Do Grades Matter?

Emily B Zimmerman

Law professors like to think that we know our students. According to some of the literature describing students’ experiences in law school, grades are vitally important to law students and may be one of the defining factors of law students’ experiences. Some law professors may believe that students are preoccupied with their grades and likely to judge their law school experience based on their grades. Moreover, according to many accounts of grading in law school, the fact that law professors are responsible for grading is apparently nothing to be proud of because law school grading distresses and demoralizes law students. Law professors suggest that both the use of curved grading and students’ actual grades in law school may affect their psychological well-being and self-esteem, as well as cause disengagement. Curved grading is criticized for promoting competition and anxiety among law students.5 In addition, law professors have described the disappointment and distress suffered by law students when their grades do not meet their expectations based upon their prior successful academic performance in college. Do law professors really know our students as well as we think we do, or is our vision clouded by our own experiences and biases? Maybe law professors think that grades define law students’ experience in law school because grades defined our experience when we were law students. Alternatively, maybe law professors think that grades are so central to students’ law school experience because we are the ones who give grades to students. Thinking that grades are central to our students’ law school experience might really be a manifestation of our belief that we are (or our desire to be) central to our students’ experience. In fact, although there is an abundance of literature criticizing law school grading, there is relatively little empirical research regarding grading (and assessment generally) in legal education.7 Even more surprising, there is even less empirical research that investigates law students’ attitudes regarding grading or explores the impact of grades on law students. Rather than discuss grading from yet another law professor’s perspective, this Article presents empirical research regarding law students’ perspectives on grading. Specifically, this Article presents data regarding law students’ expectations and attitudes about both their actual grades and the use of curved grading in law school. This research indicates that many students come to law school with unrealistically high expectations regarding their grades. Despite conventional wisdom that law students become demoralized after receiving their grades, however, this research suggests that students are, in general, resilient when their expectations are not met.

Do Grades Matter?

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Do Grades Matter?

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