I find this time of year to be one of the most painful parts of the year. A subset of my students, most often 1Ls, have received midterm grades that disappoint them. This post is my advice for navigating your goal of supporting your students’ feelings and future success.

Understand Your Students’ Perspective. Most of your students who did not do so well on your exams studied for your exam in the same way they studied for their exams as undergraduates, and those past approaches, by and large, worked quite well for them . . . until now. Consequently, some of your students may feel angry or very sad. Some may even lash out at you. Your job is to not take their reaction to their grades personally. Assuming, like me, that you have done your very best to set your students up for success, you are not responsible for their grades. Your only responsibility is to support them in choosing to do better and to help them understand what they need to do. In short, do not be defensive.

Destigmatize the Results. Students may see their midterm grade as a referendum on their ability to succeed in law school, pass the bar exam, and succeed in practice. Try to help students understand that a midterm is a snapshot of where they are in their journey at one moment in time. At most, it is a call to continue doing things that are working and to make changes to things are not working. I like to share the story of my own torts midterm fiasco to help students understand that midterms are not destiny. In short, your messaging should promote a growth mindset.  I also believe we should explicitly advise students not to share or discuss their grades with classmates to prevent an echo chamber of law school anxiety. 

Provide Materials Students Can Use to Assess the Weaknesses in Their Work. One of the most meaningful things you can do is to facilitate student efforts. I require students to do the following before they meet me:

• Review highest scoring student answers before we meet (I post the exam answers of the 3-4 students who received the highest scores on the midterm.)
  • Be prepared to tell me what you did well and what you did not do so well
  • Bring a plan of action for doing better on the final exam

Recognize (and Communicate with Kindness) that the Students’ Need to Improve Must Be a Shared Enterprise in which They Have the Predominate Agency. 

Hat tip to my colleague Professor Jake Gao, who suggested to me that I help students see their agency in the growth/improvement process. By being supportive and non-defensive, destigmatizing the results, and giving students tools for self-assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their midterm efforts, you help your students understand that it is within their power to improve. If you succeed in the effort to help students understand their agency in the process, you deserve your own hat tip. I wish you and your students the very best.