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Any 1Ls feel less motivated than last semester?
If so what are you doing to motivate yourself?

omg yes. everyone else is so pumped to do better, make this semester better than the last, blah blah blah and i'm like...ummm...can i just veg on my couch and watch crappy reality tv? mmkay, thanks.

betasteve wrote:I had trouble kicking the semester off. I've just gotten back into the rhythm. No grades yet, so maybe a little fear is motivating. I don't know.

I know. That s how i was too before i got my grades. After I got my grades I didn t want to do any work at all. I got good "value" out of my grades last semester. good grades but didn t spend a lot of time. 1-2 hrs a night.

The worst part is, I know if I do slightly better next semester I will get into a much better school.

My hope for this coming semester is that my classmates who performed well become overly confident and forget about what made them successful in the first place while my classmates who performed poorly simply give up on law school.

summertimechi wrote:omg yes. everyone else is so pumped to do better, make this semester better than the last, blah blah blah and i'm like...ummm...can i just veg on my couch and watch crappy reality tv? mmkay, thanks.

Yeah, everyone has been saying that. I think it's like New Years Resolutions people make to go to the gym. The first few weeks after NYE I see the gym full of people I've never seen before. After about 3-4 weeks, the gym empties out and I never see these people again.

I expect a similar result in the law library.

apper123 wrote:

summertimechi wrote:omg yes. everyone else is so pumped to do better, make this semester better than the last, blah blah blah and i'm like...ummm...can i just veg on my couch and watch crappy reality tv? mmkay, thanks.

Yeah, everyone has been saying that. I think it's like New Years Resolutions people make to go to the gym. The first few weeks after NYE I see the gym full of people I've never seen before. After about 3-4 weeks, the gym empties out and I never see these people again.

I expect a similar result in the law library.

haha ditto.
The law library at my school was packed this week. I dont even know what people are studying? We have like 2-3 cases from each class. Maybe 2 concepts max per class.

That said I've done nothing but sit on my ass so far.

I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

JazzOne wrote:I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

Maybe, but most 1L students at my school don t know how bad the hiring environment really is out there. A lot of people think that they will get a Biglaw/midlaw job with median grades. lol (My school is ranked in the 40s/50s)

more motivated. I suspect this will die out in a month or so.

thexfactor wrote:

JazzOne wrote:I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

Maybe, but most 1L students at my school don t know how bad the hiring environment really is out there. A lot of people think that they will get a Biglaw/midlaw job with median grades. lol (My school is ranked in the 40s/50s)

I just think that most of our classmates (whether or not they understand the hiring market) have never received bad grades before. Some people just got their first C or had their first semester with no As. I'm worried about those super workaholics who couldn't put a decent exam together. They'll be taking some practice exams next semester, I would think.

JazzOne wrote:

thexfactor wrote:

JazzOne wrote:I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

Maybe, but most 1L students at my school don t know how bad the hiring environment really is out there. A lot of people think that they will get a Biglaw/midlaw job with median grades. lol (My school is ranked in the 40s/50s)

I just think that most of our classmates (whether or not they understand the hiring market) have never received bad grades before. Some people just got their first C or had their first semester with no As. I'm worried about those super workaholics who couldn't put a decent exam together. They'll be taking some practice exams next semester, I would think.

That s true. Even at my school, the avg entering gpa was like a 3.5s. LOL that s where I have a big legs up on the competition. I know what it s like to do poorly in college .

JazzOne wrote:

thexfactor wrote:

JazzOne wrote:I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

Maybe, but most 1L students at my school don t know how bad the hiring environment really is out there. A lot of people think that they will get a Biglaw/midlaw job with median grades. lol (My school is ranked in the 40s/50s)

I just think that most of our classmates (whether or not they understand the hiring market) have never received bad grades before. Some people just got their first C or had their first semester with no As. I'm worried about those super workaholics who couldn't put a decent exam together. They'll be taking some practice exams next semester, I would think.

In all seriousness, I never put forth effort in college, and this was the first semester of my life that I got all A grades. lolol I guess I picked a good time to shine.

apper123 wrote:

JazzOne wrote:

thexfactor wrote:

JazzOne wrote:I think there will be a lot of desperate folks this semester. I'm not looking forward to it. Everything was equal last semester, and it was easy to converse and joke about law school. I don't think I'll joke around like during our first day of class tomorrow.

Maybe, but most 1L students at my school don t know how bad the hiring environment really is out there. A lot of people think that they will get a Biglaw/midlaw job with median grades. lol (My school is ranked in the 40s/50s)

I just think that most of our classmates (whether or not they understand the hiring market) have never received bad grades before. Some people just got their first C or had their first semester with no As. I'm worried about those super workaholics who couldn't put a decent exam together. They'll be taking some practice exams next semester, I would think.

