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I chose Cooley (well they chose me.) because it was in the Midwest. I feel like a failure, because I did terrible my first term. 2.45 GPA, which I heard is average for Cooley students. I promised myself that I wouldn't cram this semester and well, here I am again 2 weeks before finals not sure about Property, con, civ pro, business organizations and advance writing. Can I still pull at least a b- and some c's? I read a few other post by cooley students and it seems like a lot of people are in the same boat. I just don't want to fail. It seems like every cooley student is either struggling, or killing themselves to do well. I printed out all of my prof's and other prof's old exams, but that's as far as I've gotten. I was (2 months ago) diagnosed with ADHD and now have a script, but I don't want to take it all willy-nilly. Anybody have steps on how to use old exams to help cram and study and learn?

So many people at Cooley say oh just use the old exams, but how am I supposed to do that if I don't know the answers? How can I use old exams to help me prepare? What are the steps and secrets that other students know, that seem to do so well?

The problem isn't your study habits. The problem is that you decided to go to Cooley.

As you said, you're at the upper range of the median (according to online data, Cooley curves to a 2.0-2.4). So you are doing just as well as the vast majority of your classmates. Your concern shouldn't be about your grades as much as it should be about your post-school employment prospects (assuming you aren't going to the family firm by default).

The ADHD medication might help, but it doesn't sound like something you want to try this close to exams.

If this isn't trolling, I don't know what is. Grandpa judge and grandma justice?

kay

zhenders wrote:If this isn't trolling, I don't know what is. Grandpa judge and grandma justice?

kay

I don't understand what you mean by trolling

cavalier1138 wrote:The problem isn't your study habits. The problem is that you decided to go to Cooley.

As you said, you're at the upper range of the median (according to online data, Cooley curves to a 2.0-2.4). So you are doing just as well as the vast majority of your classmates. Your concern shouldn't be about your grades as much as it should be about your post-school employment prospects (assuming you aren't going to the family firm by default).

The ADHD medication might help, but it doesn't sound like something you want to try this close to exams.

I have't taken them, yet because I heard of the side effects. My parents have some connections, but they don't have a firm and even with connections your GPA still has to be good. So I don't know at this point what to do.

Samithelaw wrote:

zhenders wrote:If this isn't trolling, I don't know what is. Grandpa judge and grandma justice?

kay

I don't understand what you mean by trolling

My grandpa is a retired Judge in Wisconsin and my grandma was a Justice in South Africa, before she retired (two different sides of the family) which is why they have different names judge and justice. Is that what you mean? The differences in name?

Hi Sweetie,

If this is not a troll, then the advice I give as a fellow Cooley student would be to try to genuinely do 2-3 old exams per class in the next week and send it to your Professor for them to lay eyes on it and see what point distribution they would give. Especially, since you already pulled the old exams!If you are in Lansing, go to the SBA and buy old outlines that are keyed specifically to your Professor and use that to try the old exams. This will ensure that as you review and study, and practice the old exams, you will be writing in the way that they taught the material.

All my best,

Ari!

Samithelaw wrote:So many people at Cooley say oh just use the old exams, but how am I supposed to do that if I don't know the answers? How can I use old exams to help me prepare? What are the steps and secrets that other students know, that seem to do so well?

Perhaps a bit late to be of use, but just in case...

Use the old exams to practice and practice and practice. Find another classmate to compare your answers and see what each of you missed / got, and how your answers might be improved. Find an upperclassman to get insight on a specific professor's grading.

Also, you can use old exams from other schools with their own model answers, that you can find online. They won't be quite as helpful for getting into your prof's head, but they will let you know if you're generally on the right track with regards to the subject matter.

And - write out your answers completely. Do not simply discuss your analysis out loud - sit down in a timed environment and practice several exams. Practice makes perfect.

Good luck!