1L - Mid-Oct - End of Finals Forum

[swimmer11]

What is everyone's game plan for the the two months, give or take? I am thinking about finishing my outlines and my reading for the rest of the year and then just start grinding out every hypo, exam, question, anything I can find?

Is this credited? Probably not, which is why I am wondering what my fellow 1L troopers are doing as well!

[thegrayman]

2L, but finishing reading is definitely a good thing, frees up your time to start focusing on outlining and taking practice exams. Try to get exams from your professors. You want to figure out how they test, for example if they have a word limit or not. Also, try to get a feel for whether your professor is more about a well thought out answer (usually a lot less words) or is more into just mashing as many words down as you can. You will need to tailor your exam answers to each professor you have. If your professor's "model answers" are all 15 pages of typing down everything that the person could possibly think of, then you know the exam is going to be a typing race. Alternately, if the model answers given are a lot less pages and are more well organized, then you know that your professor care more about well thought out answers that aren't just a word dump. This has a huge impact on how you approach the final, so if you can figure that out beforehand it will serve you well.

[swimmer11]

2L, but finishing reading is definitely a good thing, frees up your time to start focusing on outlining and taking practice exams. Try to get exams from your professors. You want to figure out how they test, for example if they have a word limit or not. Also, try to get a feel for whether your professor is more about a well thought out answer (usually a lot less words) or is more into just mashing as many words down as you can. You will need to tailor your exam answers to each professor you have. If your professor's "model answers" are all 15 pages of typing down everything that the person could possibly think of, then you know the exam is going to be a typing race. Alternately, if the model answers given are a lot less pages and are more well organized, then you know that your professor care more about well thought out answers that aren't just a word dump. This has a huge impact on how you approach the final, so if you can figure that out beforehand it will serve you well.

That is the problem only one of my professors releases model answers. The other two, who I have asked to do so, said they do not release model answers because they want us to use our own creativity and do exactly what they say. Any thoughts on how to handle this?

[dsb83]

You mean you're going to do the rest of the reading through the end of the semester and have that finished reasonably soon? The idea of that blows my mind. Even if i were possible for me, I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea, because I like having the cases fresh on my mind in class. I actually don't read a day ahead for that reason. Does reading that far ahead work for some?

[swimmer11]

In my situation, I have a closed book torts exam and the commercial outlines keyed to the book, the crunchtime keyed to the book, and teh case brief keyed to the book. So, especially for a closed book torts exam, I should be getting to practice problems ASAP.

In criminal law, my teacher breathes and dies by Dressler so I just read ahead in that. I also have an outline from someone who received a high grade in that class.

In Contracts, my professor does whatever the fuck he wants. He has no case book, he has made his own tutorials, he tells you what the law is. My fav quote from him is: "This is what the vast majority of courts do, but it is wrong."

Based on all of these circumstances, in my situation I think reading ahead is fine.

[dsb83]

Thanks. I think I'll actually change my strategy for one of my classes because of that -- closed book, outlines readily available including a skeletal one provided by the prof, class is a waste of time and so on. Good to have someone remind you're in a box to help you think outside of it. good luck the rest of the way.