The Super Helpful Little Things Forum

[Jones, Dow]

sorry this is off the tech topic, but best advice I got/could give:

Set a strict schedule and stick to it no matter what. Leave school at school, no matter what time you decide to leave. If you tell yourself that you're leaving school at 6 no matter what, when you're there from 8-6 (or whatever hours you choose) it forces you to be extremely efficient. You won't find yourself wasting time during the day and just thinking that you'll get the reading done that night.

One of my profs told me that he thought he was working really hard in LS (he regularly spent 12+ hour days at school) but when he "billed" his time he realized that he was only working 47 hours a week cause he'd stop and chat here and there, go out to lunch with his friends for a little longer than he realized, etc. Learn to work efficiently before anything else.

Last, I don't know if there's anything more important than finding a really good, serious, small study group. Discuss the cases, argue about them, quiz each other, make up hypos, work through practice problems (in the E&E's or find old exams from you profs or on the internet). My best grades so far have been in classes where I had this kind of a group. My lowest grades have been the classes I where I went at them alone. If you can, start this early on in the semester.

[Unadilla Kayaker]

After getting into law school I haven't been on TLS much, but this thread has been great. I really value all of the advice and due to the long discussion about multiple monitors, my plan to buy a 13" MBP will be augmented by the purchase of two monitors for my desk at home. I suspect that I'll be doing much of my work in the library (so the monitors might not help that much day to day), but I'm sure that I'll do certain projects at home because of the added desktop workspace.

The other advice in this thread has been great as well. I'd like to hear more about other tech ideas or non-tech ideas people have for success in law school. Thanks to those who've shared.

[Matthies]

Awesome thread.

I think we should talk more about home servers!

Im meh on my Windows Home Sever machine, good idea, but not great implemeation, bascilly unless you want to srew it up you have to do everything from a remote workstation, not on the sever its self, and they cut out alot of the tool sever 2003 has (its based on that). I'll maybe try Ubutu or Linix next time, once I have time to leran them. WHS is OK, but not great.

[Matthies]

sorry this is off the tech topic, but best advice I got/could give:

Set a strict schedule and stick to it no matter what. Leave school at school, no matter what time you decide to leave. If you tell yourself that you're leaving school at 6 no matter what, when you're there from 8-6 (or whatever hours you choose) it forces you to be extremely efficient. You won't find yourself wasting time during the day and just thinking that you'll get the reading done that night.
One of my profs told me that he thought he was working really hard in LS (he regularly spent 12+ hour days at school) but when he "billed" his time he realized that he was only working 47 hours a week cause he'd stop and chat here and there, go out to lunch with his friends for a little longer than he realized, etc. Learn to work efficiently before anything else.

Last, I don't know if there's anything more important than finding a really good, serious, small study group. Discuss the cases, argue about them, quiz each other, make up hypos, work through practice problems (in the E&E's or find old exams from you profs or on the internet). My best grades so far have been in classes where I had this kind of a group. My lowest grades have been the classes I where I went at them alone. If you can, start this early on in the semester.

Schedual thing is a MUST, seriously, I used Outloom to set my schedual for the week, semster, times for everything then stuck to it.

Study groups, like alot of how to do law school stuff will depend on the person, for some they work great, for me I did not find them helpfull, moral of this study is figure as what works for you (by trying diffrent things) then do what works for YOU, even if its not what works for your classmates, we all leanr diffrently.

[theavrock]

Awesome thread.

I think we should talk more about home servers!

Im meh on my Windows Home Sever machine, good idea, but not great implemeation, bascilly unless you want to srew it up you have to do everything from a remote workstation, not on the sever its self, and they cut out alot of the tool sever 2003 has (its based on that). I'll maybe try Ubutu or Linix next time, once I have time to leran them. WHS is OK, but not great.

I've heard the same thing. I haven't gotten a box yet, but I want to look in to it, because right now I have my external HD's hooked up to the MacBook connected to the TV. It would be nice to have it all through a home server. I've looked in to the MediaSmart line because I just don't feel comfortable building my own box, but have not been impressed with what I have read about 2003.

WHS V2 is supposed to be based on Server 2008 R2 code so I am hoping that it will be an improvement over V1.

[Matthies]

Awesome thread.

I think we should talk more about home servers!

Im meh on my Windows Home Sever machine, good idea, but not great implemeation, bascilly unless you want to srew it up you have to do everything from a remote workstation, not on the sever its self, and they cut out alot of the tool sever 2003 has (its based on that). I'll maybe try Ubutu or Linix next time, once I have time to leran them. WHS is OK, but not great.

