Duke 1L (soon to be 2L) taking questions Forum

[randawg91]

After reading Getting to Maybe, I've been trained to fight against the IRAC style of analysis/writing. But when doing the summer case briefing assignment, the prompt specifically references the the IRAC (or FIRAC) method as the one to follow. Any advice on what they typically look for at Duke in terms of exam answers?

[racrfish]

After reading Getting to Maybe, I've been trained to fight against the IRAC style of analysis/writing. But when doing the summer case briefing assignment, the prompt specifically references the the IRAC (or FIRAC) method as the one to follow. Any advice on what they typically look for at Duke in terms of exam answers?

On exams, always IRAC. It can be a loose form of it but that's still the basic structure you always use.

Frankly you'll do it by second nature anyway, that's the logical way to write exams and I never had to consciously think about it on any of my exams.

And all LARW professors will make you write in that format too, or a variant of it like IREAC.

[racrfish]

Also some professors will do their cold calls in IRAC style. Coleman, who teaches the briefing class at LEAD week, comes to mind.

[Serett]

Anyone care to rank Durham's three movie theaters? Guardians of the Galaxy beckons

[beachbum]

Anyone care to rank Durham's three movie theaters? Guardians of the Galaxy beckons

Southpoint is always a solid option.

[Merylian]

The AMC at Southpoint is nicest I think. The Carmike on Martin Luther King Jr. is sort of dumpy but you will *never* have to deal with a crowd of any sort there. The Regal over at Northgate mall is ok I think? I've never been but apparently that area is not the safest part of town so I wouldn't do something like an 11:30pm showing over there.

[Serett]

Sounds good, thanks guys. AMC's the only chain I've been to out of them, anyway, so Southpoint it is. I'm sure I'll take a look at the other two at a matinee eventually.

[SplitMyPants]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

[SplitMyPants]

Are there places around here to go tubing? By that I mean nothing more than going with some people in two separate cars, leaving one at the exit-point, and floating down a river in a tube with some cold beverages for an hour or two.

I found the canoe guide on the Eno River site which details the canoe drop-off points. Has anyone done this before? If so, do rangers patrol for IDs and life jackets? Because they have in my experiences elsewhere.

http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/enri/activities.php

[intlsplitr]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Haha absolutely not. I suppose you could take the whole time off, but I wouldn't suggest it. I only took thanksgiving day off and worked at least 6 hours on the other days. Talking to others, it sounds like this was fairly typical.

Exams are too close to Thanksgiving to take it easy over the weekend. 1L grades matter if you want a job after graduation. Studying should come first.

[intlsplitr]

A little more detail on why taking the whole time off isn't a good idea -

The break (obviously) means that there are no classes. I have found that studying for exams/outlining is much more effective when you can sit down, uninterrupted, and really engage with the course materials. Not having class for most of the week means that you are free to sit uninterrupted and focus. There is no requirement that you stop working at any particular time to go to class, or deal with some other law school thing. You have time to get your ish done. And you won't be as pressed for time over break as you will be during the Reading period.

In addition to preparing for finals, you should use the Thanksgiving break to get applications for 1L summer ready to go. You can't apply for anything before Dec 1, but you can have those materials ready to go at midnight the day applications open. Anything application you get don't over the break is one you don't have to do on Dec 1/during finals/over Christmas break. As with law school applications, early submission is always better.

[SplitMyPants]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Haha absolutely not. I suppose you could take the whole time off, but I wouldn't suggest it. I only took thanksgiving day off and worked at least 6 hours on the other days. Talking to others, it sounds like this was fairly typical.

Exams are too close to Thanksgiving to take it easy over the weekend. 1L grades matter if you want a job after graduation. Studying should come first.

Thanks for the input! This is good to know.

[FlowBro]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Haha absolutely not. I suppose you could take the whole time off, but I wouldn't suggest it. I only took thanksgiving day off and worked at least 6 hours on the other days. Talking to others, it sounds like this was fairly typical.

Exams are too close to Thanksgiving to take it easy over the weekend. 1L grades matter if you want a job after graduation. Studying should come first.

Rising 2L here and I cannot disagree more (while I do respect your opinion). I think that different study methods work for different people. For me, the break gave me time to take a quick step away from the books and get some rest before the final push (no pun intended). Bottom-line is that every person will have a unique situation and how much you study depends on:

1. If you go home
2. Where home is
3. How much outlining you have done by the break
4. How comfortable you feel with the material

I know people who studied a ton and people who didn't pick up a book the entire break, I could not see any correlation between studying over winter break and preparedness come finals time. My overall point is, do what works for you!

[intlsplitr]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Haha absolutely not. I suppose you could take the whole time off, but I wouldn't suggest it. I only took thanksgiving day off and worked at least 6 hours on the other days. Talking to others, it sounds like this was fairly typical.

Exams are too close to Thanksgiving to take it easy over the weekend. 1L grades matter if you want a job after graduation. Studying should come first.

Rising 2L here and I cannot disagree more (while I do respect your opinion). I think that different study methods work for different people. For me, the break gave me time to take a quick step away from the books and get some rest before the final push (no pun intended). Bottom-line is that every person will have a unique situation and how much you study depends on:

1. If you go home
2. Where home is
3. How much outlining you have done by the break
4. How comfortable you feel with the material

I know people who studied a ton and people who didn't pick up a book the entire break, I could not see any correlation between studying over winter break and preparedness come finals time. My overall point is, do what works for you!

I think I inadvertently de-emphisized the 'do what works for you' ness of my answer. For me (and some others), there was no way to take time off and be prepared. Others, including my esteemed colleague FlowBro, apparently could take the whole break.

