1L Exam Prep and Motivation Thread Forum

[FeelTheHeat]

Checking in. Completing Contracts outline today (rest are done), strictly retention and practice exams from here on out. A number of kids in my section have been doing them already but I'm not sweating it. 3 days of studying per class leading up to the exams. Heading home Wednesday and coming back Thursday for Thanksgiving. Really want to book PR...I've been crushing the practice exams and really worked my ass off in that class. Been studying from 8-9 to 11 most nights...hard work, but I hope it pays off.

[queenlizzie13]

Outlines for 3 classes are basically done at this point (just have to refine them) and one is well more than halfway done. Hoping to have all them completely finished by the end of this weekend and then its CALI lessons and practice exams and reading the outlines. I want to print them on Monday so I have them on the plane.

[beachbum]

Gonna try and finish contracts tonight/tomorrow morning. Civpro is mostly done. I'm using (and modifying) a 2L's outline for property. Gonna try and get a lot of job-related stuff done this weekend, too. Then it'll be studying my outlines and taking practice tests starting Thanksgiving break and continuing through finals.

[northwood]

chekcing in... outlines done ( just need to add key points from class), memo done, resume done, cover letter- not started...but will do thursday am...... will be memorizing and doing pts from here on out... good luck all

[ph14]

Checking in as well. Not sure if i will survive through exams.

[alicrimson]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

Edit: Also, I've been trying not to study past 9. I know a lot of people are the 14 hour types but I find I just go crazy and get diminished returns. For those of you who go the million hour approach, how do you do so effectively? My brain would explode.

[ph14]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

I'm debating whether to use my outline or a really good one I found online for one of my classes. Thoughts?

[FeelTheHeat]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

I'm debating whether to use my outline or a really good one I found online for one of my classes. Thoughts?

I think the outlines have been pretty useless. It's been good for the class in a macro perspective, but I've found the CALI lessons and E&E's much better for addressing the nuances and detail I don't know yet.

[ph14]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

I'm debating whether to use my outline or a really good one I found online for one of my classes. Thoughts?

I think the outlines have been pretty useless. It's been good for the class in a macro perspective, but I've found the CALI lessons and E&E's much better for addressing the nuances and detail I don't know yet.

I have been doing the E&E's as i go and I understand it when i'm doing it, but then I forget when I try and do something cold. I'm hoping that's just because I need to refresh on my outline a bit before I try and do something.

[alicrimson]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

I'm debating whether to use my outline or a really good one I found online for one of my classes. Thoughts?

I used a similar approach. I would supplement yours with the really good one unless it came from someone who had your professor or if it is literally the same thing. For one of my classes I used my class notes and an E&E to outline. I'm sure this isn't the most favored approach by the majority in here, but I think its helpful because its pretty much the same thing as my textbook (BLL wise) and I'm using my professor's precious terms to talk about things. We shall see though. Like I said, I feel like an idiot 3/7 days.

[queenlizzie13]

Stress mounting. I've been doing a lot of work and have completed all of my outlines. I'm currently doing all of the the E&E problems and am about to start taking practice tests. I'm not sure what other kids in my section are doing but I'm not really concerned. I've been spending plenty of time; however, I worry that I'm not actually learning anything. I'm hoping this is just insecurity/second guessing myself. I did very well on my only midterm and understand most of the hypos. Also for the PT I have done, my prof looked at it and told me it was good and that I definitely have the idea for writing exams. Gah...still, the feeling of idiocy does not fade.

I'm debating whether to use my outline or a really good one I found online for one of my classes. Thoughts?

I think the outlines have been pretty useless. It's been good for the class in a macro perspective, but I've found the CALI lessons and E&E's much better for addressing the nuances and detail I don't know yet.

CALI lessons are great. sometimes I have to ignore what they say if they go against what my professor said, but otherwise I'm finding them useful. Still, want to finish the outlines for the PTs to mimic the real thing better.

[ilovesf]

spent hours today finishing up my civpro outline - it has all of my notes from class and slides from the professor (about 30 slides per class), I just need to supplement it with new knowledge from the E&E. My goal is to have it completely done by tomorrow afternoon, so I can finish up the second half of my property outline. Then... torts.. blerg. I hope to have them all done by Wednesday night, (I only have one class Monday afternoon), so I can take Thursday off, and start practice tests Friday.. my first final is the next Thursday.

[ph14]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

[BlueDiamond]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

I'm relying solely on commercial outlines and inserting my professor's language where it differs

[ph14]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

I'm relying solely on commercial outlines and inserting my professor's language where it differs

Okay, phew. Glad to hear i'm not alone. I'm working pretty substantially off commercial outlines, as my starting point for the most part, and filling in a lot of the clear stuff from the outline, and then tweaking/adjusting, and adding in the cases we read in our class, and everyone once in a while something from class.

[paulinaporizkova]

finishing outlines today and tomorrow afternoon, going hard on practice exams starting tomorrow. trying to do like 4-5 for every class. i feel like i'm in good shape. but god help me with all these closet UVa gunners and savants.

also, haven't touched a commercial outline - solidly E&E, hornbooks, but haven't put any of that actually into my outlines

[NYC Law]

I'm relying on old outlines. My torts prof wrote the book so his class is just like it, and in the pretty universal torts format. So any old outline seems to do.

There's an epic Property outline floating around that's keyed perfectly to the class, so I'll probably use that.

[FeelTheHeat]

Farnsworth's contracts literally turns me on

Also, I've used a shitton of arrow's crim outline lol

[ilovesf]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

[paulinaporizkova]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

[FeelTheHeat]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

+1. I really hope to spend the rest of the semester starting on Monday focused solely on memorization of the BLL and working on my legal reasoning, which I've neglected over the semester. Plan on getting some LEEWS, GTM, and arrow's guide in when I can.

[ph14]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

The problem for me is that, in at least a couple of my classes the class discussion isn't a good representation of what we need to know on the exam. So I would at least have to go hard from the casebook + a little bit from class but not much.

[ilovesf]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

totally. it's also how i learn the material and organize it so it actually makes sense, instead of little bits and pieces spread throughout my notes.

[ilovesf]

Is anyone else relying fairly substantially on commercial outlines? (obviously adjusting for professor and your class)

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

The problem for me is that, in at least a couple of my classes the class discussion isn't a good representation of what we need to know on the exam. So I would at least have to go hard from the casebook + a little bit from class but not much.

well all my profs are new so i have no idea what i must do to prepare for the exam

[ph14]

im making mine from scratch

same here. personally the best way for me to go - i get anxiety when i have to look at all these outside sources and then feel like i need to incorporate them. I'd rather just go hard on exactly what we learn in class

The problem for me is that, in at least a couple of my classes the class discussion isn't a good representation of what we need to know on the exam. So I would at least have to go hard from the casebook + a little bit from class but not much.

well all my profs are new so i have no idea what i must do to prepare for the exam

yeah I have a prof like that as well. it's definitely tough. how are you going about it?