OFFICIAL 1L Exam Prep & Motivation Thread (CSWS) Forum

[shumpshump]

Property was rough for me. If you're taught the traditional common law stuff, you'll encounter lots of rules that are complex and arbitrary. My prof crammed 3 massive issue spotters on the exam and it's clear that, although I had prepared, I didn't know the material well enough to get through everything in detail. So I would say that in property more than in other classes, memorize and practice writing out answers early on so that counter-intuitive rules become intuitive and you can deliver detailed answers on demand. You can't rely on common sense policy (as much) to guide your learning and application of the BLL.

Sweeeet. Pre-writing FTW

[stillwater]

Property was rough for me. If you're taught the traditional common law stuff, you'll encounter lots of rules that are complex and arbitrary. My prof crammed 3 massive issue spotters on the exam and it's clear that, although I had prepared, I didn't know the material well enough to get through everything in detail. So I would say that in property more than in other classes, memorize and practice writing out answers early on so that counter-intuitive rules become intuitive and you can deliver detailed answers on demand. You can't rely on common sense policy (as much) to guide your learning and application of the BLL.

Sweeeet. Pre-writing FTW

I've never tried this pre-writing business. I have pre-written like statements of rules and other pretty universal things that have no connection to the fact-pattern. Do people pre-write more than this?

[shumpshump]

Property was rough for me. If you're taught the traditional common law stuff, you'll encounter lots of rules that are complex and arbitrary. My prof crammed 3 massive issue spotters on the exam and it's clear that, although I had prepared, I didn't know the material well enough to get through everything in detail. So I would say that in property more than in other classes, memorize and practice writing out answers early on so that counter-intuitive rules become intuitive and you can deliver detailed answers on demand. You can't rely on common sense policy (as much) to guide your learning and application of the BLL.

Sweeeet. Pre-writing FTW

I've never tried this pre-writing business. I have pre-written like statements of rules and other pretty universal things that have no connection to the fact-pattern. Do people pre-write more than this?

Prewrote about 30 pages for my civpro exam. Worked beautifully and even gave me more time to think about the facts and how they apply, etc. I didn't do it for my other classes and regretted it so much when I was taking time to type up the law coherently.

[stillwater]

Property was rough for me. If you're taught the traditional common law stuff, you'll encounter lots of rules that are complex and arbitrary. My prof crammed 3 massive issue spotters on the exam and it's clear that, although I had prepared, I didn't know the material well enough to get through everything in detail. So I would say that in property more than in other classes, memorize and practice writing out answers early on so that counter-intuitive rules become intuitive and you can deliver detailed answers on demand. You can't rely on common sense policy (as much) to guide your learning and application of the BLL.

Sweeeet. Pre-writing FTW

I've never tried this pre-writing business. I have pre-written like statements of rules and other pretty universal things that have no connection to the fact-pattern. Do people pre-write more than this?

Prewrote about 30 pages for my civpro exam. Worked beautifully and even gave me more time to think about the facts and how they apply, etc. I didn't do it for my other classes and regretted it so much when I was taking time to type up the law coherently.

Interesting. I don't even know conceptually what that'd look like. After 1st semester, I think the lesson I learned is that there are multiple ways to get to the end. LOL at briefs.

[JG7773]

Bros, I need some help getting back out the grind this semester! I am taking Con / Crim / K. We are three weeks in already, and I need to get that outline grind on!

[Jsa725]

.

[stillwater]

Bros, I need some help getting back out the grind this semester! I am taking Con / Crim / K. We are three weeks in already, and I need to get that outline grind on!

this is what I do....
get the brief online somewhere...paste it on a sheet of paper in word that is split in 1/2 vertically so I can take class notes on the right half...
read brief first, then read the case and pay close attn.... I have my O/L open and all I put in there is the case name and applicable rule.... if there is any additional information, I throw that in there too.... at this point i am not worried about being concise, although I do not overdo it.

next, after a bunch of classes, I add the shit from my class notes into the O/L.... all i am concentrating on is collecting information
a month before finals I have a full O/L that I start condensing into fewer and fewer pages...this way I spend more time w/ supps and PT's
I also take advantage of others' O/L's as needed

voila...

edit: I'm CSWS'n ROIGHT NAO.

You dudes are stressing me out. I am trying get back to square with work and you all are exploding into exam prep mode.

[shumpshump]

Bros, I need some help getting back out the grind this semester! I am taking Con / Crim / K. We are three weeks in already, and I need to get that outline grind on!

this is what I do....
get the brief online somewhere...paste it on a sheet of paper in word that is split in 1/2 vertically so I can take class notes on the right half...
read brief first, then read the case and pay close attn.... I have my O/L open and all I put in there is the case name and applicable rule.... if there is any additional information, I throw that in there too.... at this point i am not worried about being concise, although I do not overdo it.

next, after a bunch of classes, I add the shit from my class notes into the O/L.... all i am concentrating on is collecting information
a month before finals I have a full O/L that I start condensing into fewer and fewer pages...this way I spend more time w/ supps and PT's
I also take advantage of others' O/L's as needed

voila...

edit: I'm CSWS'n ROIGHT NAO.

You dudes are stressing me out. I am trying get back to square with work and you all are exploding into exam prep mode.

Dude, if it's one thing I learned last semester, it's that i should in exam prep mode all term. What's the point of doing something that won't be useful to me on an exam?!

