1Ls: What are you changing for next semester? Forum

[apper123]

I know we haven't seen results yet, but I think most of us have a good grasp on what worked well and what didn't.

Changes I plan on making:

-A lot of that extra "work" I did early in the semester was worthless. I didn't retain half of it by finals time, and I really had no idea how to apply the course as a synthesis until at the least halfway through the semester. I'm going to take it a bit easier earlier on.

-This one kinda ties in to the point just above. I want to be more social and go out more in the first month to month-and-a-half of the semester. The extra 4-5 hours of work a night I put in there just were not worth it, and my energy is much better saved for the last half of the semester and especially the last month. 1 hour of work in the last month truly is worth 4-5 hours of work early on.

-Take better class notes and pay more attention to what the professor, specifically, is looking for. I did this in the last half of the first semester, and my class notes were better than any supplement in preparing for the exam (with the exception of one class in which I found a majority of classtime to be not worth my time, but that's an exception).

-Finish outlining earlier and do nothing but practice exams for the last 2 weeks. I didn't do nearly enough practice exams, and I spent far too much time on my outlines trying to flesh out every little detail. Get the general stuff down early and start practicing ASAP. Making sure I know every little minuscule minority jurisdiction difference isn't as important as practicing the application of the law, ESPECIALLY on closed note finals where it's unlikely I or anyone else will be able to recall every little minority position on every single point of law anyways.

To sum it up: don't work so hard early on, and work smarter later on with that extra energy .

[joobacca]

finish outline earlier
i'll make my own again, but rely more heavily on comm outlines
didn't use them until a few days before exams and they are kind of awesome and easy to change to fit your class

[Cavalier]

I'm probably going to focus more on the cases. On two of my exams, there were questions that started "assume the facts of this case." Considering how time pressured the exams are, I certainly did not have time to reread the cases, so instead I had to rely on my highlighting of the facts and my notes on the court's reasoning for my response. Luckily the cases that were chosen were ones that I understood from class, but there were definitely cases we covered that I only skimmed briefly, never having highlighted at all. If one of those had been chosen as the basis for a question, I would have been in trouble. Next semester, I will make sure that I do a decent job of highlighting/underlining the facts of each major case, and pay attention to why the court ruled the way they did. These questions aren't necessarily that hard, but they have the potential to eat up a lot of time if you aren't familiar with the case.

[macattaq]

I have decided to do those last two Apper mentioned. I really hated feeling so stressed during finals because I was finishing up my outlining. I think I'm going to do a weekly review/condensing + answering E&E hypos related to the material for that week, and then start outlining around the middle of the semester. This should keep the stress level low.

Something I did at the start of the semester, but got thrown off of around October 10th due to hardcore tailgating, was doing the week's reading over the weekend. I think I'm going to go back to doing this, and then doing a brief review in the morning before class.

I'm also going to try and get into my profs office hours and talk with them about the material. I find most of the material to be interesting, but I don't want to monopolize class time with my questions. This will also give them a chance to get to know me, so that if I need rec letters, they will have more to say.

[macattaq]

Also, I'm assuming that with the creation of this thread and the responses already had that people are going into 'getting shit taken care of' mode.

[24secure]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

[joobacca]

if you read the cases during the weekend, then what do you do during the week? (first 1/2 of semester and also i'm not trying to be a dick)
it seems too early to outline. i'm thinking of starting at the halfway point this time
do you read E&Es or other shit?
i'm just curious as to what you think are the benefits and what you do with the free time during the week (that could be used to booze and watch football during the weekends)
again, this is for the first half/third of the semester

[Kohinoor]

Finish assigned reading and outline hella earlier so I have more time for practice.

