Planet Law School/0L Prep Question Forum

[MURPH]

i don't understand why i can't do this before the semester? i can't glean doctrine from casebooks/hornbooks then practice writing exams? is it because there's no one to check the validity of my arguments?

i don't know about anyone else but i did pure math for undergrad and we had to do just this: write proofs (read: arguments) on the exams. we had no clue which proofs were going to be asked about and so it was similarly very difficult to "prepare." i still did it. i proved everything i could that was in the book and vetted my own arguments. sometimes i didn't catch the flaw in my argument and sometimes i did. some times i hit gold and proved something that was on the exam. regardless i became a better mathematician because i put the theory (read: doctrine) through it's paces.

so why can't i do this for ls?

LEEWS says that is exactly why math and science majors do well in law school.

[270910]

i don't understand why i can't do this before the semester? i can't glean doctrine from casebooks/hornbooks then practice writing exams? is it because there's no one to check the validity of my arguments?

i don't know about anyone else but i did pure math for undergrad and we had to do just this: write proofs (read: arguments) on the exams. we had no clue which proofs were going to be asked about and so it was similarly very difficult to "prepare." i still did it. i proved everything i could that was in the book and vetted my own arguments. sometimes i didn't catch the flaw in my argument and sometimes i did. some times i hit gold and proved something that was on the exam. regardless i became a better mathematician because i put the theory (read: doctrine) through it's paces.

so why can't i do this for ls?

LEEWS says that is exactly why math and science majors do well in law school.

Plenty of math and science majors do very poorly in law school too. HTH.

[Pizon]

Dear 0L(s), I think I realized one of the best things you can do to "get ahead". Apper alluded to this in a post somewhere, and I just made this realization yesterday. I have noticed a trend in my exam-taking, my studying, and my academic career in general. I have noticed it in the sports I played and quit, the hobbies I took up and dropped, and I can contrast my prior experiences with the things I do now. I have spent my entire life, really, rushing through one project to get to the next. If it didn't come easily, if I couldn't easily identify and solve a problem, if something didn't come to me immediately, I simply guessed at the answer and quit.

Why is this relevant?

Because if I had taken the time to look at my habits and prior experiences before starting law school, my 1L experience probably would have been quite different. Fortunately, my first exam is tomorrow, so I can be mindful of this over the next two weeks, in order to ensure that I don't repeat prior patterns of behavior. But this is only effective going forward.

So what I am advocating to you all, 0Ls, is that you use some of your time off to 'know thyself'. Seriously. Assess your strengths and weaknesses, root out hubris and arrogance, and look for patterns in your behaviors. Take time to really get to know your helpful and harmful behaviors. Figure out how you react under stress, and what your tendencies are when you have downtime. I'm not going to tell you that you should get rid of the harmful behaviors, or develop new ones. But I am saying, that if you know your weaknesses, and can rely on your strengths, you won't be unintentionally shooting yourself in the foot as you try to make progress. Oh yes, and learn to be patient with yourself. It is easy to become frustrated while learning legal concepts, because it is unlike anything you have done before.

wut