This is tasteless, I know...

But really, this is the first and only time I'll do this so explicitly, Internet:

I GOT A 4.0 THIS PAST SEMESTER!!!!

* * * 

I hate to brag. Really. Maybe I'll delete this post later. But I have some things to say about the semester:

I really don't know how it happened. I was terrified; sleepless, actually, right after finals and right before grades came out. 

I was worried my Corporations grade would be too low to exercise my pass/fail option-- you need at least a C to take a 'pass'--which allows the class to be registered as passed, but the grade not to be calculated into your gpa. It protects anyone with a GPA over 2.0, as a C is worth 2.0. As my GPA is over a 3.0, anything short of a B+ will drop it. You only get two pass/fail options over the course of your law school career. I seriously felt HORRIBLE leaving that exam. 

As for property, I felt much more prepared--but it's graded on a standard bell curve with a C being the midpoint, because it's considered a first year course. So even with the most preparation, it was still quite possible that enough other people had done more than I, and edge me out for those rare top spots. 

Further, our school just added minuses. Prior to this summer, we only had A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D, F.  Now, in their infinite wisdom, they've added A-, B-, C-, D-.  So I'd have expected at least a minus in one of the classes. 

My last course, the externship I did at the US Attorney's office, was a pass/fail based course (which are not counted towards your allowance of 2 pass/fail options) so although it has still not hit the campus intranet, I'm pretty confident that it'll be a pass. 

* * *

I tell you this all for two reasons. Number one: to share my overwhelming disbelief and joy (i.e. bragging). Number two: to illustrate a principle all law students grasp after their first semester. 

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU DID ON YOUR EXAMS.

Your impression of how the exam went has absolutely NO correlation to the grade you will recieve, unless you are both a total optimist and also the smartest and most well prepared person in the school--or a pessimist and you haven't opened the text or attended classes. 

You will walk out of an exam feeling like you screwed up everything; you will remember a key principle you forgot to mention; you will wake up at 3 a.m. thinking "Oh Dear God I never even MENTIONED the requirement of notice in equitable servitudes..." and then over a month later, when you've forgotten what was even on the exam, you will stare dumbfounded at an A you can't possibly deserve.  Or, less happily, you will stride out of an exam thinking "that wasn't so bad, I threw everything I knew on there and I'm positive I spotted all the issues..." and months later stare balefully at the leukwarm C that belies your impressions. 

But hey, I'm really not complaining.

...this semester :)