Thread Unworthy 1L fears, inquiries, and rants welcome here Forum

[clintonius]

Maybe one day my contracts professor will actually teach us the elements.

Yeah, it's almost November.

[danidancer]

The thing that worries me about Torts is that EVERYONE in my section seems to think it's the easiest/best class. That curve is going to be a beast.

[dailygrind]

Maybe one day my contracts professor will actually teach us the elements.

Yeah, it's almost November.

shit, dude. i hope you're getting something else outta that class then.

[traehekat]

Maybe one day my contracts professor will actually teach us the elements.

Yeah, it's almost November.

Gilbert, IMO.

[Ersatz Haderach]

If I never see another citation on this damn research topic, it will be too soon. This has to be my first "why am I doing this to myself" moment. And it's not even that bad. Ugh.

Maybe one day my contracts professor will actually teach us the elements.

Yeah, it's almost November.

Gilbert, IMO.

I get the impression Contracts profs are really more interested in the nitty gritty details most of the time. Yes, they provide good instruction here and there, but they fly through it as if it was, oh, incidental to the larger goal of HEY GUYS ISN'T THAT COOL?

The thing that worries me about Torts is that EVERYONE in my section seems to think it's the easiest/best class. That curve is going to be a beast.

I think this is what most people think of Torts. And then they are crushed. By people like me. Who think it is hard. That will really happen. I will book the class because I am working hard. Yes.

[keg411]

The thing that worries me about Torts is that EVERYONE in my section seems to think it's the easiest/best class. That curve is going to be a beast.

I thought that was going to happen on our Torts midterm, but it didn't. And that was all multiple choice (and not incredibly difficult multiple choice either).

[BarbellDreams]

Everyone gets things differently. We have a guy in our class who can answer every question asked in Civ Pro and then complains that he doesn't understand apparent authority in torts. I would say 95% of our section will agree that Civ Pro is the hardest class we have, but his brain must work differently and he is all over it. In my own opinion Torts is the easiest class when compared to everything else, but at another school or to another person this may be entirely different.

[savagecheater]

I think that the concepts in Torts come the easiest, but building an answer from the ground up is difficult.

We were given a practice exam revolving around products liability for a drug company (and we haven't gone over products liability). There were around a dozen issues, some easily apparent, others less so, but simply finding constructing liability for the drug company was a mental exercise in itself - the harm caused by its product only manifests itself 50 yrs after usage, and no one knew for about 40 years that a. it caused the specific harm b. that it caused any harm whatsoever, even minor side effects. I pretty much had to construct liability based on a really flimsy interpretation of Rylands.

Crim is much easier than I thought. You just have to remember that you need to pay acute attention to minute details.

Contracts is the most frustrating right now only because there are so many damn 'forks' and while many are ultimately irrelevant, the answers that get A's in my class have all had very thorough discussions of them.

[SmittenMitten]

At this point my biggest source of stress is my writing course....where my papers are getting "lost"

[goosey]

I thought torts was easiest too until I attempted a practice test and crashed and burned. I seriously feel like I know all the material..understand all of it..but then trying to take the test was so damn foreign. I am glad I did it though..and will probably aim to take one test a week for each class from now until finals because I feel like I need *that* much work. I am also in the habit of repeatedly editing my work--I write well, but it's usually because I am so OCD about editing..I word and re-word sentences over and over again. Just doesnt work for exams! I really need to work on this, and especially for torts.

Crim I feel like we had so much practice through out the semester that I have an idea how to approach the hypos, but we are getting two more writing assignments (graded but dont count) that I don't have to do because I did the first two--I am thinking of approaching those as a practice exam and timing myself. Our final is an 8 hour take home--I don't anticipate any editing issues there..so basically I think my crim grade will come down to how well I really know the material.

But yeah..torts scares me now.

[09042014]

Property common law in re: interests and estates is objectively retarded.

[Helmholtz]

Property common law in re: interests and estates is objectively retarded.

This is true. Thankfully, our prof fully admitted to it being retarded and we sort of just breezed through an overview of it.

In other news, I'm just judging by the previews, but 99% of the outlines on outlinedepot appear to be pure crap. I've been getting things from upperclassmen that make the outlinedepot outlines look like they were written by a toddler with a learning disability. Has anybody actually used something on that site that turned out to be semi-useful?

[jkay]

Our TTTorts final is 100% mulTTTiple choice.

It is somewhat amazing but at the same time great because that is easily our worst professor.

[solotee]

I'm getting more cynical with each passing week. Nevertheless, I'm still happy to be here and embrace the cynicism that comes with law school.

[savagecheater]

Property common law in re: interests and estates is objectively retarded.

This is true. Thankfully, our prof fully admitted to it being retarded and we sort of just breezed through an overview of it.

In other news, I'm just judging by the previews, but 99% of the outlines on outlinedepot appear to be pure crap. I've been getting things from upperclassmen that make the outlinedepot outlines look like they were written by a toddler with a learning disability. Has anybody actually used something on that site that turned out to be semi-useful?

I previewed the outlines as well; the outlines for my teachers are terrible and without any cohesive structure or meaningful substance.

I got possession of some through making friends with a couple people who knew the people who had done the best in my classes, and got their outlines from them.

Some are good, some don't appeal to my style, but I would look at what you have, look at your notes, and find a format you like from what you've seen and plug it in, supplementing as need be.

