Burning out hard--what's the first thing to go? Forum

[johansantana21]

How the hell do you burn out in the first month? Most classes barely teach you anything important in the first month in terms of what will actually show up on an exam.

What? I feel I've covered a lot of exam worthy material...negligence, consideration, pleading, discovery, disclosure, judicial review...

[Nicholasnickynic]

Sounds like a gunner who didn't go get drunk during orientation.


Here is a solution. Go and get drunk this weekend-- profit.

Step 1: Get drunk.
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Profit.

[kapital98]

Law school is a marathon, not a sprint. Maintain a modest pace and wait until you can see the finish line before you start going HAM.

+1

[JCougar]

Criminal Law is an outline copying contest. Just make sure you have two paragraphs of policy material to copy down for each possible issue that may come up. The doctrine's not all that complex, so there's really only like 10 possible issues. Spend an hour pre-writing some policy BS about each, and in 10 hours, you're ready to go.

I didn't even open my Crim Law casebook until Spring Break, and it's the best grade I got.

[Cogburn87]

How the hell do you burn out in the first month? Most classes barely teach you anything important in the first month in terms of what will actually show up on an exam.

What? I feel I've covered a lot of exam worthy material...negligence, consideration, pleading, discovery, disclosure, judicial review...

You may indeed have covered a lot of "exam worthy material." However, just because something is exam worthy doesn't mean it will appear on exam. The simple fact of the matter is that professors tend to weight exams toward topics appearing later in the semester simply because those are freshest concepts in their minds when they sit down to actually write the exam. I've had numerous exams where about a third of the issues were related to things we covered in the last week of class.

Furthermore, professors are incredibly lazy. They like to test on the same issues over and over again. You should always skim a few old exams fairly early in the semester so you know what you need to pay attention to and what you can gloss over because it hasn't appeared on an exam in ten years.

[tfer2222]

How the hell do you burn out in the first month? Most classes barely teach you anything important in the first month in terms of what will actually show up on an exam.

What? I feel I've covered a lot of exam worthy material...negligence, consideration, pleading, discovery, disclosure, judicial review...

My property professor had an entire essay based around stuff we learned during the first week of class. Caught a lot of people off-guard, because some of the really dense stuff we had just covered didn't even show up.

[Moxie]

Burning out hard--what's the first thing to go?

Take a day off if you need to de-stress, and make sure you're getting enough sleep. You won't be effective until you're rested and calm.

[Naked Dude]

Law school is a marathon, not a sprint. Maintain a modest pace and wait until you can see the finish line before you start going HAM.

It seems like it's very important to avoid getting psyched out. Basically, all I've been doing is keeping up with my reading and taking notes (and uh barely keeping up with LRW...ugh). I realized quickly that overloading on supplements for every class so early in was going to drown me. I've only been cracking the E&E when confused (I felt it best to "save" the examples for later, or maybe that's just laziness...), just for the sake of SANITY. Honestly, it took me a long, long time to get over the guilt that comes with not briefing or book briefing, but I think it's finally past. It's a little frustrating to not remember cases in detail from a week ago when brought up, but I'm trying to chill-that's what outlining is for right? I feel bad for not being in high gear or whatever sometimes, but I think that's still a few weeks off. Putting the work in and forgetting about it seems to work so far, though I guess I won't know for a while.

[Lasers]

get an outline from an upperclassman that did well.

while you still have to stay on top of your shit, it's a lot easier when you have a sort of guideline telling you what is worth remembering.

[Helmholtz]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

[BackToTheOldHouse]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

Wait, you have 10K+ posts but your still a 0L?

Not hatin', just askin'?

[Helmholtz]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

Wait, you have 10K+ posts but your still a 0L?

no

[bjsesq]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

Wait, you have 10K+ posts but your still a 0L?

no

LOL. Journal. You fucked up, bro.

[BackToTheOldHouse]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

Wait, you have 10K+ posts but your still a 0L?

no

your profile page just makes things more confusing, which I think is awesome by the way.

[Helmholtz]

School starts in less than a week and I'm already burned out.

Wait, you have 10K+ posts but your still a 0L?

no

LOL. Journal. You fucked up, bro.

i didnt know

[bjsesq]

i didnt know

I saw the signs. saw the sai-ee-ains.

[Helmholtz]

i didnt know

I saw the signs. saw the sai-ee-ains.

I saw the signs. I met with a lot of 2Ls doing their SAs and they were all like "THAT WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE," but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. The good news is that I front-loaded the shit out of it—essentially a quarter's worth into something like 4-5 weeks.

[bjsesq]

i didnt know

I saw the signs. saw the sai-ee-ains.

I saw the signs. I met with a lot of 2Ls doing their SAs and they were all like "THAT WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE," but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. The good news is that I front-loaded the shit out of it—essentially a quarter's worth into something like 4-5 weeks.

It was a fine line to walk here. A journal is available to everyone who wants one. Traditional wisdom is that you have to have something extra during your second year. Fuck that something being a journal

[kapital98]

Law school is a marathon, not a sprint. Maintain a modest pace and wait until you can see the finish line before you start going HAM.

It seems like it's very important to avoid getting psyched out. Basically, all I've been doing is keeping up with my reading and taking notes (and uh barely keeping up with LRW...ugh). I realized quickly that overloading on supplements for every class so early in was going to drown me. I've only been cracking the E&E when confused (I felt it best to "save" the examples for later, or maybe that's just laziness...), just for the sake of SANITY. Honestly, it took me a long, long time to get over the guilt that comes with not briefing or book briefing, but I think it's finally past. It's a little frustrating to not remember cases in detail from a week ago when brought up, but I'm trying to chill-that's what outlining is for right? I feel bad for not being in high gear or whatever sometimes, but I think that's still a few weeks off. Putting the work in and forgetting about it seems to work so far, though I guess I won't know for a while.

Avoid the hype. However, at the same time, learning the material now will avoid running into a brick wall later in the semester. Reading the E&E's and doing the questions really helps me with the understanding. It's easy to think about hypothetical in class. It's another thing writing down your answer and seeing if it's correct in an E&E.

There are other supplements (like CALI) that can be used at the end of the semester to help with practice. Also, by the end of the semester you can reuse the E&E questions with limited success (you might remember some of the questions.)

For me it's all about efficiency. Detailed briefs don't make sense -- don't do them. Taking excessive class notes doesn't make sense -- don't do it. Do what has the best cost-benefit return. Keep going at a steady pace and make sure not to burn out.