Fail Your Way to Amazing Things (Even the Bar Exam)

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Legal educators and law students can borrow some ideas about failure from the corporate world. In a recent article on Forbes.com, Ekaterina Walter examines the nature of “failure.” Failure is a delay, not a definition. In many ways, each failure is a unique opportunity to learn – what didn’t work?

In academic success, I coached many a student grappling with “failing” – failing a test, an important paper, an entire course, failing out of law school, or failing the bar exam. I worked on validating the feelings of frustration, sadness, and grieving in order to transition to the “what can you learn from this” opportunity. Some students couldn’t, or didn’t want to, hear me.

But many students, brave students, recognized the counter-intuitive value in failure, that failing is not defeat, but merely a detour, that sometimes students need to take the long way around to truly learn from trying, not succeeding, and trying again.

For the students who have recently learned that they have not been successful YET on the bar exam, don’t despair. Mourn your loss, but don’t accept defeat.

You haven’t failed. You’ve been given an amazing opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Don’t blow it. Sometimes you have to fail your way to amazing things.

 

Tougher grade curves + military-style resilience training for law students?

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Do law students need toughening up? A fellow at Duke Law School thinks so. In a story in the ABA Journal, Daniel Bowling recommends a two-prong approach: 1. Toughen up & standardize grading curves across faculties and across schools for a more “level playing field.” 2. Offer military-style resilience training to law students to develop strength awareness and alignment.

Resilience training, maybe not military-style, aka “Battlemind Training,” could be beneficial to assist law students in coping with the new stresses and pressures faced in law school. Or, boot camp for law students might take on a whole new meaning.

Curious About The Flipped Classroom?

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Everyone is talking about “flipping the classroom.” But, what is it? How does it work? How is it different from traditional classroom teaching?

Check out this fun and informative infographic about Flipped Classrooms and some of the research behind it.

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Law School GPA, Not LSAT Or Undergrad GPA, Predicts Bar Passage

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In an article by Nicholas Georgakoplous, “Bar Passage: GPA and LSAT, not Bar Reviews,” law school GPA was found to have a very strong relation to bar passage compared to LSAT and undergraduate GPA. Further, the learning in small and elective courses seemed to be significant for bar passage compared to mandatory 1L courses, legal education itself was more significant than innate skill level measured by LSAT, and training in legal analysis more significant than memorization. The study found that the bar preparation provider was not statistically significant compared to law school GPA and LSAT.