1Ls: What are you going to do differently next semester? Forum

[TheFutureLawyer]

Meet people outside of law school.

God, this.

I hate law students. I need to figure out where to meet non-law student friends.

I'm not religious, but I've decided to join a church. That's a good way to feel like part of a community. Also hoping to meet people by joining a jogging group.

Now, I'm biased as fuck. Just look at my tar. But people who regularly attend church are often really lame people. Most religious people know this to be true.

[Lwoods]

Meet people outside of law school.

God, this.

I hate law students. I need to figure out where to meet non-law student friends.

I actually like most of my classmates, but I'm glad I'm still in the town where I lived before law school. Most of the quality female friends I've met were in Junior League last year...but we all quit this year, and I can't imagine you have time for JL as a 1L.

Maybe a young professionals group or a charity? There's also meetup.com... it seems to work well for meeting people in NY but not as well in smaller cities.

[D'Angelo]

most of the people at my school are awesome! but when we talk we rarely talk about other things and so it can just get boring...

[CactusPuppy]

Meet people outside of law school.

God, this.

I hate law students. I need to figure out where to meet non-law student friends.

I'm not religious, but I've decided to join a church. That's a good way to feel like part of a community. Also hoping to meet people by joining a jogging group.

Now, I'm biased as fuck. Just look at my tar. But people who regularly attend church are often really lame people. Most religious people know this to be true.

TRUTH

[TatteredDignity]

Less practice tests. I was so burned out by the time the tests came. I will also focus more on possible policy questions.

Possibly this. When it was actually time to pour all my knowledge on paper for the real thing, I was kinda thinking, I've already proven I can do this... Do I really have to do it again for another 3 hours?

[jjlaw]

Mostly the same things I did this semester (reading ahead, outlining regularly, etc.), but I'll probably do more practice problems throughout the semester just to practice applying the law regularly, instead of waiting until the last two weeks of the semester. I'll also take less timed practice tests. Timed practice tests for the first exam were good to get in the mode of taking exams, but it didn't seem necessary for the second and third exams. I'll probably do more issue spotting with old exams and maybe take 1-2 timed exams.

[quixotical]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

[buchy2009]

I did all the exams available from my professors this semester but also exams from other professors/schools. Didn't seem to be too significantly different because my professors change what they cover from year to year anyways. I just tried to find exams in similar formats i.e. Policy focused, short answer, issue-spotters, etc.

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

[dreakol]

MOAR DRINKING

and video games

[D'Angelo]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

next semester we're going to have the same problem! a lot of our professors are new hires or visiting...

[Dany]

I can't believe they don't provide practice tests. We had a professor teaching a class for the first time and he still made us practice tests.

[delusional]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

Yeah, after all I learned about utilizing old material, I have a relatively new professor and a visiting professor next semester for my two doctrinal courses.

[merc280]

I can't believe they don't provide practice tests. We had a professor teaching a class for the first time and he still made us practice tests.

We had a professor that was new to academia and this was his first semester teaching. He gave us a practice test that I made a A- in, and the real test was super long and I got no where near the same grade in that class.

[unc0mm0n1]

More cowbell...... Definately more cowbell.

[ahduth]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

Yeah, after all I learned about utilizing old material, I have a relatively new professor and a visiting professor next semester for my two doctrinal courses.

One of our profs next semester last taught in 1983. Not terribly confident we're going to have practice exams.

[shoeshine]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

Yeah, after all I learned about utilizing old material, I have a relatively new professor and a visiting professor next semester for my two doctrinal courses.

One of our profs next semester last taught in 1983. Not terribly confident we're going to have practice exams.

As I already said on here practice exams help only to a certain extent. I took about 15+ practice tests for each exam and I felt burnt out by the time the tests came. I wrote brilliant things on my practice exams but I was just really tired of writing about the subject matter by the time the tests came.

I think I am going to vary it up next semester and do more questions but less full exams.

[CactusPuppy]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

Yeah, after all I learned about utilizing old material, I have a relatively new professor and a visiting professor next semester for my two doctrinal courses.

One of our profs next semester last taught in 1983. Not terribly confident we're going to have practice exams.

As I already said on here practice exams help only to a certain extent. I took about 15+ practice tests for each exam and I felt burnt out by the time the tests came. I wrote brilliant things on my practice exams but I was just really tired of writing about the subject matter by the time the tests came.

I think I am going to vary it up next semester and do more questions but less full exams.

