform. Now, it may not be in spirit with the rules, but aren't lawyers by nature, trying to push the rules at every possible corner? So what is the impact of this? Well, at USD at least, there are approximately 225 total students in the 1L class, divided into 3 sections of approximately 75 each. But your class rank is not specific to your section, but to the overall class. Each section takes its substantive law classes together and will do so for the full year, consisting of 26 units. So there are some potential issues, if let's say Crim Professor I versus Crim Professor II and Crim Professor III don't get together and grade similarly. If one professor wants to give 2 or 3 A+'s, but another doesn't, well that's going to have an effect on class rank when the entire 1L class of 225 is ranked. And since there's money on the line, as well as things like admission on to law review, well yeah, stuff like this kind of matters. Now, maybe the school has this stuff all figured out, and behind the scenes they take steps to make sure that things are done properly. But then, again, maybe they don't.
What's the point of all this? In the sense of having a mandatory curve, and assigning what the average grade should be? Unless you attend an elite school like Harvard or Yale, where everyone who graduates from there is going to get a job that they want, you need a way of evaluating your students. But, there has been a problem with grade inflation among higher education institutions for decades now. Mommy and Daddy, want to make sure little Junior is getting good grades, and since they are paying so much, the school feels compelled to hand out the grade. Take a look at this article. So what, you say? Well, think about if you are USD and you need your graduates to compete with other graduates from like institutions and those institution's graduates have GPA's higher than yours? That doesn't look good. Well how do you fix it? Renorm the average, that's how. So instead of the average being a C, (which I recall it being that way when I was an undergraduate), it has been inflated to a B. And with the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see it go higher, as other schools will be tempted to make their graduates look better, and what you end up having is a nuclear arms grade race, also known as an unstable positive feedback system. So in reality what does all of this mean? Once again, your grade doesn't really matter. What matters is your ranking. And employers know how law school works. And guess what employers want to know? Are you in the top 10% of your class, top 15%, top 25%, top 33%, top 50%, etc. At the more prestigious universities, the lower they are willing to dip to find talent. At the weaker schools, the higher up you need to be, in order to be even considered.
So where am I? I don't know. The official rankings for the 1L class, don't come out until after spring grades are released in May. From what I have seen so far, I should be in the top 25% without a problem after the fall term ends, even though it will be unofficial. I hope I can get at least a B+/A- in Torts. Getting that B on the midterm, really sucks, and it is going to be hard to overcome, now that I know a little better how the system actually works.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
