1L Exam Prep and Motivation Thread Forum

[maxm2764]

I'm taking the day off today. I was pretty intense this past week and this will be the first time this semester that I've take a complete day off. I'm really hoping that it will help to recharge my battery.

I'll probably feel guilty the entire time, but I think it will really help before this last big push.

[bostonlawchick]

I've created word documents titled "outline" for each of my classes.. there is nothing in those documents as of yet

Right there with you. I'm counting on my ability to always pull it off in the end. This may or may not be really stupid, but it's always worked for me in the past, and worked for me on my first memo.

[ilovesf]

I'm taking the day off today. I was pretty intense this past week and this will be the first time this semester that I've take a complete day off. I'm really hoping that it will help to recharge my battery.

I'll probably feel guilty the entire time, but I think it will really help before this last big push.

I'm taking all of Sunday off (starting Saturday night).. SO excited! sometimes you just have to let loose and have a little fun.

[shock259]

I switched gears and did job stuff yesterday. It was very therapeutic to copy/paste things into an excel sheet instead of working on outlines/reading.

[typ3]

I must be like the only one who is not going ape shit about exams at my school. Perhaps I am too lax?

[thegrayman]

I must be like the only one who is not going ape shit about exams at my school. Perhaps I am too lax?

it comes and goes, as of right now I'm relaxed. tomorrow, who knows?

stress is wierd...

[FlanSolo]

I read ahead in the class and then read 2-3 supplements for each class and made an outline off of those notes and older outlines I got from 2Ls

during class, if the professors says something that isn't completely obvious to me about a subject, I add it directly to the outline.

with that said, 2 outlines done out of 3 since the third didn't give syllabus and posts the readings only a week in advance. i've been doing practice hypos/exams since the beginning of the semester, so now it's just time to work on memorization of the bll/policy and keep on doing practice problems. i've also been practicing my typing for 30 min a day, which i feel is my biggest weakness.

I don't see any change in my schedule though with regards to putting in more hours, which is nice

seriously? that seems like a waste of time to me, doing practice exams before you even are familiar with the material.. when so much of an exam is issue spotting aren't you kind of wasting that exam by doing it before you can spot a lot of the issues and can fully explain them?

early on in the semester, I only used hypos that focused solely on one issue. I didn't start tackling practice tests until a few weeks ago. It also helps that the exams my professors give don't involve one long, complex hypo but rather a series of short questions that only address a specific issue but still require a long, complex answer. Example: my contracts professor's exam consist of 8-10 questions, that, technically, all have the same facts in common, but he breaks it up after every paragraph and specifically requests what to focus on for that paragraph.

I also had a surplus of exams to work from, so I wasn't concerned with doing them knowing i wouldnt spot all the issues since i had yet to learn all the issues and just worried about spotting the issues we had covered in class.

Ok, Jesus, I thought you were joking! I feel like I'm way ahead compared to many of my classmates and I outline as I go, read supplements to the extent they actually help, and try to write out answers a few times a week, but now I feel like there's probably someone who has put in so much more work that what I'm doing it isn't even worth the energy.

[gdane]

I feel confident in what I'm doing, but its getting harder to ignore what my classmates are doing.

There's this one group I call the circle jerk that has me kind of"worried." I've noticed the supplements start popping up amongst people in that group and they do hypos together all the time. In class they sometimes don't know what the hell they're talking about, but still...

[NeighborGuy]

The classmates I'm worried about are the ones I don't notice. I've been calling them "the boogymen". I know they're out there...there are way too many people in my class that stay totally silent all semester long and I haven't the slightest clue how well prepared they are, but I get the feeling that those are going to be the ones that hog the A's.

When I'm getting drowsy, the boogymen slam another pot of coffee and study harder... and then I sleep anyway. lol

[adonai]

The classmates I'm worried about are the ones I don't notice. I've been calling them "the boogymen". I know they're out there...there are way too many people in my class that stay totally silent all semester long and I haven't the slightest clue how well prepared they are, but I get the feeling that those are going to be the ones that hog the A's.

When I'm getting drowsy, the boogymen slam another pot of coffee and study harder... and then I sleep anyway. lol

I guess I qualify as a "boogyman" but over on this side it pretty much feels the same. There are those people who immediately know all the answers to a question the professor asks, and can recite an articulate 2 min. long argument applying the law to fact and make a great argument. I don't know why people say those are the ones that end up at median, because if that translated onto paper it would be easy to do well.

[theavrock]

Checking in here too.

I've got my outlines up to date at this point and I am about a week ahead in the readings but want to plow further ahead so I can focus on exam prep.

Do you guys have exams with model answers or are you just doing your profs past exams? My problem is this.

Of my 4 profs: 1 is brand new and 2 others this is the 1st time they have taught the class so only one prof has old exams.

Is the benefit of taking practice exams the process of taking them or do you need model answers to get the benefit?

[Naked Dude]

Feel like my head's been in the cloud past couple of weeks. Have yet to truly crack an E&E or supplement (I mean, a couple of times) for any class or outline (except Civ Pro). Memo...this weekend is going to be trying to get where I should be...wherever that may be.

[buckilaw]

I have a multiple choice property exam this semester, no practice tests for it. Have two whole practice tests for K's and 1 for Con Law. What's the typical course of action where there a only a few, or zero, practice tests for a given course?

[NeighborGuy]

I have a multiple choice property exam this semester, no practice tests for it. Have two whole practice tests for K's and 1 for Con Law. What's the typical course of action where there a only a few, or zero, practice tests for a given course?