[macattaq]

if you read the cases during the weekend, then what do you do during the week? (first 1/2 of semester and also i'm not trying to be a dick)
it seems too early to outline. i'm thinking of starting at the halfway point this time
do you read E&Es or other shit?
i'm just curious as to what you think are the benefits and what you do with the free time during the week (that could be used to booze and watch football during the weekends)
again, this is for the first half/third of the semester

Doing the reading on the weekend allows me to do supplements during the week, watch soccer between classes, and do networking things/social functions during the week. The bigger benefit though, is that there is no time crunch. You have plenty of time to extract what you need from the reading, do your briefs, and digest the material. There is no rushing to get it done the night before, because you did it leisurely over the weekend. It doesn't take all weekend, either. It takes concentrated effort punctuated with breaks.

[joobacca]

cool
i will try this

[Kohinoor]

I'm probably going to focus more on the cases. On two of my exams, there were questions that started "assume the facts of this case." Considering how time pressured the exams are, I certainly did not have time to reread the cases, so instead I had to rely on my highlighting of the facts and my notes on the court's reasoning for my response. Luckily the cases that were chosen were ones that I understood from class, but there were definitely cases we covered that I only skimmed briefly, never having highlighted at all. If one of those had been chosen as the basis for a question, I would have been in trouble. Next semester, I will make sure that I do a decent job of highlighting/underlining the facts of each major case, and pay attention to why the court ruled the way they did. These questions aren't necessarily that hard, but they have the potential to eat up a lot of time if you aren't familiar with the case.

Happened for my Torts exam. To be fair, if you went in not knowing Palsgraf, you deserve what you get.

[articulably suspect]

if you read the cases during the weekend, then what do you do during the week? (first 1/2 of semester and also i'm not trying to be a dick)
it seems too early to outline. i'm thinking of starting at the halfway point this time
do you read E&Es or other shit?
i'm just curious as to what you think are the benefits and what you do with the free time during the week (that could be used to booze and watch football during the weekends)
again, this is for the first half/third of the semester

Doing the reading on the weekend allows me to do supplements during the week, watch soccer between classes, and do networking things/social functions during the week. The bigger benefit though, is that there is no time crunch. You have plenty of time to extract what you need from the reading, do your briefs, and digest the material. There is no rushing to get it done the night before, because you did it leisurely over the weekend. It doesn't take all weekend, either. It takes concentrated effort punctuated with breaks.

How long does this take you?

[jrock12]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?


i personally would outline earlier, and do more full-length practice tests. i probably got through every practice problem from every prior exam available, but my major problem was finding enough self control to actually sit down for a full 3hrs at a clip to get through a full practice test

[macattaq]

if you read the cases during the weekend, then what do you do during the week? (first 1/2 of semester and also i'm not trying to be a dick)
it seems too early to outline. i'm thinking of starting at the halfway point this time
do you read E&Es or other shit?
i'm just curious as to what you think are the benefits and what you do with the free time during the week (that could be used to booze and watch football during the weekends)
again, this is for the first half/third of the semester

Doing the reading on the weekend allows me to do supplements during the week, watch soccer between classes, and do networking things/social functions during the week. The bigger benefit though, is that there is no time crunch. You have plenty of time to extract what you need from the reading, do your briefs, and digest the material. There is no rushing to get it done the night before, because you did it leisurely over the weekend. It doesn't take all weekend, either. It takes concentrated effort punctuated with breaks.

How long does this take you?

Idk...that's why I did it on the weekend; there's no need to worry about time. I know that I generally started working after the last Premier League match ended, and finished up no later than 6pm. Best estimate is 4 hours each for contracts, civpro and property reading (2 hours per class period), and 2 hours for torts. So that's...14 hours. Sometimes it was probably as little as 10, or as much as 16. I know I studied less on Saturday than on Sunday, so there was probably a 7/9 split, allowing an hour total for breaks and food between subjects. Yes, 16 hours is a lot of time that could be spent doing other things on the weekend, but for me the trade-off is a good thing. Plus, you can still go out on Friday and Saturday nights.

[macattaq]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?


i personally would outline earlier, and do more full-length practice tests. i probably got through every practice problem from every prior exam available, but my major problem was finding enough self control to actually sit down for a full 3hrs at a clip to get through a full practice test

CALI lessons are super helpful. They really helped with memorization of key things, and also gave more policy bits that I could use on exams. The downside is that you're staring at your computer screen for at least half an hour, and up to 2 hours. The upside is that it is a bit more interactive than other methods, and you get immediate feedback.

