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itsirtou wrote: Do people actually fail LRW? I don't know anyone who did -- I knew one person who got a not-passing notice from the professor midway through, essentially, but he passed in the end.

esq wrote:So I'm in Sprigman's class for Torts, and he has this habit of dropping 40-50 pgs, 8-12 cases, of reading the night before class. This would be fine if we all operated in a vacuum, but this is 1L at UVa Law. Considering that he only covers 40% of the cases in class and that Torts can be fairly summed up in one week - " what would the reasonable person have done?" - does anyone who's had Sprigman have advice about how to approach this class? I'd like to focus more on jotting down and understanding how to apply the rules, but his heavy reliance on cases (which will be literally 100s by the time the test comes around), has me worried that his tests will be case specific, rather than just an application of the rules. I also think he's new at Torts, so no prior test history in the library.

itsirtou wrote:Do people actually fail LRW? I don't know anyone who did -- I knew one person who got a not-passing notice from the professor midway through, essentially, but he passed in the end. Plus, no one's advocating you work so little that you fail, just not stressing out and working so hard that you take time away from the work you put into other classes.

Puttanesca wrote:There goes my weekend.

esq wrote: +1. I predict - because he's horrible at keeping up with his own readings - that we finish with this last week's reading in class on Tues, some of Tues' by Thurs, and that in spite of this he will still drop a 40pg bomb on us Thurs night. On the bright side, at least we have this weeks reading with some advance notice.

sundance95 wrote:^ damn.

and here I was getting salty about 5 3 cases of CivPro.

albanach wrote:

sundance95 wrote:^ damn.

and here I was getting salty about 5 cases of CivPro.

+1 to this. That's a crazy amount of reading for Torts. We've usually been averaging about ten pages and normally have them well in advance.

Can one of your class reps approach the prof? If the reading's required it'd still be reasonable for it to be announced with slightly more notice. Especially if you ever have back to back days with torts.

paulinaporizkova wrote:

albanach wrote:

sundance95 wrote:^ damn.

and here I was getting salty about 5 cases of CivPro.

+1 to this. That's a crazy amount of reading for Torts. We've usually been averaging about ten pages and normally have them well in advance.

Can one of your class reps approach the prof? If the reading's required it'd still be reasonable for it to be announced with slightly more notice. Especially if you ever have back to back days with torts.

Duffy ftw

albanach wrote:

esq wrote: +1. I predict - because he's horrible at keeping up with his own readings - that we finish with this last week's reading in class on Tues, some of Tues' by Thurs, and that in spite of this he will still drop a 40pg bomb on us Thurs night. On the bright side, at least we have this weeks reading with some advance notice.

I really sympathize with you guys. It's pretty obvious that you can't approach a prof and say there's too much reading. However, as you point out above, it's going to be a lot more manageable with some notice. Perhaps a class rep could approach and think him for the extra notice of the reading this week, pointing out that it really helps the class balance their workload with respect to your other classes.

That positive approach might help keep things at least doable, especially if another prof were to unexpectedly hand you a large reading assignment with short notice.

Gerry B wrote: For the reading itself, you're just going to have to keep up to the best of your ability and don't get too freaked out if you don't finish all 80 pages because he most likely won't get to them. At the same time, I remember at least 3 occasions last year in con law when I thought for sure he wasn't going to get to everything and he sped through some cases or squibs. Don't even bother approaching him either. This is his MO and if he is still doing it given how much feedback he got last year on the evaluations not to, he isn't going to change.

That said, his exams are NOT case heavy and for torts in general, I found its a little hard to be. There are usually a few big cases, but for the most part the exam will ask you to look for the general rules you gleaned from those cases and apply them to a different set of facts. You don't have to worry about any of this now though. Just get through the reading and try to understand the cases and the rules and you will be fine come exam time.

esq wrote:

Gerry B wrote: For the reading itself, you're just going to have to keep up to the best of your ability and don't get too freaked out if you don't finish all 80 pages because he most likely won't get to them. At the same time, I remember at least 3 occasions last year in con law when I thought for sure he wasn't going to get to everything and he sped through some cases or squibs. Don't even bother approaching him either. This is his MO and if he is still doing it given how much feedback he got last year on the evaluations not to, he isn't going to change.

That said, his exams are NOT case heavy and for torts in general, I found its a little hard to be. There are usually a few big cases, but for the most part the exam will ask you to look for the general rules you gleaned from those cases and apply them to a different set of facts. You don't have to worry about any of this now though. Just get through the reading and try to understand the cases and the rules and you will be fine come exam time.

Great. This is really good info, thanks. And I assume that the few big cases that he will want us to recall out of the 100s that we will have covered will be brought up, or at least hinted at, during the pre-exam review?

Gerry B wrote: Yeah definitely. He will point out pretty clearly which cases are the most important in shaping the field you are studying. And he was one of the better professors I had last year about answering questions come exam time and during review sessions.

I found his exam to be fair but I was thrown for a loop because it had word limits. Working with those if you are not used to it can be tricky but he doesn't seem to do it for all his exams. I would just make sure to ask him when it gets closer to the exam period. Again, don't worry about exams yet. It is most important to just get your bearings reading the cases and starting to think "the way lawyers think" right now. Once you start to see torts in every single situation walking down the street, you will know you have been properly brainwashed.

joeshmo39 wrote:Anyone know of any worthwhile supplements for these classes?

Speech and Press - Schauer
Criminal Procedure Survey - Bowers

vamedic03 wrote:

joeshmo39 wrote:Anyone know of any worthwhile supplements for these classes?

Speech and Press - Schauer
Criminal Procedure Survey - Bowers

All I can say is that I found the E&E for crim investigation to be overly simplistic and generally useless.

Law Sauce wrote:Im a 1L and I have two questions:
Does anybody have any sort of feel for how OGI went yet for most of 2013? callbacks etc.? I got a little freaked out the other day talking to one 2L in particular. Also, how do you go about getting practice exams or hypos. besides on law web which does not have that many?
PM me if you'd rather. thanks guys

5ky wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:Im a 1L and I have two questions:
Does anybody have any sort of feel for how OGI went yet for most of 2013? callbacks etc.? I got a little freaked out the other day talking to one 2L in particular. Also, how do you go about getting practice exams or hypos. besides on law web which does not have that many?
PM me if you'd rather. thanks guys

Often times professors will give them to you later on in the semester or will direct you on how to find some. If they don't, ask. As of now it's far too early to be worthwhile for you -- the real importance of the practice exams are to practice applying law to fact, and you simply don't know enough law (and won't, until at least fall break) to even think about taking one.

Law Sauce wrote:Im a 1L and I have two questions:
Does anybody have any sort of feel for how OGI went yet for most of 2013? callbacks etc.? I got a little freaked out the other day talking to one 2L in particular. Also, how do you go about getting practice exams or hypos. besides on law web which does not have that many?
PM me if you'd rather. thanks guys

Puttanesca wrote:How hard is it to get a parking space in the blue lot closest to the law school (the lower lot near the field)? In other words, what time would I have to get to school to park in one of these spots? I heard there were something like 17 spaces designated for blue permits in that lower lot.

Alternatively, is it worth bidding on a D-22 spot to park behind the law school?

Puttanesca wrote:How hard is it to get a parking space in the blue lot closest to the law school (the lower lot near the field)? In other words, what time would I have to get to school to park in one of these spots? I heard there were something like 17 spaces designated for blue permits in that lower lot.

Alternatively, is it worth bidding on a D-22 spot to park behind the law school?