[SplitMyPants]

I think I inadvertently de-emphisized the 'do what works for you' ness of my answer. For me (and some others), there was no way to take time off and be prepared. Others, including my esteemed colleague FlowBro, apparently could take the whole break.

I kind of figured this would be the case. And since I have no way of knowing at this point, I'm gonna go ahead and tell them to visit another weekend. Thanks guys

[FlowBro]

With Thanksgiving weekend landing a week prior to the start of 1L exams, did you all find yourselves able to easily take time for the full holiday weekend? I know everyone is different in how they prepare and how much they will need to do to study for exams, but I'm just looking for some perspective. My brother and sister-in-law were thinking of booking flights to Durham for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Haha absolutely not. I suppose you could take the whole time off, but I wouldn't suggest it. I only took thanksgiving day off and worked at least 6 hours on the other days. Talking to others, it sounds like this was fairly typical.

Exams are too close to Thanksgiving to take it easy over the weekend. 1L grades matter if you want a job after graduation. Studying should come first.

Rising 2L here and I cannot disagree more (while I do respect your opinion). I think that different study methods work for different people. For me, the break gave me time to take a quick step away from the books and get some rest before the final push (no pun intended). Bottom-line is that every person will have a unique situation and how much you study depends on:

1. If you go home
2. Where home is
3. How much outlining you have done by the break
4. How comfortable you feel with the material

I know people who studied a ton and people who didn't pick up a book the entire break, I could not see any correlation between studying over winter break and preparedness come finals time. My overall point is, do what works for you!

I think I inadvertently de-emphisized the 'do what works for you' ness of my answer. For me (and some others), there was no way to take time off and be prepared. Others, including my esteemed colleague FlowBro, apparently could take the whole break.

You're exactly right (I appreciate being referred to as your "esteemed colleague", it has a nice ring to it)

[SplitMyPants]

Are there places around here to go tubing? By that I mean nothing more than going with some people in two separate cars, leaving one at the exit-point, and floating down a river in a tube with some cold beverages for an hour or two.

I found the canoe guide on the Eno River site which details the canoe drop-off points. Has anyone done this before? If so, do rangers patrol for IDs and life jackets? Because they have in my experiences elsewhere.

http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/enri/activities.php

It's only been a day, but I'm going to bump this in the hopes of getting to go do this before classes start.

[intlsplitr]

I have gone canoeing on the Eno; the canoeable stretch we were in was really short. The river doesn't seem particularly tube friendly, unless you want to walk for stretches. Make sure to check both the city and state park. The state park merges with a Durham city park (also called Eno River). There are parking lots on both ends, but I couldn't tell you if one can tube all the way.

The river through Umstead State Park might be doable. The river seems a little wider/deeper than the Eno. Not sure about parking on both ends though.

I haven't ever seen rangers in either park.

[SplitMyPants]

I have gone canoeing on the Eno; the canoeable stretch we were in was really short. The river doesn't seem particularly tube friendly, unless you want to walk for stretches. Make sure to check both the city and state park. The state park merges with a Durham city park (also called Eno River). There are parking lots on both ends, but I couldn't tell you if one can tube all the way.

The river through Umstead State Park might be doable. The river seems a little wider/deeper than the Eno. Not sure about parking on both ends though.

I haven't ever seen rangers in either park.

Awesome. Thanks!

[SplitMyPants]

Any suggestions on a good, local place (ie not Buffalo Wild Wings) to host a fantasy draft for 14 people?

[AllDangle]

Any suggestions on a good, local place (ie not Buffalo Wild Wings) to host a fantasy draft for 14 people?

Satisfaction, Tylers Taproom, and Tobacco Road Sports Cafe are all solid options.

[PB&J.D.]

Any suggestions on a good, local place (ie not Buffalo Wild Wings) to host a fantasy draft for 14 people?

Satisfaction, Tylers Taproom, and Tobacco Road Sports Cafe are all solid options.

Idk about the others, but Tyler's looked like a good spot when I was in town last month. They have a restaurant area & a separate section with pool tables, darts, TVs and such.

Also, Split with the 180 commissioner status.

[retaking23]

This might not really be specific to Duke Law, but what the heck...

How essential is it to have a good laptop for law school? In other words, can one go through 1L the old fashioned way (pen and paper) without much fanfare? I never got into the habit of taking notes on computers and, now that I think about it, I would prefer not to. Are exams all taken on the laptop, pen and paper, or does it vary by class/professor?

[beachbum]

This might not really be specific to Duke Law, but what the heck...

How essential is it to have a good laptop for law school? In other words, can one go through 1L the old fashioned way (pen and paper) without much fanfare? I never got into the habit of taking notes on computers and, now that I think about it, I would prefer not to. Are exams all taken on the laptop, pen and paper, or does it vary by class/professor?

Strictly speaking, you don't need a laptop. However, you're probably going to be at some disadvantage in classes that give "traditional" (or, "write as much shit as you can in three hours") exams, if only because your peers will be able to type faster than you'll be able to write.

[retaking23]

This might not really be specific to Duke Law, but what the heck...

How essential is it to have a good laptop for law school? In other words, can one go through 1L the old fashioned way (pen and paper) without much fanfare? I never got into the habit of taking notes on computers and, now that I think about it, I would prefer not to. Are exams all taken on the laptop, pen and paper, or does it vary by class/professor?

Strictly speaking, you don't need a laptop. However, you're probably going to be at some disadvantage in classes that give "traditional" (or, "write as much shit as you can in three hours") exams, if only because your peers will be able to type faster than you'll be able to write.

Ah, gotcha. Nice to know contemporary Luddites aren't necessarily doomed at Duke. How many traditional exam classes can one reasonably expect throughout 1L and law school generally? Also, can you elaborate on the disadvantage? Do people who hand write such exams typically do worse than their typing peers simply because of the speed issue you mention?