[superserial]

work out regularly... hornbooks earlier... learn how to outline.

[jrock12]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?


i personally would outline earlier, and do more full-length practice tests. i probably got through every practice problem from every prior exam available, but my major problem was finding enough self control to actually sit down for a full 3hrs at a clip to get through a full practice test

CALI lessons are super helpful. They really helped with memorization of key things, and also gave more policy bits that I could use on exams. The downside is that you're staring at your computer screen for at least half an hour, and up to 2 hours. The upside is that it is a bit more interactive than other methods, and you get immediate feedback.

thanks...can i also ask what classes everyone found hornbooks so completely helpful for?

[apper123]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?

CALI is amazing, especially for tests that use MC. It's just a great way of "learning" by applying. SOME of the lessons are terrible, though, but that should be apparent right off the bat.

For my property final which was very MC heavy and for which the prof offered no practice exams I literally did every single CALI exercise available that was relevant to my course material.

[superserial]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?


i personally would outline earlier, and do more full-length practice tests. i probably got through every practice problem from every prior exam available, but my major problem was finding enough self control to actually sit down for a full 3hrs at a clip to get through a full practice test

CALI lessons are super helpful. They really helped with memorization of key things, and also gave more policy bits that I could use on exams. The downside is that you're staring at your computer screen for at least half an hour, and up to 2 hours. The upside is that it is a bit more interactive than other methods, and you get immediate feedback.

thanks...can i also ask what classes everyone found hornbooks so completely helpful for?

Civ pro.

[24secure]

More CALI, more hornbooks, less obsessing about cases.

can anyone provide any more feedback on CALI?


i personally would outline earlier, and do more full-length practice tests. i probably got through every practice problem from every prior exam available, but my major problem was finding enough self control to actually sit down for a full 3hrs at a clip to get through a full practice test

For me, my Contracts professor wasn't the best at teaching the material. His teaching style just wasn't that great for me. I tried to learn things from the Contracts E&E, but the professor skipped around a bunch and left things out, and for some reason that didn't help me a whole lot either.

Before my final, I finally went on CALI and basically did every contracts lesson CALI had. It was just really helpful because they had so many problems and it explains everything so well. I tried to do the same approach for Civ Pro, but that E&E was pretty amazing so I think Glannon (the book's author) was more helpful. I guess its important to say that I don't have my Contracts grade back yet, and that exam is the one I feel the worst about. I don't know how well CALI actually worked for that exam, but to me, it seemed really helpful.

[samiseaborn]

I didn't find CALI helpful for Crim or Con Law. There former had too much common law, which my prof didn't care about, and there aren't many lessons for the latter.

[radical4peace]

1) Definitely going old school paper/pen style (I had one class where laptops weren't allowed and I think this really helped me to stay focused on what the professor was saying)
2) Outline earlier
3) I still don't think I'm a study group person, but meeting a few times with a group *before* exams seems like a good idea
4) Spend less money/make more lunches
5) Check out office hours to see what I'm missing

[mallard]

Gonna wait for my grades to see how I did, but I think mostly I'm going to try to take it just a little bit easier early on in the semester so I can kick it into gear near finals and really do the job on PTs.

[Mroberts3]

This thread is very useful, keep it up guys.

I'm just a 0L but my apps are in and I find myself reading more and more threads about how to actually do well once in law school. I was wondering, did you guys come into law school with a set plan that you are now changing in ways described above, or is it studying in law school more of trial and error throughout the whole semester?

[mallard]

This thread is very useful, keep it up guys.

I'm just a 0L but my apps are in and I find myself reading more and more threads about how to actually do well once in law school. I was wondering, did you guys come into law school with a set plan that you are now changing in ways described above, or is it studying in law school more of trial and error throughout the whole semester?

You can't come in with a set plan, but weekly outlining for every class starting a few weeks in is a good idea.