In all seriousness, I never put forth effort in college, and this was the first semester of my life that I got all A grades. lolol I guess I picked a good time to shine.

I never did either. My grades in college looked like alphabet soup. A B C D. Thank god it stopped at D.

chadwick218 wrote:My hope for this coming semester is that my classmates who performed well become overly confident and forget about what made them successful in the first place while my classmates who performed poorly simply give up on law school.

Midterms went like this and worked in my favor for finals, unfortunately I'm afraid those people learned their lesson and won't make that mistake this semester. I mean, yay for learning your lesson, but makes for another very anxious semester for those of us hoping to move up to the other side of that 10% line.

thexfactor wrote:
I never did either. My grades in college looked like alphabet soup. A B C D. Thank god it stopped at D.

Haha, this is me too.

I am also feeling terribly un-motivated. My law school gpa so far increased from my undergrad gpa. I feel bad for all the people that went down, the gpa average of my school was a 3.7 and we curve to a 2.7ish.

My first semester GPA was 0.8 higher than my UG gpa lol.

I feel like I am less motivated, but I don't think I really am. Nor do I think a lot of other people are either. Our last experience prior to the first week of class was exams. It was a nonstop shit show of studying and caffeine. We've come back for second semester, and all that is really required of us is to do the reading for class. I know some people are planning on starting these rigid routines already (outlining first week, E&E's, hornooks etc.), but the reality is the REQUIRED work load has dropped so far that even when I do that work, I feel like I'm not doing anything at all. Relative to December at least. As the semester rolls on I'm sure the work requirements will increase exponentially.

Welp2277 wrote:I feel like I am less motivated, but I don't think I really am. Nor do I think a lot of other people are either. Our last experience prior to the first week of class was exams. It was a nonstop shit show of studying and caffeine. We've come back for second semester, and all that is really required of us is to do the reading for class. I know some people are planning on starting these rigid routines already (outlining first week, E&E's, hornooks etc.), but the reality is the REQUIRED work load has dropped so far that even when I do that work, I feel like I'm not doing anything at all. Relative to December at least. As the semester rolls on I'm sure the work requirements will increase exponentially.

Yep yep yep. Agreeing with a ton of stuff ITT. Glad I'm not the only one. I've watched 3 movies this week, went out every weekend night, and I watched TV for 12 hours yesterday. I felt guilty about it, but then I realized I have no idea what else I could be doing for school.

I'm trying to get motivated, but it is hard when my sectionmates keep throwing sweet parties

summertimechi wrote:omg yes. everyone else is so pumped to do better, make this semester better than the last, blah blah blah and i'm like...ummm...can i just veg on my couch and watch crappy reality tv? mmkay, thanks.

LoL, this. I live in beautiful San Diego, and my main New Years Resolution was to watch a grip of reality TV. From Operation Repo to Shorty Boss to NJ Shore to Bad Girls Club. I watched it all. And, it seems like I pushed myself %110 in the early weeks of last term, and now looking back, it seems like the last 6 weeks of studying are FAR more crucial/critical than the early weeks.

I don't know about motivation per se but I feel pretty crummy. No job, waiting on grades, and broke.

we got our grades before the semester started and you can def feel a different vibe already...everyone is getting to class earlier and sitting much closer to the front (no back benching) and people who never opened their mouths last semester and gunning like crazy...other peoples motivation gives me no choice but to take it up a few notches

flhealth wrote:we got our grades before the semester started and you can def feel a different vibe already...everyone is getting to class earlier and sitting much closer to the front (no back benching) and people who never opened their mouths last semester and gunning like crazy...other peoples motivation gives me no choice but to take it up a few notches

I'll have to take it up a few notches as well, but I'll wait until the last 6-8 weeks to start doing that. For now I'm content to observe the gunners. I do contribute in my Ks class, however, (I never talked in any other classes) because the professor is very Paper Chasey (in a good way) and hilarious and I enjoy interacting with him and the class discussion.

flhealth wrote:we got our grades before the semester started and you can def feel a different vibe already...everyone is getting to class earlier and sitting much closer to the front (no back benching) and people who never opened their mouths last semester and gunning like crazy...other peoples motivation gives me no choice but to take it up a few notches

Very interesting ... it seems as though I have been observing a different phenomena ... 2 weeks in, people seem to be less talkative (perhaps it is b/c we only have 2 doctrinal classes together this semester).