Lazy's Guide to Top 10% Without Working Nights or Weekends Forum

[The Gentleman]

Thanks for sharing this and congratulations on your success!

[Gecko of Doom]

Quick question. Are Law School exams supposed to be typed? I peck the keys and I have fat fingers, which puts me at a considerable disadvantage.

Law school exams are generally typed. There's a lot of debate on here about whether being a slow typist puts you at a disadvantage; I think it could hurt a little, but it may not be as big a handicap as you fear. That said, you might want to put some effort into increasing your speed. I have obese eight year-old hands and type moderately quickly, so fat fingers shouldn't stand in your way.

So you wouldn't agree that the best grades tend to go to those who type the most on exams, as some have suggested? I'm a bit worried about this. Not because I type slowly, but because my writing tends to be concise, and I have trouble coming up with stuff just to fill pages.

[Lazy]

So you wouldn't agree that the best grades tend to go to those who type the most on exams, as some have suggested? I'm a bit worried about this. Not because I type slowly, but because my writing tends to be concise, and I have trouble coming up with stuff just to fill pages.

I think the best grades go to those people who write enough to fully answer the question. How much that is varies person to person, and I think that being on the concise side (as I tend to be in my legal analysis) is actually beneficial. This is for two reasons: 1) you finish sooner and have more time to check your work, and 2) when a professor imposes a word limit, you don't have to change what you normally do.

Does typing speed help? Sure, any little bit of extra time you can find yourself on an exam helps. But is it determinative? Probably not if you're writing to-the-point answers.

[Borhas]

I did more or less the same thing first semester

Now I'm curious. What'd you do differently second semester?

less of everything

didn't outline, for one

didn't read a lot (50%) of the cases, for two

skipped too many classes for three

I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for Contracts (got a C)... which oddly enough I thought was my best exam. Dropped from top 6-7% to top 30% even though my other grades were the same as last semester's average.

my take away: don't be arrogant

[Kabuo]

I did more or less the same thing first semester

Now I'm curious. What'd you do differently second semester?

I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for Contracts (got a C) those pesky kids... which oddly enough I thought was my best exam. Dropped from top 6-7% to top 30% even though my other grades were the same as last semester's average.

my take away: don't be arrogant

FTFY

[sundance95]

I did more or less the same thing first semester

Now I'm curious. What'd you do differently second semester?

I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for Contracts (got a C) those pesky kids... which oddly enough I thought was my best exam. Dropped from top 6-7% to top 30% even though my other grades were the same as last semester's average.

my take away: don't be arrogant

FTFY

Thank you. I was this close to post a Scooby Doo pic.

[sunynp]

First of all, lazy I think you must be very bright. I think you mat have a superior ability to analyze a case. Do you have any background in logic or just common sense?
I think reading for the next assignment right after class is an excellent plan
My question: how did you fit in your obligations to the organizations you participated in?

[Lazy]

First of all, lazy I think you must be very bright. I think you mat have a superior ability to analyze a case. Do you have any background in logic or just common sense?
I think reading for the next assignment right after class is an excellent plan
My question: how did you fit in your obligations to the organizations you participated in?

Although I certainly appreciate the compliment, I feel that a lot of my case analysis is just common sense kind of stuff. I'm smart enough, but I don't think I'm any smarter than the folks I go to school with (or, for that matter, many people on TLS). I think that legal analysis is definitely learnable. I definitely don't have a background in logic, I was a music major. I think even mentioning the word "logic" made angry artistes pop out of the music school's walls with flaming torches.

As to fitting in my obligations:
Truth be told, as a regular 1L member of a club...there isn't much time commitment. If you want to put extra effort in, you can. However, if you don't volunteer to do things that are above and beyond, the time commitment for most normal clubs is pretty minimal. The exception for me was my community service club, but since I finished up on Fridays by around 2pm (that was just how my schedule managed to work out) I used my Friday afternoons to do that stuff.

Provided it isn't interfering with your ability to get your academic stuff done, I really recommend being a member of SOMETHING. I cannot count the number of times during interview, both as a 1L and during 2L OCI, that I have been asked about one or more of the groups I participated in and the tone as always been positive.

[trialjunky]

pretty solid

[bouakedojo]

.