I've heard the same thing. I haven't gotten a box yet, but I want to look in to it, because right now I have my external HD's hooked up to the MacBook connected to the TV. It would be nice to have it all through a home server. I've looked in to the MediaSmart line because I just don't feel comfortable building my own box, but have not been impressed with what I have read about 2003.

WHS V2 is supposed to be based on Server 2008 R2 code so I am hoping that it will be an improvement over V1.

Yea, the problem with WHS is its designed to run on systems like Media smart Sevrer boxs, which if you look at the stats have NO video out or keybaord plugs. MS basically told resellers of WHS boxes they could not allow the end user to access the sever its self unless they went through a workstation. This was basically a no go for me.

Building your own WHS is not hard at all, and can be done from an old computer, you really don't need much processing power (Core 2 Duo is fine) or much ram (2 gigs is fine). What you do need is either lots of space for drives, or esata port card with port multipler and a gigbit lan for streaming (you can do it over wireless N, but if you try and stream BD over that, well it's not great). For WHS just get the OEM pack for $99. Assuming your external HDs are sata then just crack open he enclsure and put them inside your WHS box (well guess you would have to reformat then from Mac)

[vexion]

sorry this is off the tech topic, but best advice I got/could give:

Protip: This isn't off-topic. We're just all off-topic.

[sayan]

My friend told me a PS3 with mods can act as a media center with wireless blue tooth transfer via desktop.

Not sure if that's true, though.

[Matthies]

My friend told me a PS3 with mods can act as a media center with wireless blue tooth transfer via desktop.

Not sure if that's true, though.

Its true, its kind of a pain in the ass to set up, but can be done.

[Matthies]

sorry this is off the tech topic, but best advice I got/could give:

Protip: This isn't off-topic. We're just all off-topic.

everyone in this thread should have a baby tar!

[vexion]

everyone in this thread should have a baby tar!

Baby-Twin powers, activate!

Also, be proud: Today I (finally) installed Keepass and changed all my online passwords to secure random hex crap. I started using Dropbox (made a Onenote notebook in there so I can edit it from school or home, and put my Keepass database in there so I can access it anywhere, as well as an install of Keepass Portable.) Then I opened an online high-yield checking account and savings account so I can automate my investments.

I'm Lifehacking.

[entrechatsix]

so i'm computer challenged, but i was reading this thread yesterday and set up another monitor to my laptop! so cool and pretty easy. so thanks for the advice

[Matthies]

everyone in this thread should have a baby tar!

Baby-Twin powers, activate!

Also, be proud: Today I (finally) installed Keepass and changed all my online passwords to secure random hex crap. I started using Dropbox (made a Onenote notebook in there so I can edit it from school or home, and put my Keepass database in there so I can access it anywhere, as well as an install of Keepass Portable.) Then I opened an online high-yield checking account and savings account so I can automate my investments.

I'm Lifehacking.

Speaking of hacking I'm hacking into you online savings acount ruight now....

[vexion]

so i'm computer challenged, but i was reading this thread yesterday and set up another monitor to my laptop! so cool and pretty easy. so thanks for the advice

Congrats!

Speaking of hacking I'm hacking into you online savings acount ruight now....

S'cool bro, my bank employs big scary thugs to break hackers' kneecaps.

[arundodonax]

Yes, two monitors is good, one 30 inch is better

Also the super cheap but huge desk:

$25 interior door from Home Depot on two $50 file cabinets. FREAKING HUGE desk space to spread all your crap out on.

4-color pens for book briefing instead of carrying around 19 highlighters.
[http://www.amazon.com/BIC-4-Color-Refil ... B000F2PFPS

Wow, a framed picture of the supreme court.

[entrechatsix]

Wow, a framed picture of the supreme court.

i love that you noticed that, haha!

[Matthies]

Wow, a framed picture of the supreme court.

i love that you noticed that, haha!

Actually that is a photo taken by my mentor, a judge, of the USSC when he was there to be given an award in the late 1990s. He's an avid photographer, and its signed and dated by him, as 1 of 2, he has the only other copy. He gave it to me when I graduated law school. It's very special to me. He's also the judge who swore me in.

[arundodonax]

Wow, a framed picture of the supreme court.

i love that you noticed that, haha!

Actually that is a photo taken by my mentor, a judge, of the USSC when he was there to be given an award in the late 1990s. He's an avid photographer, and its signed and dated by him, as 1 of 2, he has the only other copy. He gave it to me when I graduated law school. It's very special to me. He's also the judge who swore me in.

