All posts tagged: Academic Success

Prof. Carpenter speaks to a lecture hall with seated students

About Your First Semester Grades: What Ought to Come Next?

So here we are again – it’s the beginning of another Spring semester for America’s law students. This time of year means a lot of different things for a law school; it’s the beginning of the end for some of you who are getting ready to (finally!) graduate, but for 1Ls, it’s the end of the beginning – that bewildering first semester when you have absolutely no idea how you’re doing. Well, 1Ls: now you know how you were doing. The question for you now, is this: what ought to come next? As a prof who primarily teaches in the first year and also experienced my own share of law school grades that were sometimes relieving, sometimes disappointing, and frequently confusing, I’d like to offer a few words of advice. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands – and then immediately get back to work. For those of you who received above-the-curve grades, you’re probably pretty pumped right now, and it’s appropriate that you should be! I’m sure you worked really hard, …