[sam9317]

Thanks for the guide, will try and see~

[zeth006]

I'll be revisiting this thread later this week, though week 1 is probably going to consist of me trying not to nod off to sleep while getting a feel for my profs.

[Corwin]

Thanks for the guide. Was the B you got something that just slipped through the cracks? Or do you think you could have pulled off an A in that class with more work?

[Lazy]

Thanks for the guide. Was the B you got something that just slipped through the cracks? Or do you think you could have pulled off an A in that class with more work?

I don't think amount of work was the problem; I think that my use of class time was and my inexperience on exams was (as I received the B my first semester). I'm pretty sure that my B in Torts can be explained as failing to figure out what the professor wanted. In my summer job I did a lot of work with torts, and none of the attorneys had any complaints, so apparently I learned enough about torts in terms of the substantive material. When I went over the exam with my professor, pretty much everything he didn't like on the exam was: 1) my organization, which admittedly was not great; and 2) How I chose the counter-arguments that I decided were worth addressing.

As to (1), I learned how to better organize my responses to massive fact-pattern exams (ten pages of facts, a prompt that reads like "go") and have done pretty well on similar exams that I've taken since then. EDIT: As far as I can tell; bear in mind that I haven't received all my 2L fall grades yet.

As to (2), I should've paid more attention to what this professor wanted. I went with the counter-arguments that I thought were the most likely to win; I didn't address the ones that he apparently expressed his undying love for in class. My bad. I wasn't as attentive in that class as I was in the others, because the professor's voice made me want to run down there and rip his voice box out. Combine that with his being a new professor and I just tuned out way too frequently. Live and learn. Lesson: pay attention even when doing so makes you contemplate acts of violence against whoever is lecturing.

[STLMizzou]

English majors don't take notes. Especially English major splitters.

I don’t think I did anything for any of my English classes except actually read the books (well, 75% of them).

I guess that is probably why I have about a 3.0 LSAC GPA… I shoulda known something was fishy when my English Club and I were the only ones at the bar during finals week…

Thanks for the post, tagging this for a more in-depth read later.

[Corwin]

Thanks for the guide. Was the B you got something that just slipped through the cracks? Or do you think you could have pulled off an A in that class with more work?

I don't think amount of work was the problem; I think that my use of class time was and my inexperience on exams was (as I received the B my first semester). I'm pretty sure that my B in Torts can be explained as failing to figure out what the professor wanted. In my summer job I did a lot of work with torts, and none of the attorneys had any complaints, so apparently I learned enough about torts in terms of the substantive material. When I went over the exam with my professor, pretty much everything he didn't like on the exam was: 1) my organization, which admittedly was not great; and 2) How I chose the counter-arguments that I decided were worth addressing.

As to (1), I learned how to better organize my responses to massive fact-pattern exams (ten pages of facts, a prompt that reads like "go") and have done pretty well on similar exams that I've taken since then. EDIT: As far as I can tell; bear in mind that I haven't received all my 2L fall grades yet.

As to (2), I should've paid more attention to what this professor wanted. I went with the counter-arguments that I thought were the most likely to win; I didn't address the ones that he apparently expressed his undying love for in class. My bad. I wasn't as attentive in that class as I was in the others, because the professor's voice made me want to run down there and rip his voice box out. Combine that with his being a new professor and I just tuned out way too frequently. Live and learn. Lesson: pay attention even when doing so makes you contemplate acts of violence against whoever is lecturing.

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

[BeachandRun23]

I did more or less the same first semester. It seems like the most logical approach to me. The only thing I did different is to read supplements, ideally the e&e's alongside the class. That will help you learn to analyze legal problems and will get you thinking about the material in the right way. That being said, dont go overboard. Find a good supplement or two per class and stick to those.

What you said about know your audience is also very on point. So many times I'll read threads on here with constitutional law questions that my professor did not even touch on and I have no idea what the answer to them is. That is fine. Every professor teaches his/her class differently. You must learn what is in class and what will be presented on the final. In this way, it is much like undergrad. Learn what the professor will test on. Don't waste time focusing on irrelevant stuff just because it is out there. You don't have to know everything. Focus on your audience.