[kalvano]

In other news, I'm just judging by the previews, but 99% of the outlines on outlinedepot appear to be pure crap. I've been getting things from upperclassmen that make the outlinedepot outlines look like they were written by a toddler with a learning disability. Has anybody actually used something on that site that turned out to be semi-useful?

No. They are awful. The absolute correct response is outlines circulated by students at your school.

Also, I've found some via Google from other schools that have useful bits for my classes.

[jdubb990]

Ugh, I was going to make a new thread to ask this question but got the archiving message. Does anybody know where in ALWD it gives citation formatting for extraneous documents such as affidavits/wills, etc?

[goosey]

Law school made me cry for the first time today. I feel like I am so bad at it. I got my memo back and it says "295 out of 350"--I have no idea if thats good or bad...all I can do is figure out what it would be on a 1-100 scale and that is 84, below median. Lovely. But I don't even know if it doesnt have a grade because its curved and all of them arent graded yet...if this is the case, it could either be an A or a C. No clue which one. The comments suggest it is not perfect enough to be an A, but still good...maybe others arent perfect either and I can get an A

Further, I had a midterm in crim today which "doesnt count" except that it can help people if they do really well. Well..if it helps others, it hurts me...because its a curved class. I did horribly on it, its full of typos. I couldnt even finish the last question and pretty much just outlined my answer, probably missed 93284083 things as a result of not engaging in discussion.

I have a top 33% gpa stipulation on my scholarship. That stresses me out enough, but the fact that I am at a T2 makes it worse because top 33 is not where I want to be, top 10 is.

Conclusion: I should have just gone to fordham.

[beach_terror]

Law school made me cry for the first time today. I feel like I am so bad at it. I got my memo back and it says "295 out of 350"--I have no idea if thats good or bad...all I can do is figure out what it would be on a 1-100 scale and that is 84, below median. Lovely. But I don't even know if it doesnt have a grade because its curved and all of them arent graded yet...if this is the case, it could either be an A or a C. No clue which one. The comments suggest it is not perfect enough to be an A, but still good...maybe others arent perfect either and I can get an A

Further, I had a midterm in crim today which "doesnt count" except that it can help people if they do really well. Well..if it helps others, it hurts me...because its a curved class. I did horribly on it, its full of typos. I couldnt even finish the last question and pretty much just outlined my answer, probably missed 93284083 things as a result of not engaging in discussion.

I have a top 33% gpa stipulation on my scholarship. That stresses me out enough, but the fact that I am at a T2 makes it worse because top 33 is not where I want to be, top 10 is.

Conclusion: I should have just gone to fordham.

You have to relax. You're far too pessimistic for your own good. It's a learning process, figure out what you're doing wrong and actively engage in various things to fix it.

Less QQ and moar pewpew

(my midterm puts me slightly above median I think, but freaking out because I'm nowhere near where I want to be will do me no good... nor will wondering "what if" I went to a different school).

[JOThompson]

Wait to see the distribution before you worry. People in my class were freaked out about their scores until they saw the grade spread.

Legal writing is a rough transition for many people in my school, including myself. Most the tricks and tactics we relied on for undergraduate writing aren't helpful and may even be a liability here. Just give it time.

[clintonius]

Legal writing is a rough transition for many people in my school, including myself. Most the tricks and tactics we relied on for undergraduate writing aren't helpful and may even be a liability here. Just give it time.

I'm kinda pulling my hair out thanks to LRW, yeah. Ugh. I know I've got plenty of time to get there, and I've also done a pretty good job on assignments to this point ("excellent job" is vague, but man, I'll take vague praise at this point). But the current one is just a pain in the ass, and I feel like I am so. fucking. bad. at legal research.

[keg411]

goosey, you need to relax. You are getting yourself way too worked up. Wait and see where you come out on the curve before freaking. As awful as the curve can be, so far I've learned that there are also times where it can be your BFF.

[goosey]

goosey, you need to relax. You are getting yourself way too worked up. Wait and see where you come out on the curve before freaking. As awful as the curve can be, so far I've learned that there are also times where it can be your BFF.

she said "median is between 290 and 295"..while I was hardly gunning to be on the high end of median, I will take that any day over what I THOUGHT I was, which is below median.

out of curiousity, because I have no idea how curves work..if she gives a range like that, what percentile would the 295 fall? 50th? 40th? 45th?

[Mickey Quicknumbers]

goosey, you need to relax. You are getting yourself way too worked up. Wait and see where you come out on the curve before freaking. As awful as the curve can be, so far I've learned that there are also times where it can be your BFF.

she said "median is between 290 and 295"..while I was hardly gunning to be on the high end of median, I will take that any day over what I THOUGHT I was, which is below median.

out of curiousity, because I have no idea how curves work..if she gives a range like that, what percentile would the 295 fall? 50th? 40th? 45th?

Neither would we without a standard deviation and/or the scores of everyone else in your section. Speculating is pointless.

[SmittenMitten]

Goosey I'm in the same boat. I got a grade back "early" because it was "so bad". And I had a nervous breakdown because I got a horrible grade. I went to office hours and my grade ended up being changed. I'd rather not go into details, but I'm still extremely upset about how much of that day I spent on the edge of sanity because of things outside my control. Keep your head up, and you will be OK.