There's def a limit to how much practice exams can help you. But there are huge marginal gains in the initial sets... 15 is far more than I did and probably exhausted any gains. I only did a few and wish I could have done more. I ran out of time (spent too much time outlining; let me rephrase, waited TOO LATE to commence outlining and thus did not have enough time for even better prep work: practice exams)

I kind of resent my mentor's advice to not worry about outlining early or to get caught up in the "obsession" of my peers in outlining early. this was probably the most harmful advice i received in my entire lifetime concerning law school. Start EARLY. EARLY. EARLY. You don't want to spend the last couple of weeks before your final exams making sure you have black letter law down. That is NOT a pretty position to be in.

[ahduth]

A lot of people are commenting on how they'll do more practice exams... I wasn't able to take a single practice exam from my profs because two were teaching the class for the first time and the other reuses exams and keeps them on lockdown. This really added to my exam anxiety... I'm hoping my profs next semester have a few old exams available.

Yeah, after all I learned about utilizing old material, I have a relatively new professor and a visiting professor next semester for my two doctrinal courses.

One of our profs next semester last taught in 1983. Not terribly confident we're going to have practice exams.

As I already said on here practice exams help only to a certain extent. I took about 15+ practice tests for each exam and I felt burnt out by the time the tests came. I wrote brilliant things on my practice exams but I was just really tired of writing about the subject matter by the time the tests came.

I think I am going to vary it up next semester and do more questions but less full exams.

That's intense, I took a grand total of three actual practice exams total. I, of course, did study less than everyone else on the planet. The practice exams were still helpful though. #postcardsfrombelowmedian

Now that I think of it, one of my classes only had two available, and one had only three. For procedure we had a dozen, but I can't imagine people did all of them, it would have been a tremendous waste of time for the type of course we had.

[NeighborGuy]

Now that I think of it, one of my classes only had two available, and one had only three. For procedure we had a dozen, but I can't imagine people did all of them, it would have been a tremendous waste of time for the type of course we had.

My section got 1 real practice exam per class, at best. Any practice beyond that required some creativity on my part.

[queenlizzie13]

1) Outline from day one. Had my outlines done (or nearly so) by Thanksgiving, but still wanted more time to do practice tests/go over them. (That being said we only had a limited # of practice exams available, which kind of sucked. And none for crim - guess that's probably why I'm most worried about my grade for that class. Had a nightmare the other day that I completely failed it.)
2) Less briefs. Did a different kind of brief for torts and worked out great as it took WAY less time and was actually really helpful for outlining/remembering stuff. Will try and do the same for all my classes next semester.
3) Meet more people out of law school (I love my law school friends, but sometimes just need a break)
4) Cook at home more

[Sandro]

Start to put the stuff in long term memory right after I learn it. None of this material is complex really, it just a huge how much can you memorize and apply intelligently pissing contest. I'm sure I made some arguments that got me points that others missed, but I'm also sure lots of people just brain dumped rules and got more points simply for remembering a restatement or something that I couldnt come up with.

[Naked Dude]

-read pre-written briefs instead of the cases
-only read footnotes in the casebooks
-start outlining earlier
-supplement confusing material as i go instead of teaching it to myself right before exams
-work ahead?? will probably fail at this
-work out more
-drink more
-shop less on amazon during study breaks
-take more practice exams
-start LRW papers earlier

[Naked Dude]

Do less for the first couple months and not stress over not doing anything aside from keeping up with the reading.
Though I would like to actually make my own outlines as I go, but we'll see if that actually happens.

This! Assuming that I am satisfied with my grades.

Thankfully grades aren't out for me until late January/early February. Will take it relatively easy, and then check my grades when the time comes to light a fire under my ass.

[in_reverie]

Start to put the stuff in long term memory right after I learn it. None of this material is complex really, it just a huge how much can you memorize and apply intelligently pissing contest. I'm sure I made some arguments that got me points that others missed, but I'm also sure lots of people just brain dumped rules and got more points simply for remembering a restatement or something that I couldnt come up with.

Ditto. I did a good jump of outlining from day one, but by the end of the semester, I had retained none of it. It was all foreign, like I'd never written it. Every weekend, I'm really going to drive myself on that previous weeks material, both from notes and also Law in a Flash cards.

[Gemini]

-Go to Professor office hours
-Start outlining earlier
-Concentrate a LOT less on briefing cases
-Take more practice exams, and if prof doesn't have many, ask for recommendation for another professor's tests in order to take more.