Law School Grades (Like Most Things In Life) Are Pretty Random

Law students learn early that success within the legal profession can be largely based on arbitrary factors.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, many readers of this column are currently in the full swing of the holiday season.  For many associates, the holiday season likely means billing those last hours of the year that might make the difference between receiving a bonus and not making any additional cash.  For many partners, the holiday season likely means hounding clients so that outstanding legal fees can be paid before the end of the year. For many law students, the holiday season likely means worrying about exams and the grades that might be received after the semester is over.  Exams and grades can really transform the lives of many law students around the holidays from the “most wonderful time of the year” to a living hell.

Although there are certain ways to boost your odds of receiving good grades, law school grades are still extremely arbitrary.  Indeed, marks in law school are based on a number of random factors that likely have no bearing on an individual’s success in the legal profession.  Although most law students might not take comfort in hearing how law school grades are somewhat arbitrary, it is still important to note that there are certain factors that make law school grades extremely random.

As many of us already know, law school grades are usually based on one three- or four-hour examination administered at the end of the academic semester.  I’m not really sure why law school courses are graded this way, but since law school professors can‘t even be trusted to write new final exams each year, it make sense that they would want to keep their workload to a minimum.

In any case, basing grades on one single test introduces an element of randomness to the law school examination process.  Individuals can be sick on the day of the exam, or might have had little sleep the night before the test.  In addition, people could be undergoing any manner of life crises around the time of the exam that can impact their performance.  Of course, the effect of these random factors would be minimized if there were other academic assessments throughout the term.  However, the fact that law school grades are usually based on one exam increases the chance that random factors can impact an individual’s mark in a given class.

Since law school exams are almost always based on essays, an element of subjectivity is naturally part of the entire grading process.  Although the bar exam includes an objective element in the form of multiple choice questions, law school exams typically test students in an essay format. This makes it much harder to evaluate every student against each other, since it is difficult to establish a rubric that can be used to compare different students.  As a result, grades can be based on arbitrary factors that could be eliminated if law school exams were graded on multiple choice questions and other objective factors.

In addition, different graders can have different preferences about what the right answer is for a law school essay, even though two contrasting answers could be correct.  When law school exams are based on essays, even a student’s writing style can impact the grades they receive.  My first semester of law school, I got one of the highest grades in legal research and writing, and I received one of the lowest grades after my second semester.  I worked even harder at my studies during that second semester, and I am convinced that the preferences of the different professors impacted my scores.

Now that I have practiced law for a while now, I have gotten to realize that the randomness of law school grades is actually a good preview for how random life can be like as a practicing lawyer.  In many ways, the success and failure of numerous lawyers is entirely dependent on a variety of random factors.  Getting interviews at top firms and securing offers can be dependent on random factors such as the individuals selected to interview you and how you are doing the day of the interview.

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Moreover, the success and failure of practicing attorneys can be dependent on the random selection of a judge to hear a case, or the panel of jurors assigned to evaluate a matter.  Furthermore, signing top clients can also be based on a number of random factors, and I have heard many times how lawyers have gotten lucrative cases based on nothing more than pure luck.  I am sure many practicing attorneys can think of instances in which they succeeded or failed based not on talent, but on random factors out of their control.

In the end, it is important to recognize that law school grades have an element of randomness to them, so that hopefully, institutions will not emphasize marks in law school as much as they currently do.  Indeed, the entire law school grading process is usually set up so that randomness has a big part in assigning marks, since grades are based on one exam that is evaluated in a somewhat subjective fashion.  However, if there is one benefit to the randomness of law school grades, it is that it teaches law students early on about how success within the legal profession can be largely based on arbitrary factors.


Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at Jordan@studentdebtdiaries.com.

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