Asking a Professor to look at your outline Forum

[halostarbucks]

Hello,

This is my first semester (spring start) and I am really feeling anxious about finals in just a few more weeks. I've taken decent notes in class and I feel like the outlines for two of my classes, Con Law and Crim Law, are pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. This may sound like a stupid question, but would it be okay to go to the profs during office hours to see if they would take a look at my outlines to see if I'm getting the info that counts? Is that something that a prof would be okay with doing or am I going to look like a gunner or a desperate loser trying to get them to do my work?

[TTTLS]

Is that something that a prof would be okay with doing or am I going to look like a gunner or a desperate loser trying to get them to do my work?

I wouldn't let this bother you. I'm sure your professor would be happy to go over your outline with you.

[shock259]

You can try. I think most of my professors wouldn't look at it, or would just make me ask specific questions topics. But what's the worst that can happen..?

[jarofsoup]

ask regarding certain topics, but you dont actually have to say that it is your actual outline. Just clarify orally while you are looking at it.

[zomginternets]

professors wouldn't look at it, or would just make me ask specific questions topics.

[LSATNightmares]

Yeah, if you have a 30 page outline or something, that wouldn't be good. I'd review it with your study group, and then go to the professor with specific questions.

[CanadianWolf]

You'll probably be referred to a TA. The real issue, however, is not the quality of your outline, but how you use that information during your final exam. Better to ask your professor how to write a law school exam.

[Renzo]

No professor is going to want to waste their time reading your notes. I'd all but guarantee that they will ask you to come up with specific questions or things you need clarified.

[MrAnon]

In general, if you have to ask a message board if it would be okay, its probably not okay.

[NeighborGuy]

Depends on the prof. (I'm noticing that this is my answer to every question posted on this board...)

Tell him/her you got your outline put together and you have some questions. Go to the appointment and just roll with the punches on how he/she wants to proceed.

I figure lots of profs. don't want to read a giant outline and only want specific questions, but it depends. I walked into an appointment with one of my profs the other day and she just took my < 10 page outline and started looking it over line by line.

[patrickd139]

My Torts prof looked at my outline for that class 1L year. But it was about 10 pages long, and there was no substantive feedback, just a "Looks like you're not missing anything."

[halostarbucks]

Thanks for the feedback y'all!

I definitely get that it would be better to ask specific questions but the problem with that is that I obviously don't know where my blind spots are. I think you guys are also right about it depending on the professor. My Crim Law professor is relatively new, he was the previous director of the legal aid clinic, and he is really down to earth. Plus that class only has 30 students and he has seemed pretty approachable in the past. I would feel better about approaching him to review it.

My Con Law professor, on the other hand, has been teaching here since the 70's and is pretty, well, professorial as far as his demeanor goes. Plus there are a hundred students in that class so, he might look at me like an ass if I brought him my 18 page outline and asked him to essentially grade it.

I will follow one of the above suggestions and see if I can get some feedback from some other students, preferably 2 or 3Ls, to help me narrow down my questions.

Also, do you guys think it might go over better to email a copy of my outline for them to peruse at their discretion as opposed to just showing up out of the blue during office hours? I actually may have answered my own question.

[kalvano]

Having them look at your outline is a waste of time. Writing down a full mock exam answer using your outline and then going over that with them would be far more useful.

[yeff]

Learn your blind spots by doing practice exams and comparing your answers to a model answer or the answers produced by members of a study group. Debate shit you disagree about and when you are all confused about something, ask the prof.

[sidhesadie]

Learn your blind spots by doing practice exams and comparing your answers to a model answer or the answers produced by members of a study group. Debate shit you disagree about and when you are all confused about something, ask the prof.

This. Also, when you're talking stuff over and someone says something and in your head you're thinking "I don't think that's how that works..." but you don't want to say anything because they all seem to think it does...ask about those things. Similarly, if you're sure something is A, but everyone else seems to think it's B, ask.

If you don't have a study group, CALI lessons and BarBri can help you find blind spots. BarBri conlaw videos were well worth the time spent watching for me.