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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most people at least expect to land above median, even though half won't.

As someone who went to a very high ranked school, the biggest shock wasn't from the level of competition but from how opaque the whole process is. You get one grade per class and no feedback. That's it. It's hard to gauge how well you'll do because there's so few chances to practice beforehand. Even if you use old exams, your grade ultimately depends on how everyone else does, so it's tough to know whether your efforts are working.

It doesn't help that many law students are terrible human beings. Our school had a miniature scandal after someone leaked the law review's hidden cache of outlines and past exams. Then there's stories of people ripping the pages out of library books, setting off fire alarms the night before an exam, and stealing toner from all the printers so no one could print their outlines.

There was also a group of wealthy foreign students who paid for intense private tutoring. Not sure whether that worked out, though.[/quote]

While I've been out a long time, I heard all these stories when I was in school - they seemed to involve Georgetown and GW more than anywhere else.  As for a hidden cache of outlines and past exams, my law school had the past exams on file in the library.  Outlines are great, but it's hard to learn the material from someone else's organization - you learn a tremendous amount putting the outline together in the first place.  I learned a very solid strategy on how to take notes, study and outline from one of the few law school guides that was out when I went to law school.  It worked very well for me (summa cum laude).[/quote]

Agree on the outlines. The magic is in creating them. Using someone else's will get you at B but making your own may get you an A. I am not that brilliant or driven compared to my peers at law school but I was at the top of the curve due to systematic studying, copious use of study aids, and test taking skills (I even took a private class on how to take law school exams.) If you do all of this and know you have a kind of intelligence with quick processing/working memory then you can probably be fairly sure about being at least in top 25%. [/quote]

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