1Ls: What are you going to do differently next semester? Forum

[LawMan20]

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[TheFutureLawyer]

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Strong first post.

[sidhesadie]

A lot of what everyone else already said, but I think mainly for me:

Outline from Day one. I can't take notes in outline format but if i transfer them to outline format every day, it will only take a half hour or so and then I'll have a running outline I can tuck info into as it comes up.

Flashcards, for most classes, were way more helpful than the outline (particularly for our closed book/closed notes exams) so I will make those earlier and study with them more.

I will not write actual briefs at all. I quit after a while last semester but it was an epic waste of time, I'll just do it right in the casebook like I did for the second half of the semester.

Anything further, I'll have to wait till we get grades back to decide. I did things differently for some classes than others, we'll see what worked the best.

[ilovesf]

Before I got my grades, I wanted to start outlining way earlier, read e&es during the semester, and start practice tests about half way through. I did none of these last semester and I thought I was going to do badly, but now that I didn't do badly, I'm not sure if I should change my strategy. I probably won't end up doing any of this because I'm pretty lazy. I would say that this time I'm actually going to meet with a professor and go to office hours, but I swore I would do this before last semester and I never did it, so the chances are I won't do it again this semester either.

[Bildungsroman]

I think my main problem last quarter was not holding myself accountable in class. I'd frequently drift off and only pay enough attention to be able to handle cold calls. This quarter I decided to sit in the front in whatever classes I could, in the hope that I'd feel like it was more conversational with the professor and therefore more engaging, and that I'd be less willing to drift off or play solitaire because they'd be more likely to notice and ride me for it. So far I have high hopes.

[TatteredDignity]

Chill.

[jd20132013]

only thing I would change is no laptop in class. too easy to get distracted. i don't think it hurt my preparation for the finals themselves but i would like to actually learn something in class

[HWS08]

Stop patronizing the school cafeteria. I can't believe how much money and calories I've wasted on their disgusting food and burnt coffee.

Take better notes in class from the first day. My notes from the first month of school are basically non-existent/useless. I found I retained a lot more when I stopped having my laptop out during class, although I still take most of my reading notes on my laptop and then print them out before class.

I don't have my grade for legal writing yet, but I think I'll probably need to change my approach in that class. I'm not sure how though.

Listen to BARBRI lectures and use other supplemental materials more consistently throughout the semester.

Have more fun.

[Arbiter213]

Use the notetaking system that I developed throughout the term (couldn't before because I hadn't developed it yet). Figure out which classes I don't need to pay attention in and do reading for that class in that class (not that day's lecture, but the upcoming ones).

Did that in Torts most of the term, got a very good grade.

[FeelTheHeat]

Haven't gotten grades back, but I don't think I did to well. I'm going to stop using my laptop in class for notetaking and exclusively write them if I can. My main goals are to pay a LOT more attention in class, start looking at practice tests from week one, and focus on rote memorization more.

[Arbiter213]

Haven't gotten grades back, but I don't think I did to well. I'm going to stop using my laptop in class for notetaking and exclusively write them if I can. My main goals are to pay a LOT more attention in class, start looking at practice tests from week one, and focus on rote memorization more.

It's funny because our plans are basically exact opposites.

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[merc280]

Haven't gotten grades back, but I don't think I did to well. I'm going to stop using my laptop in class for notetaking and exclusively write them if I can. My main goals are to pay a LOT more attention in class, start looking at practice tests from week one, and focus on rote memorization more.

This. I feel like even though I didn't play games and goof around on the laptop, I divided my notes among the computer and hand written and never ended up combining them. I will probably do book briefing, and also hand write important information to help with the memorization for closed note tests.

[smscat]

Never did briefs - knew that was stupid. Will outline from the beginning instead of take notes so I don't have to do all that copy-pasting and repetition. Will try and review my outlines ahead of time. Will try and get and complete more practice questions early on. Will try and find a study group that studies at my pace instead of 24/7. Will try and make friends.

[BackToTheOldHouse]

Never did briefs - knew that was stupid. Will outline from the beginning instead of take notes so I don't have to do all that copy-pasting and repetition. Will try and review my outlines ahead of time. Will try and get and complete more practice questions early on. Will try and find a study group that studies at my pace instead of 24/7. Will try and make friends.

This

[Sapientia]

• -Outline and periodically memorize my outlines from the beginning of the semester.
  -No briefs.
  -Only use supplements to clarify things I don't fully understand.
  -Do practice problems throughout the semester, and take a ton of timed practice tests before exams.
  -Go over said practice problems and tests with study group.
  -Go to and pay attention in every class.

