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grades due yesterday and still one outstanding, blegh

How does one know how to fix their study habits on a multiple choice test. I had an all multiple choice test and was slightly above median in that class, and when I went over the questions I missed it just felt like I should have read the cases a bit more closely. The professor just said I should have known what I was doing, just a little bit better but didn't offer any constructive advice.

How do you guys suggest I study for a class with an all MC final?

merc280 wrote:How does one know how to fix their study habits on a multiple choice test. I had an all multiple choice test and was slightly above median in that class, and when I went over the questions I missed it just felt like I should have read the cases a bit more closely. The professor just said I should have known what I was doing, just a little bit better but didn't offer any constructive advice.

How do you guys suggest I study for a class with an all MC final?

I haven't had one yet, but I imagine you should buy some of the study books that are all MC, like Q&A. Crunchtime also has MC questions in the back. In your MC do you have to write a couple of sentences to explain your answer?

merc280 wrote:How does one know how to fix their study habits on a multiple choice test. I had an all multiple choice test and was slightly above median in that class, and when I went over the questions I missed it just felt like I should have read the cases a bit more closely. The professor just said I should have known what I was doing, just a little bit better but didn't offer any constructive advice.

How do you guys suggest I study for a class with an all MC final?

2L here. i've had a number of exams with at least a significant MC component (including one that was entirely MC) and done pretty well on them. i think the key, regardless of whether it's open or closed-book, know the BLL cold. if it's open-book, you don't want to waste time flipping through your books/outline for the answer to a question. also, take your time. most of these are not very time-pressured, so read the questions carefully. usually the questions i missed were a result of my having misread a question.

as for preparation, if you can, find as many supplements as you can that contain MC questions and even try creating some MC questions yourself. i did this for the one class that was entirely MC and found it incredibly helpful because the process of creating questions and answer choices better helped me understand the law and its nuances.

Fuck fuck fuck. I'm getting pwned in LRW. Just got our memos back, got a B/B- ... Got a B/B+ on the first one. I hate that class so much. We still have one more assignment worth 40% of the grade...

NYC Law wrote:Fuck fuck fuck. I'm getting pwned in LRW. Just got our memos back, got a B/B- ... Got a B/B+ on the first one. I hate that class so much. We still have one more assignment worth 40% of the grade...

How many credits is your LRW?

bdubs wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Fuck fuck fuck. I'm getting pwned in LRW. Just got our memos back, got a B/B- ... Got a B/B+ on the first one. I hate that class so much. We still have one more assignment worth 40% of the grade...

How many credits is your LRW?

I think 3, but for for the entire year.
Right now I have a 2.95 in the class... And the B/B- paper is what I was using as my writing sample. Damn myself and my inadequate communication skills.

NYC Law wrote:

bdubs wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Fuck fuck fuck. I'm getting pwned in LRW. Just got our memos back, got a B/B- ... Got a B/B+ on the first one. I hate that class so much. We still have one more assignment worth 40% of the grade...

How many credits is your LRW?

I think 3, but for for the entire year.
Right now I have a 2.95 in the class... And the B/B- paper is what I was using as my writing sample. Damn myself and my inadequate communication skills.

I think that generally, communication skills and LRW grades are about as strongly correlated as intelligence and exam grades.

Helmholtz wrote:I think that generally, communication skills and LRW grades are about as strongly correlated as intelligence and exam grades.

So... moderately but not perfectly?

bdubs wrote:

Helmholtz wrote:I think that generally, communication skills and LRW grades are about as strongly correlated as intelligence and exam grades.

So... moderately but not perfectly?

Essentially. Probably even less so for LRW though. I did pretty well, but some of the things my prof would mark would make me scratch my head (like when he would "correct" and mark me off for things that were already correct according to the manual of style). I saw a lot more variation from LRW prof to LRW prof than I saw from, say, one torts prof to another torts prof.

Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

NYC Law wrote:Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

I remember reading somewhere that Eugene Volohk's "Academic Legal Writing" is quite the gem, but I can't speak for it myself.

NYC Law wrote:Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

I agree with what someone alluded to above, being good at legal writing might not correlate to your grade. It's very teacher specific. And I imagine that what your professor wants might not match what your future boss wants.
I think what's helped me in LARW is a) looking at samples from the professor and b) trying to emulate parts of our text that she emphasizes. Things that don't really help (grade-wise) are a) reading other texts about writing and b) talking to the prof before the memos- for some reason when I do things she says in office hours, she ends up marking those in the memo- still not sure what's up with that.

