dealing with mid-semester burnout Forum

[Gotallanswers]

Marathon, not a sprint.

I sprint marathons

[FrankGallagher]

Actually I am doing very well I will be doing practice problems for my classes tomorrow for the professors to grade and give me feed back on. And I am trying to get ahead with I am succeeding at greatly so I can drill the EE and start doing practice problems and have lots of time for the memo. I do not even bring my phone with me when I study its all productivity. Median pwned will not happen to this guy

90% of your classmates say the same thing about themselves.

Yep. A lot of people think they're right on course and then they get their comeuppance when grades come in.

Also, I think how hard someone works from August-October/January-March is less predictive of how well someone does than LSAT score. It makes very little difference.

as someone who hasnt worked harder than anyone else, but has a high LSAT, i very much hope this is true

[Gotallanswers]

^its not. If it is I'm going to cry

[romothesavior]

^its not. If it is I'm going to cry

Yeah bro, just dismiss all the people who actually went through law school. Sounds like you know it all.

[bruinfan10]

.

[gaucholaw]

OP again: I've mostly rested the last couple days (strategic command is my game of choice), but taken a bit of time (just 4-5 hours nothing insane) to try and shore up the first half. Admittedly, I have two midterms this week so I've had to make semi-outlines for that as well. On that note, I took the practice midterm and realized that I have in fact studying completely wrong. It's almost like if I had hindsight, I could've understood it completely on only a few hours of studying a day.... but at the same time I'm sort of glad that I've made the mistakes that I've made - I'd rather figure out the study methods that don't work in September than in November.... and am now trying to focus on optimal efficiency. Here's my question: premises: 1. not a special snow-flake 2. decent work ethic, but probably average w/r/t everyone else.... hence, is it possible for me to finish slightly above median, say top 1/3 or deign I ask even top 1/4 when I already feel that median will be a difficult task (and one I frankly would feel no shame with). If this is possible, what do I need to do, starting today?

[TTRansfer]

^its not. If it is I'm going to cry

Yeah bro, just dismiss all the people who actually went through law school. Sounds like you know it all.

I was one who bucked the trend a bit with that, but I'm not everyone and what you said is accurate. I had a shit LSAT and was basically median LSAT at my first school. I did well, but all of the rest of the people around me were the top LSAT kids. So, while that's all anecdotal, it's pretty obvious that the LSAT is a fair indicator like you say. A few outliers will slip through, but they probably underperformed on the LSAT (I always thought I did).

[kalvano]

OP again: I've mostly rested the last couple days (strategic command is my game of choice), but taken a bit of time (just 4-5 hours nothing insane) to try and shore up the first half. Admittedly, I have two midterms this week so I've had to make semi-outlines for that as well. On that note, I took the practice midterm and realized that I have in fact studying completely wrong. It's almost like if I had hindsight, I could've understood it completely on only a few hours of studying a day.... but at the same time I'm sort of glad that I've made the mistakes that I've made - I'd rather figure out the study methods that don't work in September than in November.... and am now trying to focus on optimal efficiency. Here's my question: premises: 1. not a special snow-flake 2. decent work ethic, but probably average w/r/t everyone else.... hence, is it possible for me to finish slightly above median, say top 1/3 or deign I ask even top 1/4 when I already feel that median will be a difficult task (and one I frankly would feel no shame with). If this is possible, what do I need to do, starting today?

It's very difficult to say. I know people who busted their ass all day long and didn't do well. The valedictorian of my class worked her ass off and obviously did well, but I know people in the top 10% who didn't work hard at all. Some people are just naturally good at exams. You'll have to figure out what works for you. Work lots of practice exams and talk to professors about the answers you come up with and get better at answering in a manner that gets you the most points.

[Dogg]

OP again: I've mostly rested the last couple days (strategic command is my game of choice), but taken a bit of time (just 4-5 hours nothing insane) to try and shore up the first half. Admittedly, I have two midterms this week so I've had to make semi-outlines for that as well. On that note, I took the practice midterm and realized that I have in fact studying completely wrong. It's almost like if I had hindsight, I could've understood it completely on only a few hours of studying a day.... but at the same time I'm sort of glad that I've made the mistakes that I've made - I'd rather figure out the study methods that don't work in September than in November.... and am now trying to focus on optimal efficiency. Here's my question: premises: 1. not a special snow-flake 2. decent work ethic, but probably average w/r/t everyone else.... hence, is it possible for me to finish slightly above median, say top 1/3 or deign I ask even top 1/4 when I already feel that median will be a difficult task (and one I frankly would feel no shame with). If this is possible, what do I need to do, starting today?

It's very difficult to say. I know people who busted their ass all day long and didn't do well. The valedictorian of my class worked her ass off and obviously did well, but I know people in the top 10% who didn't work hard at all. Some people are just naturally good at exams. You'll have to figure out what works for you. Work lots of practice exams and talk to professors about the answers you come up with and get better at answering in a manner that gets you the most points.

Practicing for exams is the key part. A lot of people think if they spend a lot of time understanding the material and prepping for class, they are guaranteed a good grade such as with undergrad. Learn how to take exams >

[stillwater]

OP again: I've mostly rested the last couple days (strategic command is my game of choice), but taken a bit of time (just 4-5 hours nothing insane) to try and shore up the first half. Admittedly, I have two midterms this week so I've had to make semi-outlines for that as well. On that note, I took the practice midterm and realized that I have in fact studying completely wrong. It's almost like if I had hindsight, I could've understood it completely on only a few hours of studying a day.... but at the same time I'm sort of glad that I've made the mistakes that I've made - I'd rather figure out the study methods that don't work in September than in November.... and am now trying to focus on optimal efficiency. Here's my question: premises: 1. not a special snow-flake 2. decent work ethic, but probably average w/r/t everyone else.... hence, is it possible for me to finish slightly above median, say top 1/3 or deign I ask even top 1/4 when I already feel that median will be a difficult task (and one I frankly would feel no shame with). If this is possible, what do I need to do, starting today?

It's very difficult to say. I know people who busted their ass all day long and didn't do well. The valedictorian of my class worked her ass off and obviously did well, but I know people in the top 10% who didn't work hard at all. Some people are just naturally good at exams. You'll have to figure out what works for you. Work lots of practice exams and talk to professors about the answers you come up with and get better at answering in a manner that gets you the most points.

Practicing for exams is the key part. A lot of people think if they spend a lot of time understanding the material and prepping for class, they are guaranteed a good grade such as with undergrad. Learn how to take exams >

I think taking practice exams is a flame really. But I think this highlights how hard it is to distill a recipe for success that has any universal application. You need to find out what works for you, refine and adapt your technique as you discover what works or what doesn't and try to tune out the noise, that insufferable noise, of law school as to what you should be doing, people's perceived tricks of the trade, etc.