To the 1Ls stressing about grades (Tough love)

1Ls should've received their grades by now. A lot of the students I ta'd have been freaking out about their grades because they didn't do as well as they thought. A lot of the below may be things you've heard before, but that is because they are true and you need to take them in and believe them. Here's a few things to keep in mind to not get discouraged:

  1. Getting a 3.3 your first semester is not "bad." You didn't flunk and are by no means ruled out of anything career-wise. If you're outside of a T14 and big law is the goal, you'll have to step it up next semester but you clearly have a good base, now's the time to fix your mistakes and make the change
  2. Even if you didn't do as well as you would've liked to (maybe you're on academic probation or at risk of losing your scholarship) there is still time to turn things around. Nothing is impossible. Don't lose faith. Falling short your first semester of law school does not make you a failure, and it doesn't mean you won't get a great job with lots of money
  3. For future exams, try to be more resourceful. Use your professors, TAs & other 2Ls and 3Ls, past sample exams and answers to them, and most importantly: START STUDYING EARLIER! I don't care if this is controversial, but law school is hard, you should expect to work hard. If you're first starting to study and outline a week before exams start, you're doing something wrong. 1L classes are mostly a puzzle, you need to put the pieces together to see the big picture. If you do, you won't miss the issues.
  4. Mid-sized firms are just as good as big law firms. F*** the "prestige." These mid-sized firms pay close enough to the big law scale while requiring less hours (usually). And if you still wanted to work in a big firm, you could always lateral after proving your salt as a lawyer. Either way, as long as you put in the work, you won't be stuck with a job you're not excited about.

Bonus:

  1. Enough with the laptops. Handwrite your notes. Read the physical book. I can't explain it, but there's science to back it up. It works. *Edit: maybe it's placebo, or maybe those studies are good. Either way, it's worked for me.
  2. Learn from the example of the gunners. (Referring to the "good" gunners -- the ones doing the readings religiously and working hard.) They work hard and will have good results, and you can too.
  3. Stop feeling bad for yourself. Big fuckin whoop, you're tired. Law school is hard. Did you expect it to be easy? Work harder. Nobody is coming to save you. You'll thank yourself a year from now.
  4. Law school is a pretty simple formula, on a macro level. For the most part, you'll get what you put in. If you sacrifice the things your non-law school friends get to enjoy (and that you used to enjoy, like hanging out every weekend or scrolling on your phone for hours), you'll reap the rewards.
  5. F*** the friend groups and big study groups. Get yourself a squad of 2 other people at the most and get rid of the noise. Take the emotion out of it all. If a group isn't working, study on your own. If you find yourself bullshitting about, you're wasting your time and money, which you did not come to law school for.

EDIT: This is for the students that know it applies to them. If this is not you, I dont care, move on. No need to comment that not everyone wants to work in a well paying firm. Check your privileged takes at the door. Not everyone can afford to work a low paying but virtuous job.

EDIT 2: The handwriting tip seems to be a hot take, which is surprising but anyway, I put it in the bonus section for a reason. Some people might be just fine with typing their notes and that's great! But if you wanted to give it a try, you have this redditor's encouragement that it works well :)

EDIT 3: oh for fuck's sake. please keep in mind that the above is stuff that worked for me. by no means do you have to do any of these things, and you definitely don't have to let me know of your personal preferences and opinions. i'll answer them because i love the banter, but i promise you're not going to change my mind on something like, for example, handwriting notes being a good strategy, lol