That's cool. I was a little worried there for a minute.

[vexion]

That's cool. I was a little worried there for a minute.

Why? A man's gotta have goals.

PS Matthies that is very cool.

[ellakay]

Haven't read through this thread, so I apologize if this kind of stuff has already been posted.

General Advice:
Law school is like high school, except with a lot more alcohol and a lot more pressure. People gossip--a lot. Don't do anything (or anybody) you wouldn't want your entire section talking about. I don't know if I was in a particularly chatty section, or if people just told me things for some reason, but I knew way too much about way too many people.

I think one of the best things you can do for yourself at the beginning of the year is to really make sure you're in control of your reputation, because if you're in a tight-knit law school, it will really stick with you.

Here are some things I would do differently if I could do 1L again:
1) Turn off the wireless in class. Seriously, I know it sounds awful, but I wish I had. The first semester, I spent the bulk of my time messing around on the internet instead of taking notes. I later found out the guy who sat behind me was reading all of my gchats. I'm not particularly scandalous, so he probably didn't get anything interesting, but that was a good reason in itself not to be on the internet in class. Anyway. Socratic can get REALLY slow at times, so during my second semester, I used the downtime to organize and synthesize what I had written. Helped a ton when it came to outlining.
2) Actually take down notes, not transcripts. My first semester torts notes read like a script of class. I was so scared that I would miss something, so I typed literally everything. Please DO NOT DO THIS TO YOURSELF. Outlining from that was a nightmare.
3) Go over my notes after class to tie up any loose ends. I retained so much more when I did this consistently.
4) Freak out less. That applies across the board for me, but I'll address socratic here. Very few people enjoy being called on. When it's your turn, nobody is judging you. If someone is, that person is incredibly lame and not worth a second thought. Most of your classmates are thinking, "Thank God it's not me." Everybody says wildly stupid things from time to time. Some professors intentionally lead you down the wrong path when they call on you, hoping that you'll get tripped up. But after class is over, nobody remembers how wrong you were--usually not even the professor.
5) Start outlining earlier. Much earlier.

That's all I have right now. Hopefully this helped a bit. I'll be glad to try to answer any specific "life at law school" questions y'all might have.

[LjakW]

I later found out the guy who sat behind me was reading all of my gchats.

Really? The font is quite small.

[jayn3]

That's cool. I was a little worried there for a minute.

Why? A man's gotta have goals.

PS Matthies that is very cool.

yea, i'm all for keeping your goals in sight.
also, i like the artist feel of that desk. that lamp looks super helpful....i never have enough light on my desk right now =\

[zeth006]

That's cool. I was a little worried there for a minute.

Why? A man's gotta have goals.

PS Matthies that is very cool.

yea, i'm all for keeping your goals in sight.
also, i like the artist feel of that desk. that lamp looks super helpful....i never have enough light on my desk right now =\

Lamp--probably the item that gets less attention than it deserves. I've been using the same old lamp as long as I can remember and will definitely invest in one that's not nearly as dim and poorly constructed.

[ellakay]

I later found out the guy who sat behind me was reading all of my gchats.

Really? The font is quite small.

Yeah, you would think, but the standard size font is actually pretty visible to people directly behind you and beside you. The guy who read mine was trying to make conversation with someone else in our section and said, "So you're the one ellakay gchats all the time?" and then started talking about it.

Also, two people in our section were dating, but they wanted to keep it a secret. One night when a few people from our section went out, the girl who sat next to the male in the secret relationship goes, "Where is your girlfriend?" He tried to play it off like oh, what girlfriend? But the she goes "Oh, (girl's name), I read your gchats when I get bored in class."

[Paichka]

Happens all the time. The person behind me used to read all my Facebook updates. People get bored in class.

Turning off your wireless in class is a great idea -- I wish I had done it more. No matter how good of a multitasker you think you are, you're going to miss things when half your attention is on gchat or facebook. (I did used to run westlaw searches in class sometimes, because I'm an epic nerd.)

Scheduling too...I picked two days per week that I would stay late at school. I'd get to school at 8 in the morning, and I'd stay two days a week until 10. The other days I'd leave when class ended. During my long days, I'd use the time to get ahead on the reading (I tried to stay a week ahead in each class) or begin outlining if we'd finished a major section. That way, when I was at home, I could spend time with my daughter and put off any reading until after she was in bed, or maybe take a night off to watch TV.