I did everything above (except for the no briefs part) this semester and got a 4.0, so I'm confident it will work again

[ilovesf]

I didn't have a study group last semester and I was pretty worried that I wouldn't do well because of it. My group of friends and I would talk about things when one of us didn't understand something, but we never actually went over anything together, did any practice tests, officially meet, etc. I think I'm going to stick with this and not try to get in on a study group.

[smscat]

I didn't have a study group last semester and I was pretty worried that I wouldn't do well because of it. My group of friends and I would talk about things when one of us didn't understand something, but we never actually went over anything together, did any practice tests, officially meet, etc. I think I'm going to stick with this and not try to get in on a study group.

I wish I could find this. My study group was so bright so I got a lot out of it, but way over the top. I've never studied more than a few hours a day in my life, and for them it was an all day affair with lots of waiting around and switching around topics - it drove me insane. I just want to meet or talk every few days for a few hours to go over a practice problem I did on my own. I don't know how to find people like that who are really focused though. I don't need to sit with them and take it and wait for everyone to finish and then wait for everyone to break and go out for lunch...

[boricuaman]

A couple of things of the top of my head:

1) I'm going to try and stop g-chatting during class. I feel like this made me loose my focus and thus miss some really important points being covered by the professor.

2) I'm going to try to participate more in class. I think my first semester of law school was too much of a passive experience in this sense. I want to engage class discussion more.

3) I want to make sure our outlining group doesn't slack off, which happened a lot last semester.

4) I want to stop by office hours when I don't understand something in the material, and just take more advantage of the resources at my disposal.

[smscat]

Also, I won't buy supplements because that was a waste. And I didn't do the reading all semester without problems so I'm going to be similarly lazy in that regard. And I'm going to start taking citation seriously. I should probably join activities, but they are not my thing whatsoever. I want to make friends, but I'm just letting the pressure off because I'm starting to realize law-school type people are probably a bit too intense for me to really click with.

[ilovesf]

I didn't have a study group last semester and I was pretty worried that I wouldn't do well because of it. My group of friends and I would talk about things when one of us didn't understand something, but we never actually went over anything together, did any practice tests, officially meet, etc. I think I'm going to stick with this and not try to get in on a study group.

I wish I could find this. My study group was so bright so I got a lot out of it, but way over the top. I've never studied more than a few hours a day in my life, and for them it was an all day affair with lots of waiting around and switching around topics - it drove me insane. I just want to meet or talk every few days for a few hours to go over a practice problem I did on my own. I don't know how to find people like that who are really focused though. I don't need to sit with them and take it and wait for everyone to finish and then wait for everyone to break and go out for lunch...

Yeah.. that sucks. If it doesn't work for you, I'd just stop doing it. I saw a lot of study groups who were just sitting around not really talking about class, which is fine if it works for them, but I wouldn't really be happy sitting around in a group of 6 people talking about non school related things for hours right before finals.

[ilovesf]

Meh.. I would say that I would try to pay more attention during class, but I actually did the best in the two classes where I was chatting and reading stupid shit online the whole time.

[adonai]

From the grades I have gotten back so far, I'm not sure how or if I should adjust my plan. Those two grades show that it really doesn't matter what I do or how I feel. One of them was my hardest exam that I felt I did horribly on, and I got an alright grade. One of them was the easiest exam I felt I rocked, but I ended up also doing only "okay." I did all the readings in advance and it helped me have more extra time for LRW and generally feel less pressured and stressed. Maybe I should just do the readings day by day this time, but I don't see how that will help me either.

I'm finally starting to understand what people meant by saying grades are a crapshoot. It doesn't mean anything until you've experienced it firsthand.

[Extension_Cord]

I got my best grade in the class I didnt do any group studying for. The class I did the most, I got the worst grade. Come to think about it, I also didn't outline for the class I got the best grade in.

hmmm, I guess pure practise test are the way to go for me. Works for me because Im also lazy.

[clone22]

drink more and enjoy life at the beginning of the semester when there's not much going on anyway. Outline at the very end of the semester as a way to review all the material. Crap I did best in classes where I used canned outlines to which I added from my own notes. And honestly, don't change your study habits from undergrad.

It almost seems like people who kept their study habits from undergrad did pretty well because they knew what methods worked for them, while people that tried to adopt a new study method seem to have kinda screwed themselves over.

[A12345]

Continue what I was doing basically since my grades were pretty solid (~ top 5-10%). I read every case we went over and did quite a bit of supplement work and practice tests. Other than that I did not do a whole lot though. I did not take notes in class and did not make outlines in any of my classes. I used old outlines and tweaked them a little bit but other than that they were largely in tact. I think it helped that I did not procrastinate on my Legal Writing assignments and that I was doing supplement work from the beginning of the semester. I am going to try to pay attention in class better and quit surfing the web. I shouldn't even bring my computer to class since I do not even take notes but oh well. Hopefully semester 2 goes as well as the first!