1L Exam Prep and Motivation Thread Forum

[maxpayne]

Well property was exactly as little fun as I expected it to be.

It feels so good to be done with that though. HUGE load of info off our shoulders. One More Week. I've got a bottle of Jameson Waiting.

I feel about 50 times better being done with that than I was after torts. Even if I did have to resort to copying from the textbook to justify grandma's ramp.

Yeah, glad that is done. It really wasn't bad but I wasn't as sharp on servitudes as I should have been but hopefully I managed a B. More importantly, fuck the bookstore for not buying our prop books back. Well, really it is forrestor's fault for not teaching next year but she looked nice today so I am not going to put the blame on her. Lol.

[Bobby Dazzler]

9 hour legal writing final... done! Finished with 3.5 minutes to spare. "Only" 4 finals left of 1L, all of them in substantive classes. May 13 really can't come soon enough. Feel weird to look forward to working full-time this summer as a break.

[snowpeach06]

IP...DISASTER. It was on everything we've never learned. Guessed on like 75% of the questions. The good news: other people seem to have done the same thing. But, grades are completely unpredictable. Given my abominable showing up until now, and my limited time to study property.... I really need to get my shit together over the next few days, and at least try to salvage my GPA. It's hard to imagine doing horribly since I did fine last semester, but, at the same time, it is 100% possible that I actually did horribly. My dad just goes "you better not lose your scholarship." He always knows just what to say to make me feel better. haha.

[Rurik]

Con law just pwn'd me...there goes my shot at t14....

....and employment, sigh

It's a good thing actual exam performance and the feeling you have after taking an exam are inversely related.

Not necessarily true...

Granted, but I always felt worse on the tests where I walked away and thought I bombed it because 1) it was a fucking hard test (but others ended up bombing it even more than me) or 2) I saw a ton of issues I didn't have time to hit, which made me think I did horrible (but it turned out that most others never even saw the issues in the first place)

[Thirteen]

Yeah, glad that is done. It really wasn't bad but I wasn't as sharp on servitudes as I should have been but hopefully I managed a B. More importantly, fuck the bookstore for not buying our prop books back. Well, really it is forrestor's fault for not teaching next year but she looked nice today so I am not going to put the blame on her. Lol.

I hope the guy from the bookstore enjoyed his gift, haha.

[keg411]

Con law just pwn'd me...there goes my shot at t14....

....and employment, sigh

This is going to happen to me in two days (if it didn't already happen on my Property final yesterday).

[goodolgil]

9 hour legal writing final... done! Finished with 3.5 minutes to spare. "Only" 4 finals left of 1L, all of them in substantive classes. May 13 really can't come soon enough. Feel weird to look forward to working full-time this summer as a break.

What the hell? What's a legal writing final?

[traehekat]

no motivation to study for con law. hell, i still have to finish reading for it before monday. preemption + dormant commerce clause. hope chemerinsky covers that shit pretty quickly.

[kalvano]

Well property was exactly as little fun as I expected it to be.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. Kind of boring, but that first multiple choice freaked me the hell out.

I went ballistic on the zoning question. I barely threw in any law, and just went nuts about how landowners in the sub-development would be pissed about the zoning because a big chunk of land was just sitting there vacant and driving down property values, and how the city was shitting all over property rights and economic value for no reason, and how it might even be a taking per se.

I feel about 50 times better being done with that than I was after torts. Even if I did have to resort to copying from the textbook to justify grandma's ramp.

Also, fuck grandma and her ramp. She's not a tenant being discriminated against and the house is exempt from the FHA...at least that was my thought. Probably wrong.

[maxpayne]

Well property was exactly as little fun as I expected it to be.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. Kind of boring, but that first multiple choice freaked me the hell out.

I went ballistic on the zoning question. I barely threw in any law, and just went nuts about how landowners in the sub-development would be pissed about the zoning because a big chunk of land was just sitting there vacant and driving down property values, and how the city was shitting all over property rights and economic value for no reason, and how it might even be a taking per se.

I feel about 50 times better being done with that than I was after torts. Even if I did have to resort to copying from the textbook to justify grandma's ramp.

Also, fuck grandma and her ramp. She's not a tenant being discriminated against and the house is exempt from the FHA...at least that was my thought. Probably wrong.

That's something I threw in there too. But I am a median student who is hoping for straight Bs so that actually might not be a good sign for you on this one. LOL. Just kidding, but seriously.

[kalvano]

Well property was exactly as little fun as I expected it to be.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. Kind of boring, but that first multiple choice freaked me the hell out.

I went ballistic on the zoning question. I barely threw in any law, and just went nuts about how landowners in the sub-development would be pissed about the zoning because a big chunk of land was just sitting there vacant and driving down property values, and how the city was shitting all over property rights and economic value for no reason, and how it might even be a taking per se.