[stillwater]

Bros, I need some help getting back out the grind this semester! I am taking Con / Crim / K. We are three weeks in already, and I need to get that outline grind on!

this is what I do....
get the brief online somewhere...paste it on a sheet of paper in word that is split in 1/2 vertically so I can take class notes on the right half...
read brief first, then read the case and pay close attn.... I have my O/L open and all I put in there is the case name and applicable rule.... if there is any additional information, I throw that in there too.... at this point i am not worried about being concise, although I do not overdo it.

next, after a bunch of classes, I add the shit from my class notes into the O/L.... all i am concentrating on is collecting information
a month before finals I have a full O/L that I start condensing into fewer and fewer pages...this way I spend more time w/ supps and PT's
I also take advantage of others' O/L's as needed

voila...

edit: I'm CSWS'n ROIGHT NAO.

You dudes are stressing me out. I am trying get back to square with work and you all are exploding into exam prep mode.

Dude, if it's one thing I learned last semester, it's that i should in exam prep mode all term. What's the point of doing something that won't be useful to me on an exam?!

I don't disagree with that at all. That's why I don't brief and I breathe supplements. I was sick this week, so I feel a little behind. Don't have as much time as I would like for synthesis.

[Jsa725]

.

[salix]

Bros, I need some help getting back out the grind this semester! I am taking Con / Crim / K. We are three weeks in already, and I need to get that outline grind on!

this is what I do....
get the brief online somewhere...paste it on a sheet of paper in word that is split in 1/2 vertically so I can take class notes on the right half...
read brief first, then read the case and pay close attn.... I have my O/L open and all I put in there is the case name and applicable rule.... if there is any additional information, I throw that in there too.... at this point i am not worried about being concise, although I do not overdo it.

next, after a bunch of classes, I add the shit from my class notes into the O/L.... all i am concentrating on is collecting information
a month before finals I have a full O/L that I start condensing into fewer and fewer pages...this way I spend more time w/ supps and PT's
I also take advantage of others' O/L's as needed

voila...

edit: I'm CSWS'n ROIGHT NAO.

You dudes are stressing me out. I am trying get back to square with work and you all are exploding into exam prep mode.

Dude, if it's one thing I learned last semester, it's that i should in exam prep mode all term. What's the point of doing something that won't be useful to me on an exam?!

Too right.

[Jsa725]

.

[SportsFan]

Property was rough for me. If you're taught the traditional common law stuff, you'll encounter lots of rules that are complex and arbitrary. My prof crammed 3 massive issue spotters on the exam and it's clear that, although I had prepared, I didn't know the material well enough to get through everything in detail. So I would say that in property more than in other classes, memorize and practice writing out answers early on so that counter-intuitive rules become intuitive and you can deliver detailed answers on demand. You can't rely on common sense policy (as much) to guide your learning and application of the BLL.

Sweeeet. Pre-writing FTW

I've never tried this pre-writing business. I have pre-written like statements of rules and other pretty universal things that have no connection to the fact-pattern. Do people pre-write more than this?

Prewrote about 30 pages for my civpro exam. Worked beautifully and even gave me more time to think about the facts and how they apply, etc. I didn't do it for my other classes and regretted it so much when I was taking time to type up the law coherently.

Wow, 30 pages? Thats intense. I pre-wrote about 15 pages worth of answers for civ pro (mostly having to do with Erie and jurisdiction stuff, but also stuff I knew my professor would ask about like discovery), though I also got a ~15 page document off here that had pre-written summaries of all the FRCP, which helped a bit. Civ pro was my best grade, so it definitely worked.

[20130312]

Holy crap 30 pages? I pre-wrote six.

[Jsa725]

.

[Tom Joad]

I am getting into this pre-writing business this semester.

[shumpshump]

I am getting into this pre-writing business this semester.

Doesn't even take that much extra time. You're just writing full sentences instead of the fragments you normally put into outlines.

[5ky]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

[shumpshump]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

What? How would that violate an honor code that allows you to bring in your own outline?

[Tom Joad]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

Thanks for making me think twice. I know we definitely can't copy and paste from outline.

[shumpshump]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

Thanks for making me think twice. I know we definitely can't copy and paste from outline.

Assuming that your outline is a copy and paste from unsourced authorities, yes?

[Tom Joad]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

Thanks for making me think twice. I know we definitely can't copy and paste from outline.

Assuming that your outline is a copy and paste from unsourced authorities, yes?

What? We just can't copy and paste anything.

[stillwater]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

Thanks for making me think twice. I know we definitely can't copy and paste from outline.

Assuming that your outline is a copy and paste from unsourced authorities, yes?

What? We just can't copy and paste anything.

I don't even have the ability to copy and paste. Damn ExamSoft. But yea, I think that would be rather obvious. I know at least for my open books, I can bring in anything I want short of another person.

[shumpshump]

As with all things, consult your school's honor code/professors before getting too serious into prewriting exam answers.

Thanks for making me think twice. I know we definitely can't copy and paste from outline.

Assuming that your outline is a copy and paste from unsourced authorities, yes?

What? We just can't copy and paste anything.

I'm saying if your outline is your own work, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to copy that onto your exam.

I may be misunderstanding this though. The way our exams work, no other programs can be open while our exam software is open so we can't literally copy/paste from another document. Maybe you're saying that you guys can access like Word or PDF during your exam and so you're not allowed to copy/paste. If so, I get what you're saying.

[Tom Joad]

Yeah, we do Word. But copying and pasting is not allowed.