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I would log into Westlaw once per day and run some pointless search, just so I could have more than 150 of those reward points.

OOoooo. Awesome thread.

I wouldn't read the casebooks so hard.

I'd put away those 10 highlighters.

I'd stop sweating the exams so much.

I'd buy cruchtime / high court cases.

I'd read the E&E's before the semester, just as an overview.

I'd stay out of the library.

I'd play more soccer.

I'd steal more treats from the Westlaw / Lexis table.

6650 points on Lexus. I'm just trying to figure out what I want for Christmas.

6650 points on Lexus.

First semester? Pretty Epic.

I'd read the E&E's before the semester, just as an overview.

I was considering doing this in the summer before 1L coming up. You think it would be a good investment of time over reading other random books. I was only concerned that I wouldn't understand much of it and thus it would be lost time when I have to reread in the fall.

I read Torts over the summer. It put things into a good perspective during the summer. Just go easy on the whole thing. Don't try to LEARN anything from it. Get a good feeling for what the terms mean, how the concepts are put together. Some pre-law books (PLS*cough*cough*) advise you to read every word and make up hypos and form summer study groups and all manner of ridiculous shit. Totally, totally, totally retarded on so many levels.

The goal is to become familiar with the subject area - you're not going to outgun the other people because you read an E&E before school starts - it just doesn't work like that.

Take you time and relax before school, skim through the first semester E&E's, and mentally prepare yourself for the marathon.

Got it, thanks!

I've heard PLS is...yeah. Summer study groups?

Yeah man. The author of PLS runs a website where 0L's run hypos and write model answers over the summer. I find the whole thing a tad ridiculous. I did like his recommendation of supplements, though. I'm pretty much a E&E guy though and through.

Anybody got a good recommendation for a property supplement I can read over break? I've got Glannon's for Civpro.

I've got you beat on lexis points. I made a purchase of 4,386 a month ago and currently have 3964 in the account. So a grand total of 8350 for the semester. Westlaw points are worthless.

If I could do the semester over again, I'd:

Hit the E&E's earlier.

Take notes in outline form/organize my outline as the class progressed.

I wouldn't have tried to read my casebook when I was hanging out with my friends in the lounge. We were all supposed to be reading, but it just ended up talking about useless stuff. I'm ~5x more productive in the library.

Run/workout more. Taking a little bit of time from your day to get your body right will help relieve stress and get your mind right.

If I could do the semester over gain, things I'd do exactly the same:

Play football once a week w/law school people. No excuse for not having some physical activity.

Scam all the free food, mugs, and whatever else I could get my hands on. If it's free, it's for me.

Hit as many bar reviews as possible. Giving myself some time off helped me focus more when I was working.

Read the casebook. Maybe I'm just old fashioned...

I'd read the E&E's before the semester, just as an overview.

Absolutely, unequivocally TCR. I was told to do this before law school, I didn't do it, and that was stupid. 0Ls reading this: THIS IS NOT A JOKE. It is the best thing you can do for yourself, in my opinion.

Just so you know I practice what I preach, I got Crim, Con and Property E&Es for Christmas and plan to read them over break. Gunnerish? Probably. Will this keep me from waking up in April and realizing I know no black letter law about the subjects I've supposedly been learning for three months? Let's hope so.

Other than that, I wouldn't AIM in class so much.

I would take notes on the computer and in one large document (rather than a different document for every day), so I could just go back at the end of the semester and edit that document.

I wouldn't get involved in student organizations just for the sake of resume padding. I did enough of that in undergrad, and I wish I'd limited my involvement just to things I'm interested in.

I wish I'd gone to my professor's office hours to suck up more, build relationships for LOR writing and to get more of an idea of what is important to them. Going to office hours is the easiest thing in the world to do, and everyone knows you should do it, but no one actually does.



Things I don't regret at all:

Drinking so much. This is the last time in my life where I'll be able to get throwed 4 nights a week for 3 months straight (well, other than 2L and 3L years obviously).

