UNC SCHOOL OF LAW — A 3L’S REFLECTIONS ON LEGAL EDUCATION
In Re: to Professor X’s email about the final stating “If you want to know how to win this exam in a class full of terrific students…”
As a 3L, and one of the ‘older’ students in the class, and as a dual degree student who has been here 4 years instead of three, let me share a nugget of wisdom with ya’ll:
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A class, a test, your education— these are NOT things you should be aspiring to ‘win’ (as in you want to ‘beat’ the other students).
You want to do well, and that is admirable. And yes, we are graded on a curve so, unfortunately, there is an element of competition when it comes to our grades (though I feel that system is inherently flawed for a variety of reasons).
But I say to you, gunner 2Ls: you cannot WIN law school. You can only do the best that you can do. If you aspire to learn as much as you can and then apply what you learn to meet your needs and goals, you win. Someone else’s ‘success’ does not diminish your own, and someone else’s ‘failure’ absolutely does not make you a ‘better’ person.
You might think that if you make the top 10% of your class, and are on journals, and score that big law firm job pulling in six figures right after graduation, that you have ‘won.’ You are wrong.
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I cannot tell you how many students I know who have ‘won’ law school by that standard and then gone on to HATE their lives. Many develop serious emotional problems from the stress, and eventually renounce the law entirely as their profession. You can read about this in countless articles and blogs, but I am telling you what I have PERSONALLY seen from former classmates and family friends.
And also, for the record, being a great law student doesn’t mean you will be a great attorney. There are plenty of great law students who fail miserably in practice. Similarly, being a bad law student doesn’t mean you will be a bad attorney. There are plenty of ‘C’ students who go on to be judges. And choosing NOT to practice law after you graduate does not mean you have ‘wasted’ your time or ‘failed.’ Nothing in life is that black and white.
This is not a game of ping-pong. You don’t “win.” This is your education- you do the best that you can and then you take what you learn and use it to make a life. It’s a tool in your tool belt, a punch in your ticket to get you where you want to go.
If you were to die over the summer (and yes, you could die this summer. Hell, you could die tomorrow) would your final regret be not making an A in evidence? If your answer is yes, I genuinely feel sorry for you.
So, basically, if you are hoping to ‘win’ this test or this class or this experience: chill the f*ck out. Seriously, I can’t emphasize this enough. Do some yoga, have a martini, take a walk outside, spend time with your loved ones. Just chill the f*ck out.
Because there is SO much more to life than law school, and so much more to being a successful in life, and in law, than ‘winning’.