[DreamsInDigital]

I definitely think this is one of the best guides to first year success I've read (granted, I'm only done with one semester so my opinion can change drastically if I screw up next semester).

I followed this guide almost to the letter (except maybe even a few less hours a week total than lazy because I only had 3 substantive classes). I ended up with 2 As and a B (which will end up being somewhere between top 10 and 15 percent based on last years cut-offs). From my experience, the most important thing you can do all semester is read ALL the assigned reading and pay attention in class. Pay attention to the facts the decision in the case hinged on (because small differences is what you will have to find in your exams), pay attention to why your professor picked the case, pay attention to the specific rules that come out of cases, and pay attention to what your professor decides to talk about. I didn't use ANY supplements (except for "law in a flash" flashcards in the class I got a B in), and I don't think I would have benefited from them.

One big difference for me is that all my exams this semester were closed book (next semester they are all open book with typed outlines). So for me, outlining the last few weeks of the semester was more about reviewing the material, making sure I remembered everything, and making sure that I UNDERSTOOD and could apply as much as possible. So it didn't really matter what the final product looked like, just the process of making the outlines. This will obviously have to change next semester.

Another thing that I found extremely helpful was joining a good study group. I won't say that we didn't waste a little bit of time while meeting, but probably 80 percent of our time together was spent on real work. We ended up just going through the whole class again and making sure we all agreed on the points I mentioned above (the facts, why those cases, the rules that come out of them, and what the professor cares about). I also found it extremely helpful to try and explain this stuff out loud to other people. Having to reword it and say it out loud helps you find any flaws in your reasoning and hearing other people do it can help enhance your understanding.

Finally, and this can't be stressed enough, figure out what your professor wants. This is where practice tests and model answers are amazing. The class I ended up getting a B in I thought was the class I was going to do the best in. I felt like I understood the black letter law perfectly, I felt like I could identify the facts that would decide the case, I thought I could succinctly analyze this information, and when In walked out I felt extremely confident. But, this was the class where we received the fewest practice tests and model answers (because our professor apparently likes to reuse exam questions). Because of this, I realize I did not have a good grasp on what the professor wanted. He tried to make it obvious in class how important the policy side was, and I completely paid zero attention to this section because I thought I could just BS it; he tried to make it clear in class that he wanted you to analyze every single possible angle and argument that could be made with the facts, and I ended up ignoring some arguments that just seemed absurd to me.

Next semester I am going to continue doing the same thing, while trying to fix the problems I thought I had in the class I did worst in. Hopefully I can at least maintain, or improve, my performance and I wish other people success if they end up using this method. Treating this as a job and having nights and weekends off helped me maintain my sanity, and I think this is a necessary thing for ANYONE in law school.

[crumpetsandtea]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn, Dreams, way to kill it Congrats bro!!!!

[DreamsInDigital]

gracias crumps

and congrats on your acceptances. I've noticed that you've been killing it too

[Lazy]

What you said about know your audience is also very on point. So many times I'll read threads on here with constitutional law questions that my professor did not even touch on and I have no idea what the answer to them is. That is fine. Every professor teaches his/her class differently. You must learn what is in class and what will be presented on the final. In this way, it is much like undergrad. Learn what the professor will test on. Don't waste time focusing on irrelevant stuff just because it is out there. You don't have to know everything. Focus on your audience.

You stated this better than I probably ever could.

I ended up with 2 As and a B (which will end up being somewhere between top 10 and 15 percent based on last years cut-offs).

I'm glad you liked the guide, and I'm even happier that it worked out pretty well for you. Congrats on your success! I hope you rewarded yourself with your top shelf alcohol of choice.

[20130312]

tl;dr. tag for laterz

[Onthebrink]

Tagged. Tremendous post haha.

[zeth006]

I'll be rereading this guide later. Grades dropped a bit partially due to just the sheer difficulty of the material last semester, but I did surprisingly well in one class that was infamous for having tons of Law Review people. Figured I might as well make a brief little journal entry somewhere on what I did right/wrong, see how tweak things around with this guide. No plans to make top 10% this late in the game, but I might as well pick up a few tricks while I'm at it.

[LeDique]

I more or less followed this approach last semester and am likely around top 10% fwiw.