Blowing off legal practice workshop. I got the gist, but spending 25 hours on a memo for a pass/fail class is just silly.

Dedicating LOTS of time to student organizations I like a lot. It's not like I would have spent that time studying, anyway.

Speaking up a lot in class. It started as ironic mock-gunning and turned into actual gunning. But oh well, it forced me to pay attention.

Going to school with a bunch of people lots smarter than me, even if that means I end up in the bottom 5%. Well... ask me again how I feel about this in February.

What are E&E's?

Things I would do differently:

Put down my deposit for Bar/Bri and PMBR.

Not buy a laptop. It was a waste.

Would have used more policy arguments when writing my torts exam (he was a stickler for it).

Would have not corrected my CivPro prof on the first day to call me "CJ" instead of "MR. Law". She hated me after that and still can't stand me to this day.

Things I wouldn't do differently:

Stop briefing cases when I did.

Miss the maximum amount of classes per semester in each course.

Things I regret:

-Not drinking more in the beginning of the semester. I was buckled down from day one and really missed out on a lot of booze. Now it's too late and I have to wait until Dec 21st. Not like I'm counting down the seconds.

-Not knowing how to approach civ pro.

-Not looking at the table of contents/summary in front of the casebook to get a general idea of where in the hell I was in terms of the course. POV, people, it's all about POV

-Having the sloppiest notes ever. I should have somehow outlined in the beginning--perhaps from the professor's syllabus or maybe from the TOC. Either way, when outlining it was difficult to tell where the hell I was, esp. in K.

Things I'm Glad I Did

-Made non-law school connections. Outside world rocks!
-Didn't bother with that silly "different color for issue/holding" nonsense
-Purchased Crayola twistable crayons to use in lieu of highlighters--look, ma, no leaking!
-Started outlining early
-planned a trip to South beach for nye!!!!

Things I will do differently

* Read a commercial outline up front
* Take much better class notes
* Outline along the way
* Practice continuous review
* Spend more time in the library and less at home
* Not engage in g-mail group chat...ever
* Force myself to write thematic essays once a month

Things I'm really happy about

* Getting good at reading cases
* Hitting the bars with my mates once a week
* Working out in the gym 4 times a week
* Group practice exams with deconstruction afterwards (HUGE)
* Connecting with 2Ls and 3Ls
* Regular sex

not listened to anything that starts with "I heard that"

not listened to anything that starts with "I heard that"

Very credited. Very very credited.

Great thread.

Things I hope to change starting next semester
- Use a computer in class where allowed, rather than taking handwritten notes. I cursed myself at the end of the semester for the handwritten stuff.
- Start outlining earlier. More self-cursing there.
- Better separate study time and time off. I.e. actually taking time off rather than lapsing into mindless procrastination behind the computer.
- Get off campus more often.

Things I'll keep doing
- Ridiculously using 5 colors of highlighter. I know it's dorky, but I would never go back to one-color highlighting anymore.
- Read all the cases.

what are the E&Es?

thanks sock

katkins, what's TCR? You said you'd make sure to do it if you were a 0L, but I don't know what it means?

Oh, forgot to respond completely off-topic to the Westlaw/Lexis discussion. Rise said Westlaw points are worthless. I quite agree: the stuff they give away is nowhere near as nice or at least useful as Lexis stuff. Does anyone prefer Westlaw gadgets?

Useful and important point of the day, ahem.

Yeah, Lexis definitely has better rewards. But I foolishly picked Westlaw on the basis of liking the interface and results organization better.

Do you have to choose one? Can you not use them both?

you guys are insane...the semester just ended!!!!

Main thing I'd do and will try to do, as my Buddhist wive advises: meditate before exams. Empty myself of interfering junk, so that what I know can come out. Other thing I'll do is deemphasize case reading and look at commercial outlines more.