1L Exam Prep and Motivation Thread Forum

[istara]

I just spent all day every day this weekend working on my research project. And it's not even done yet. Time to start the reading which I haven't done for tomorrow. And here I thought I would get a few days ahead in the reading this weekend. FML... torts, here I come!

[northwood]

just got done with my second writing assignment for LRW ( 2 memos wtf!), and got my outlines up to date... Starting to consider using old outlines, as they are pretty similar to mine, but obviously fully complete ( i havent outlined the parts of class that I read, but we havent had the class on yet)..... thoughts on this??

And now i get to work on my resume tomorrow morning. was going to do that today as well, but its 1020pm and im dead tired.

do you think doing 2 weeks worth of practice exams will be enough/ I would love to think that I will be fully outlined and starting to do practice exams before thanksgiving break ( darn baptism that I have to be there that weekend- im going to be a godfather), but im starting to concede the notion that this wont happen.

best of luck yall.. keep your hopes and aspirations and dreams of booking this semester high, and your fears, self doubt, and stress/ anxiety levels low!

[ph14]

just got done with my second writing assignment for LRW ( 2 memos wtf!), and got my outlines up to date... Starting to consider using old outlines, as they are pretty similar to mine, but obviously fully complete ( i havent outlined the parts of class that I read, but we havent had the class on yet)..... thoughts on this??

And now i get to work on my resume tomorrow morning. was going to do that today as well, but its 1020pm and im dead tired.

do you think doing 2 weeks worth of practice exams will be enough/ I would love to think that I will be fully outlined and starting to do practice exams before thanksgiving break ( darn baptism that I have to be there that weekend- im going to be a godfather), but im starting to concede the notion that this wont happen.

best of luck yall.. keep your hopes and aspirations and dreams of booking this semester high, and your fears, self doubt, and stress/ anxiety levels low!

Doesn't everyone have 2 memos their first semester?

[AlexanderSupertramp]

Why do I have to be one of those people who can only learn from outlines by actually making them? It takes up so much time then I just throw them into the recycling.

I have got to book these finals, though, I am thinking about transferring.

[queenlizzie13]

Why do I have to be one of those people who can only learn from outlines by actually making them? It takes up so much time then I just throw them into the recycling.

I have got to book these finals, though, I am thinking about transferring.

I'm the same way. One of my classes made absolutely no sense until I started outlining it. These outlines are taking forever though...

[Eugenie Danglars]

I've had college friends in town all weekend and have gotten NOTHING done. Didn't crack a book from noon Friday til now. It was definitely worth it.

This week, though, I'ma have to book it!

[gdane]

I'm also in the learning by outline method. I pretty much taught myself civil procedure by using the e and e, crunchtime, the acing book, and my class notes and putting them in outline form.

[crossarmant]

Why do I have to be one of those people who can only learn from outlines by actually making them? It takes up so much time then I just throw them into the recycling.

I have got to book these finals, though, I am thinking about transferring.

Agreed, outlining for Torts pretty much retaught me the class. Though, CivPro has been nearly entirely self taught from Freer's book "Intro to Civil Procedure" and my E&E. The professor tends to make the subject matter more confusing than it already is. Contracts is a bit harder to learn from supplements because my professor runs most of the class on hypos and teaches out of order and in a different style.

I also need to ace my exams. I'm not terribly happy with the area and the people I'm in class with. It may just be depression or missing my fiancee back home, but I'm starting to think I don't wanna be here for the rest of my practicing life.

[thegrayman]

I see the utility of outlining the more I work on them, you see the gaps in your understanding. I really hate how long they take though, getting down to the wire and I'm still whittling away at them day by day.

[bostonlawchick]

Started my outlines last week... going back and making them myself is really helping me get refreshed on stuff from September.

Got two (thankfully ungraded) midterms back this week and on each one I missed an issue. They weren't huge issues, but they were ones the professors mentioned that we should have talked about. I did well on the issues that I did spot, at least. Is there a way to make sure this doesn't happen to me during the real thing? I'm assuming the answer is practice, practice, practice, but if anyone has a better idea I'm open to it.

[ph14]

Started my outlines last week... going back and making them myself is really helping me get refreshed on stuff from September.

Got two (thankfully ungraded) midterms back this week and on each one I missed an issue. They weren't huge issues, but they were ones the professors mentioned that we should have talked about. I did well on the issues that I did spot, at least. Is there a way to make sure this doesn't happen to me during the real thing? I'm assuming the answer is practice, practice, practice, but if anyone has a better idea I'm open to it.

Checklists

[AlexanderSupertramp]

I'm really scared about that too. I got the issues on all the midterms. The one I got a B on was because I messed up the multiples, did fine on the essay. I'm taking practice finals, though, and totally missing whole issues or writing about things that aren't there. Now I am just kind of training myself to write about major things I think are going to be on there. Like, I'm pretty sure there will be a SOF and parol evidence issue in Contracts so I'm kind of working through those in my head.

[bostonlawchick]

Started my outlines last week... going back and making them myself is really helping me get refreshed on stuff from September.

Got two (thankfully ungraded) midterms back this week and on each one I missed an issue. They weren't huge issues, but they were ones the professors mentioned that we should have talked about. I did well on the issues that I did spot, at least. Is there a way to make sure this doesn't happen to me during the real thing? I'm assuming the answer is practice, practice, practice, but if anyone has a better idea I'm open to it.

Checklists

More evidence that law school has turned my brain to jello- the thought of checklists had not even crossed my mind. Thanks. I swear to God the more classes I attend the stupider I get.

[ph14]

Started my outlines last week... going back and making them myself is really helping me get refreshed on stuff from September.