I feel about 50 times better being done with that than I was after torts. Even if I did have to resort to copying from the textbook to justify grandma's ramp.

Also, fuck grandma and her ramp. She's not a tenant being discriminated against and the house is exempt from the FHA...at least that was my thought. Probably wrong.

That's something I threw in there too. But I am a median student who is hoping for straight Bs so that actually might not be a good sign for you on this one. LOL. Just kidding, but seriously.

Based off last semester, a B would be an improvement in Property for me.

[kalvano]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

[09042014]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

I think this really depends on how your professor grades. If your prof only gives point for in depth analysis, the leave parts black. But I don't think that's how most profs grade. I think they give substantial points for spotting an issue. Substantial points for analysis.

I think at the very least you need to spot the issues. I would also include elements or arguments that are most at issue. If you are super time crunched, don't talk about each element of Battery, if the only realistically contestable element is intent.

But again this is highly dependant on your profs grading style. My property prof gave us a rubric for a midterm. You'd get 1 point for spotting, 1 point for siplaying the BLL and then 2 for analysis. But those 2 points for spotting and BLL were points EVERYone gets. In the time it took to spot and issue you'd only bump your analysis .5 at best.

My civ pro prof gave 1/3 spotting/issue 2/3 analysis. But he only had a couple issues.

You also have to strategic on whether you are arguing a point the professor cares about. Don't make ridiculous arguments why ignoring good arguments on other questions. Trying to argue a lease is a life estate is retared if you don't do the nuisance claim later.

[BarbellDreams]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

I would answer all of them somewhat rather than leave some blank and go nuts on some. I figure that the majority of people won't rock the analysis but mostly everyone will actually write about the issues and if you dont it'll look bad.

[traehekat]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

I would answer all of them somewhat rather than leave some blank and go nuts on some. I figure that the majority of people won't rock the analysis but mostly everyone will actually write about the issues and if you dont it'll look bad.

i absolutely get something down for every question. i'm pretty good at time management, and even when i feel like i have more to say on a problem, I usually spit it out quickly instead of going in depth and then just move on to the next one (assuming everything is weighted the same).

i do agree, tho, that it can depend on how your prof grades.

[keg411]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

Both if possible

Seriously, I think it's better to get at least something down just for the issue-spotting points and rock out on the stuff you know really well.

Meanwhile, ConLaw is going to kill me. We have to know page numbers and really really specific stuff my prof talked about in class that Chemerinsky can't save me on

[Mroberts3]

Feel weird to look forward to working full-time this summer as a break.

I feel the same way. I don't know exactly what that says about 1L, but it's not good.

[forty-two]

Curious what people's opinions are - is it better to answer all of the essay questions on an exam at least somewhat, or better to leave some blank but rock the answers you do write down?

I think it's always best to try to get something down for everything. Most of my professors put suggested time limits or point values on essays, so I try to schedule every minute of my exams accordingly. That way I get to everything, and I'll go back to things at the end if I have extra time. I view it as a marginal cost/benefit thing. It doesn't take much time to get the easy points (you get these from spotting the main issues and having good analysis, but not going off on tangents or playing with the facts to come up with other possible issues), but each additional point after all of the main stuff is accounted for typically takes more time and effort to get. Sot it just kind of makes sense to move on to another problem if you run out of time on one essay to get all the easy points on the next one before going back and adding things.

[Grizz]

1L is the most soul-sucking thing I have done.

[traehekat]

1L is the most soul-sucking thing I have done.

+1000

[09042014]

eh engineering school is harder.

[98234872348]

.

[09042014]

eh engineering school is harder.

Law school isn't hard it's just tedious.

It's hard only because of the ridiculous manner in which we are tested. Given a 5 hour problem with only three hours to solve.

And this isn't bitterness, I'm very sure I'd do worse if people were given adequate time. It's easier to mask lack of knowledge on these tests.

It's all about trying to carve out a curve amongst similarly intelligent people with material that quite frankly isn't that hard to understand.

[los blancos]

1L is the most soul-sucking thing I have done.

yep. especially since my shitty study habits from undergrad carried over so i've been, on average, significantly less prepared than my classmates.

[Grizz]

eh engineering school is harder.

Law school isn't hard it's just tedious.

It's hard only because of the ridiculous manner in which we are tested. Given a 5 hour problem with only three hours to solve.

And this isn't bitterness, I'm very sure I'd do worse if people were given adequate time. It's easier to mask lack of knowledge on these tests.

It's all about trying to carve out a curve amongst similarly intelligent people with material that quite frankly isn't that hard to understand.

This is why it's soul sucking.