Sunday, May 29, 2005

Grades

Not that I'm obsessed or anything, but I sure wish grades would post soon. It's been 2 weeks since the end of finals, 5 since the start, and it seems like some of the earlier ones should be up by now. Especially the ones that were multiple choice - run them through the grading computer, set the curve, and put those grades up! Actually, my bet is that its whoever is supposed to actually input our grades into the university computers that is slowing up the process. And how bad is it that I check more than once a day, even though supposedly they only post the grades overnight in one batch?

Monday, May 23, 2005

First Day

Two firsts today: The first day of summer school, and the first day of working as a research assistant. My brain feels fried - too much information in one day! The class is two hours, so that's basically a double class, four days a week. Plus four hours of research - I'm sure I'll get used to it, but today I'm just tired.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Legal Lies - from Stay of Execution

Over at Stay of Execution (thanks to Jeremy for the link) - a list of the lies they tell us as law students.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Yet another quiz

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.

Postmodernist

81%

Idealist

69%

Cultural Creative

69%

Modernist

56%

Materialist

56%

Existentialist

50%

Romanticist

50%

Fundamentalist

19%

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Please play again...

So we just got the results of the write-on review/journal competition, and.... I'm not a winner. There's still a chance (ha!) that I'll grade-on, but for now it looks like I won't be boring you with longwinded stories of all the work I have to do for law review. I know you're disappointed. What should I do with all my free time?

Edited to add: I'm not saying anyone else's stories about review/journal are boring, only that mine would probably be so.

Unsolicited Advice

Whew! Finals are over! Civil Procedure was not fun yesterday – I was almost convinced we had the wrong professor’s exam.

As threatened promised, here’s some unsolicited advice about the first year of law school. In no particular order:

1. Don’t freak out. Yes, it’s work. It requires a lot of time and energy. But remember, you know how to “do school.”
2. Law school exams are different from undergrad. You must not only know the law, but how to apply it to new fact situations. Study for multiple choice exams the same way you would study for an essay exam.
3. Start outlining partway through the semester. Not right away, but about halfway, when you start to see a big picture. Even if you don’t see the big picture, actually. And by “outline” I just mean some kind of summary – structure it however works for you. Use a true outline, or a flow chart, or pictures – be creative with whatever works for you.
4. Keep up with the reading and outlining/summarizing. That will leave the exam period for practice questions.
5. Do practice questions. Actually write them out – or at least an outline of how you would approach the question. If your professor doesn’t provide practice questions, use some from another school, or from a study guide.
6. If your exam is open book and open note, write in the margin of your book what day you covered that material in class – it’s much easier to cross reference during the exam, especially if your professor skips around in the book.
7. Get outlines from 2Ls and 3Ls who had your professor – but just use it to supplement your own. It’s the process of creating the outline that makes it worthwhile.
8. It is possible to do an outline for a 2 credit class in one day. It is in no way fun to do that.

Don’t I sound like an expert? Unfortunately, this is a lot of the stuff I learned the hard way. That’s all for now – I’m sure I’ll think of more.
For my fellow students who have finished finals – We did it!

Thursday, May 12, 2005

If I Survive...

the Civil Procedure exam tomorrow - I'll try to post some general advice to future 1Ls on how not to prepare for exams. Because after tomorrow, I will no longer be a 1L, but a 2L!! But now, back to Erie...

Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Time Traveler Convention - May 7, 2005

Check this out on a study break.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Dispatch from the (exam) front

So we're in the midst of exams now - 2 down, 3 to go. The Torts one this morning was a bear - multiple choice. I'm not anywhere near as nervous as I was last semester at this time, which might be a bad thing. Fear is a motivator, after all. Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning my apartment, watching TV, and shopping. Sure, the exam today was open book and open note, but I probably still would have benefited from thinking about the material more.