Got two (thankfully ungraded) midterms back this week and on each one I missed an issue. They weren't huge issues, but they were ones the professors mentioned that we should have talked about. I did well on the issues that I did spot, at least. Is there a way to make sure this doesn't happen to me during the real thing? I'm assuming the answer is practice, practice, practice, but if anyone has a better idea I'm open to it.

Checklists

More evidence that law school has turned my brain to jello- the thought of checklists had not even crossed my mind. Thanks. I swear to God the more classes I attend the stupider I get.

It's okay, I feel the same way. At least we can all get through it together .

[dabomb75]

property, how I LOATHE thee. No idea how I'm supposed to memorize all this useless info where every single sub-section has its own creation, duration, termination, partial, total, actual constructive, etc, etc, bullshit. So annoying

[ph14]

property, how I LOATHE thee. No idea how I'm supposed to memorize all this useless info where every single sub-section has its own creation, duration, termination, partial, total, actual constructive, etc, etc, bullshit. So annoying

Yeah, there are tons of rules. My property outline is my longest by far.

[NeighborGuy]

Just took my first practice test for torts. Rather ugly. Would be nice if our Prof. wasn't the only source of tort law for my state; the guy's a damn sphinx.

[Iceman389]

For as much as I was skeptical about the whole "everything will click at the end when you see the big picture" mantra from 2L's that I heard, I think it is actually happening for me, at least in torts and civ pro. Property, not so much

[Lasers]

gotta start taking practice tests...i'm getting nervous here.

[NYC Law]

I am terrified. I'm starting to get psyched out. I generally feel like I haven't been doing enough. I've been keeping up with the reading, I've attempted outlining several times but I just don't know if that works for me, I'm not a very organized person and I don't get much out of just sitting there and organizing info. I've got access to some pretty good outlines from previous years though, and it all matches my notes pretty well. I've been reviewing with friends, some of which have been intensely outlining/reading/etc and I seem to have a similar (if not better) grasp of everything than them. I try reading supplements but they just seem to basic and most is irrelevant for my classes. I get aggravated when they leave out the details my professors cover... And I think I'm having a fairly easy time running through hypos/sample exams and making up my own hypos. But I still just feel psyched out. Everyone here is doing so much and it's so hard for me to get motivated to put in those same brute amount of work hours. I've never been that kind of learner, I think I studied 1-2 hours per exam in UG tops.

The mind games are really starting to get to me though... That packed library freaks me out. The people who have 500+ cases printed out for their long memos.... I really don't want to be at or below median

[crossarmant]

I am terrified. I'm starting to get psyched out. I generally feel like I haven't been doing enough. I've been keeping up with the reading, I've attempted outlining several times but I just don't know if that works for me, I'm not a very organized person and I don't get much out of just sitting there and organizing info. I've got access to some pretty good outlines from previous years though, and it all matches my notes pretty well. I've been reviewing with friends, some of which have been intensely outlining/reading/etc and I seem to have a similar (if not better) grasp of everything than them. I try reading supplements but they just seem to basic and most is irrelevant for my classes. I get aggravated when they leave out the details my professors cover... And I think I'm having a fairly easy time running through hypos/sample exams and making up my own hypos. But I still just feel psyched out. Everyone here is doing so much and it's so hard for me to get motivated to put in those same brute amount of work hours. I've never been that kind of learner, I think I studied 1-2 hours per exam in UG tops.

The mind games are really starting to get to me though... That packed library freaks me out. The people who have 500+ cases printed out for their long memos.... I really don't want to be at or below median

Echoed. Xanax.

Also, I fucking love my Contracts professor. We have additional review sessions in the evening occasionally and he pretty much walks us through his old exams and helps us to figure out wtf we're doing with them. The only complaint is that everyone else in the room is in the same boat.

[Gettingstarted1928]

I am terrified. I'm starting to get psyched out. I generally feel like I haven't been doing enough. I've been keeping up with the reading, I've attempted outlining several times but I just don't know if that works for me, I'm not a very organized person and I don't get much out of just sitting there and organizing info. I've got access to some pretty good outlines from previous years though, and it all matches my notes pretty well. I've been reviewing with friends, some of which have been intensely outlining/reading/etc and I seem to have a similar (if not better) grasp of everything than them. I try reading supplements but they just seem to basic and most is irrelevant for my classes. I get aggravated when they leave out the details my professors cover... And I think I'm having a fairly easy time running through hypos/sample exams and making up my own hypos. But I still just feel psyched out. Everyone here is doing so much and it's so hard for me to get motivated to put in those same brute amount of work hours. I've never been that kind of learner, I think I studied 1-2 hours per exam in UG tops.

The mind games are really starting to get to me though... That packed library freaks me out. The people who have 500+ cases printed out for their long memos.... I really don't want to be at or below median

I feel the same way. I think this is the reason the first semester of 1L sucks. Next semester you we'll know where we stand, and it won't matter what anyone else is doing.

[istara]

Thanksgiving week, here we go.. How's everyone doing?

I am surprised how many people here seem to be going home for the holiday with minimal studying planned.

[NYC Law]

Thanksgiving week, here we go.. How's everyone doing?

I am surprised how many people here seem to be going home for the holiday with minimal studying planned.

I'm actually doing that. But mainly because I reserved Thanksgiving as my dedicated time to work on getting all my cover letters and job applications ready. Pre-Thanksgiving I want to have my finalized versions of my outlines ready to go. Then after it will be exclusively exam practice time.

[dabomb75]

Originally was planning on staying here and studying the entire time, but being alone on Thanksgiving just seems depressing so I'm going home Wednesday - Friday, and am gonna work the entire time except for Thursday afternoon