LawMan20 wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

I remember reading somewhere that Eugene Volohk's "Academic Legal Writing" is quite the gem, but I can't speak for it myself.

I think that Volokh's book is primarily focused on actual academic writing (i.e. law review publications), so I am not so sure it would be helpful for LRW. I haven't read it yet though.

Anything written by Brian Garner is generally good. If you're working on a brief, you can pick up Making Your Case which I recommend (as does my LRW teacher). There are some articles on legal writing that he has published in various places that are available online too.

My LRW professor also recommended a small book called Plain English for Lawyers that is pretty good.

stewie27 wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

I agree with what someone alluded to above, being good at legal writing might not correlate to your grade. It's very teacher specific. And I imagine that what your professor wants might not match what your future boss wants.
I think what's helped me in LARW is a) looking at samples from the professor and b) trying to emulate parts of our text that she emphasizes. Things that don't really help (grade-wise) are a) reading other texts about writing and b) talking to the prof before the memos- for some reason when I do things she says in office hours, she ends up marking those in the memo- still not sure what's up with that.

I guess this goes along with it being teacher specific - we have no samples, and I've gotten points off for doing things that the textbook recommends. It's confusing.. I don't even bother with the text anymore since I get the impression the teacher hasn't even looked at it, instead I've just been trying to do what she says in class. Most of my bluebooking even looks good, most of the comments are just nit picky things with word choice and organization.

bdubs wrote:

LawMan20 wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Does anyone have any advice for doing well in LRW? Or improving legal writing in general? This is really tearing me apart, especially since this is the worst class to bomb due to it pertaining to what you do... Any book recommendations for working on this stuff?

I remember reading somewhere that Eugene Volohk's "Academic Legal Writing" is quite the gem, but I can't speak for it myself.

I think that Volokh's book is primarily focused on actual academic writing (i.e. law review publications), so I am not so sure it would be helpful for LRW. I haven't read it yet though.

Anything written by Brian Garner is generally good. If you're working on a brief, you can pick up Making Your Case which I recommend (as does my LRW teacher). There are some articles on legal writing that he has published in various places that are available online too.

My LRW professor also recommended a small book called Plain English for Lawyers that is pretty good.

Thanks, I'm going to buy Making Your Case now. We already have Plain English as assigned reading.

.

Helmholtz wrote:

NYC Law wrote:

bdubs wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Fuck fuck fuck. I'm getting pwned in LRW. Just got our memos back, got a B/B- ... Got a B/B+ on the first one. I hate that class so much. We still have one more assignment worth 40% of the grade...

How many credits is your LRW?

I think 3, but for for the entire year.
Right now I have a 2.95 in the class... And the B/B- paper is what I was using as my writing sample. Damn myself and my inadequate communication skills.

I think that generally, communication skills and LRW grades are about as strongly correlated as intelligence and exam grades.

This is probably true. I got an A- in LRW and my writing blows.

Might have gone overboard. Bought Making Your Case, The Winning Brief: 100 Tips, and Modern American Usage. I didn't know MAU was more like a dictionary than anything else, they just made it sound so interesting in Making Your Case. Anyway, I'm up to 'Aberrant', I did enjoy the 'a' vs. 'an' debate though.

NYC Law wrote:Might have gone overboard. Bought Making Your Case, The Winning Brief: 100 Tips, and Modern American Usage. I didn't know MAU was more like a dictionary than anything else, they just made it sound so interesting in Making Your Case. Anyway, I'm up to 'Aberrant', I did enjoy the 'a' vs. 'an' debate though.

WTF is wrong with you

johansantana21 wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Might have gone overboard. Bought Making Your Case, The Winning Brief: 100 Tips, and Modern American Usage. I didn't know MAU was more like a dictionary than anything else, they just made it sound so interesting in Making Your Case. Anyway, I'm up to 'Aberrant', I did enjoy the 'a' vs. 'an' debate though.

WTF is wrong with you

Law student, bro

I come in here daily to see who else has gotten their grades just so I can feel worse about not having grades yet...

johansantana21 wrote:

NYC Law wrote:Might have gone overboard. Bought Making Your Case, The Winning Brief: 100 Tips, and Modern American Usage. I didn't know MAU was more like a dictionary than anything else, they just made it sound so interesting in Making Your Case. Anyway, I'm up to 'Aberrant', I did enjoy the 'a' vs. 'an' debate though.

WTF is wrong with you

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

lawyerwannabe wrote:I come in here daily to see who else has gotten their grades just so I can feel worse about not having grades yet...

I'm so glad that most of my profs don't have tenure.

Surprisingly, my earliest grade came from the one prof who does have tenure.

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