I'm in the same boat. (And the other section has like 15 practice exams per class. Fuckers...) I've just been trying to pay real special attention to what the professor emphasizes in class and hints about the exam. Other than that, I'll be doing by best to outline the class and attack the exam like GTM tells me to.

[SilverE2]

The classmates I'm worried about are the ones I don't notice. I've been calling them "the boogymen". I know they're out there...there are way too many people in my class that stay totally silent all semester long and I haven't the slightest clue how well prepared they are, but I get the feeling that those are going to be the ones that hog the A's.

When I'm getting drowsy, the boogymen slam another pot of coffee and study harder... and then I sleep anyway. lol

I guess I qualify as a "boogyman" but over on this side it pretty much feels the same. There are those people who immediately know all the answers to a question the professor asks, and can recite an articulate 2 min. long argument applying the law to fact and make a great argument. I don't know why people say those are the ones that end up at median, because if that translated onto paper it would be easy to do well.

I sit next to a girl in civ pro who plays tetris all class. Professor cold calls her and she answers perfectly while hardly looking away from the game.

She scares me.

[shoeshine]

1. Outlining.
2. Working on final memo.
3. Have done about three practice hypos for each class.

I have gotten good feedback from my TAs who I had look over the hypos.

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

I also think anyone who has more than 40 pages for any outline is doing it wrong. There is no fucking way a 40+ page outline is useful during a timed exam. You might as well just use the textbook. If your process is to make a long outline and then shorten it, I get that. But a 40+ page outline by itself is useless.

IMHO

[Sandro]

It begins.

[merc280]

The classmates I'm worried about are the ones I don't notice. I've been calling them "the boogymen". I know they're out there...there are way too many people in my class that stay totally silent all semester long and I haven't the slightest clue how well prepared they are, but I get the feeling that those are going to be the ones that hog the A's.

When I'm getting drowsy, the boogymen slam another pot of coffee and study harder... and then I sleep anyway. lol

I guess I qualify as a "boogyman" but over on this side it pretty much feels the same. There are those people who immediately know all the answers to a question the professor asks, and can recite an articulate 2 min. long argument applying the law to fact and make a great argument. I don't know why people say those are the ones that end up at median, because if that translated onto paper it would be easy to do well.

yeah how do people who seem super prepared and understanding of issues end up doing bad on the final? Arent the people who are super prepared and doing well on the mid terms also going to do well on the final?

[jess]

.

[dreakol]

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

+1 insightful

There is just no way to know through old outlines from multiple students and from multiple years that all say the same thing. And TAs who took the class already, man, they aren't helpful at all and have no idea what they are talking about when they say you are fine. Paying attention in class and realizing that your professor has basically been teaching the BLL the entire semester doesn't help either, breh, and, you know, it is impossible to adjust your outline once you finished it

LOL @ retards, just LOL

[ilovesf]

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

+1 insightful

There is just no way to know through old outlines from multiple students and from multiple years that all say the same thing. And TAs who took the class already, man, they aren't helpful at all and have no idea what they are talking about when they say you are fine. Paying attention in class and realizing that your professor has basically been teaching the BLL the entire semester doesn't help either, breh, and, you know, it is impossible to adjust your outline once you finished it

LOL @ retards, just LOL

this thread is supposed to be helpful, he was just saying that outlining so far ahead of time isn't a good idea, you don't have to overreact to it that much.

[dreakol]

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

+1 insightful

There is just no way to know through old outlines from multiple students and from multiple years that all say the same thing. And TAs who took the class already, man, they aren't helpful at all and have no idea what they are talking about when they say you are fine. Paying attention in class and realizing that your professor has basically been teaching the BLL the entire semester doesn't help either, breh, and, you know, it is impossible to adjust your outline once you finished it

LOL @ retards, just LOL

this thread is supposed to be helpful, he was just saying that outlining so far ahead of time isn't a good idea, you don't have to overreact to it that much.

he should be banned for his use of the word retarded

someone inform vanwinkle

[ilovesf]

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

+1 insightful

There is just no way to know through old outlines from multiple students and from multiple years that all say the same thing. And TAs who took the class already, man, they aren't helpful at all and have no idea what they are talking about when they say you are fine. Paying attention in class and realizing that your professor has basically been teaching the BLL the entire semester doesn't help either, breh, and, you know, it is impossible to adjust your outline once you finished it

LOL @ retards, just LOL

this thread is supposed to be helpful, he was just saying that outlining so far ahead of time isn't a good idea, you don't have to overreact to it that much.

he should be banned for his use of the word retarded

someone inform vanwinkle

not sure if serious..

[shoeshine]

If you have already finished (not just up-to-date) outlining a class that still has another month left you are retarded. You never know what parts of or how your professor is going to cover a topic.

+1 insightful

There is just no way to know through old outlines from multiple students and from multiple years that all say the same thing. And TAs who took the class already, man, they aren't helpful at all and have no idea what they are talking about when they say you are fine. Paying attention in class and realizing that your professor has basically been teaching the BLL the entire semester doesn't help either, breh, and, you know, it is impossible to adjust your outline once you finished it

LOL @ retards, just LOL

This is exactly what I am talking about. How can you be so sure about something you have never done before?

I really don't care what you do but I know my time is better spent covering concepts that we covered at the beginning of the semester that are no longer fresh in my mind.

Good luck with life.

[morris248]

Is the benefit of taking practice exams the process of taking them or do you need model answers to get the benefit?

You need model answers or you are wasting your time. There are plenty of places on the net or from other students to get past exams with model answers. You want to do the hypo under timed conditions and then compare your answer to the model answer.