With the December exam period closing in, desperation is setting in among the ranks of the 1Ls. For some, years of hard-fought academic success and aspirations for the almighty ‘A’ are being crushed under the oppressive weight of a curve they have yet to even experience. Scores of once cheery-eyed and optimistic students have faced first-hand the pain and suffering of no longer being at the top of their class. Like the beaches of Normandy or the trenches of Flanders, midterm season has proven to be a particularly difficult battleground for the four sections. Take-home exam after take-home exam has decimated their ranks and the eternal war of attrition continues to extinguish the hopes and dreams of countless future lawyers. For many, the situation is growing increasingly desperate.
Taking heed from “very stable genius” and lame-duck President Donald Trump, one 1L student has simply refused to concede on their recent Crim midterm. The 1L student has been quoted as saying “I showed up to my scheduled feedback session and just shouted ‘wrong’ every time they tried to point out an error I had made.” Since the midterm was returned roughly two weeks ago, the student has made numerous speeches claiming that the midterm was ‘rigged’ and that the mark their Professor tried to give them was unfair. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and campus being relatively empty, most of these speeches have been delivered to unwilling pedestrians and geese that have not yet flown south. When asked if they were aware that their acquiescence was not required for the midterm to be counted towards their grade, they responded by shouting “Sad!” and walking away.
The 1L student’s Crim professor, when asked for comment, stated merely that “All midterms are graded the same way and yelling at a Professor during a feedback session isn’t a productive way to prepare for the final exam. The grades are already up on eClass, there isn’t much more to say.” In the face of such staunch and unparalleled academic obstructionism, it seems that the refusal of the 1L student to concede is a futile course of inaction. Every waking moment spent denying the reality of their situation is one they might have spent studying. God forbid, even reading the overview of cases on Wikipedia would have been more productive. With finals around the corner, it seems that this whole situation has raised more questions than it could ever hope to answer. Specifically, what does it even mean to not concede a midterm? It appears that only time will tell.