For the "Amazing Studies With Astounding Results!" file:
New law students who are realistically hopeful get better grades, according to a recent study.
Researchers reached their conclusions based on a study of 86 incoming law students in 2007 at Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law, the National Law Journal reports. The study found that hope is a better predictor of first semester grades than LSAT scores. There was no significant relationship, however, between optimism and grades.
Researchers say hope is different from optimism, which helps law students' life satisfaction but is not associated with higher grades.
As the commenters note, you can get any result you want if you define a word in a certain way, which makes this a silly, useless study. "Hope" is different from "optimism"? Don't think so. And what in the world is "realistic" hope? The story notes that a prior study of law students found that "pessimists got better grades, were morel likely to make law review and got better job offers," which sounds a little close to the truth. I remember doing much better in classes and on tests I worried about so much that I made sure to study harder.
