WUSTL Recent Grad (and others) Taking Questions Forum

[Sprout]

Idk what it is with WUSTL but it's like everybody is doomed to have terrible professors at least once in 1L. Some of us get DBT (visit prof whose highest grade was a 3.76 and also sucks at teaching), some get Konig, I heard there was another bad property professor this semester forget his name.

Then you have GOAT profs like Tamanaha, Greenfield, RHB, Drobak, and others I haven't taken. LaPierre is good too but idk if he's GOAT.

I didn't have him, but a lot of folks I talked to about DBT liked him and his teaching, just the exam problem.

Would mention that I have loved all of my profs this year (Osgood, Norwood, De Geest, Kim, Law) except Konig, who I like personally... but that class... yikes.

YOLOing the shit out of that exam tomorrow.

Personal rank of 1L professors: Tamanaha, De Geest, DBT, Drobak, Magarian, RHB

Anyway, any upperclassmen have advice for write on?

Start as soon as humanly possible if you're not a virtuoso work under pressure sort of person.

Disagree with bolded. I should have started sooner, I waited till like Tuesday to even look at the materials, but write-on fucking sucks. Imo it was way worse than finals, stress and time constraint wise. You just completed 1L -- take at least a day off.

Advice: if you're trying for Law Review and you're not grading on, the BB part matters a lot. If you just want a secondary journal it matters less to varying degrees. Regardless, what does matter is your case comment. That being said, figure out whatever the issue is you're supposed to discuss in your comment. There's going to be a bunch of crap to confuse you in the 400-500 pages but once you figure out what you're supposed to be addressing, issue wise, you can ignore/disregard most of it. Just make sure you know which case to critique and what the central issue is, and you will be fine.

[sublime]

..

[Sprout]

You get at least two to three days as it doesn't start right after the last 1L exam.

I dk but I thought the last 1L exam was several days ago already.

Anyway, gl to all the rising 2Ls that are doing write-on. Worst week of my 1L for sure, so maybe don't take my advice; but, smarter people than me have said there is a lot of value in looking at the materials, taking a day or two off, and then just trying to crank down with a schedule.

ETA: Seems like last 1L exam was thursday. If you haven't had enough R&R my advice would be to figure out what the issue is, let ideas marinate, sleep, and crank it out. As Sublime so kindly reminded me, I personally didn't finish in time. Worth noting though that I can barely read, dyslexic as fuck, shit takes me a lot longer, so I should have started sooner. Still though, most of my peers had less issues timing wise. I'm either more crappy or more credible with this advice, but either way, good luck all. Make sure to eat & drink & sleep, also -- it's only journal. Unless you're gunning for law review I don't think there's much benefit besides the availability of a quiet study space and free snacks, so don't stress too hard.

[Fiona91216]

I used all of the cases for write-on.

[PeanutsNJam]

There's no way to know you're going to grade-on anyway right so everybody has to work hard on this.

Good to know there are red herring cases though.

[Jmart082]

There's no way to know you're going to grade-on anyway right so everybody has to work hard on this.

Good to know there are red herring cases though.

There are a bunch of red herrings, actually. If I had to do it all over again, I'd sift through the case materials, go in with my bluebook already tabbed to oblivion, or better yet, buy the e-book version (control F beats leafing through the pages). After selecting the cases that are relevant, create an outline or diagram with my basic premises/arguments, and case law to support them, then put that down, and put in eight hour days on the bluebook exercise, since it is the most time-consuming part of the process, and equally weighted. Once that's all finished, go back to my outline for the memo, and shit that out as quickly as possible to go back and do edits. Granted, I procrastinated, and didn't get to do any of these things, and paid the price for it. My body gave out on the last day of the competition, and I opted not to turn in what I had produced, since I figured that none of the secondary journals would be worth it. That's my advice, for what it's worth.

[hoos89]

Since I figured that none of the secondary journals would be worth it. That's my advice, for what it's worth.

For what it's worth, if you can get one of the lowest board positions it's about the easiest 4 credits imaginable. Seriously I probably did under 10 hours of work each semester (although doing the interviews spring semester did kind of suck, but not nearly as bad as a weekend class).

[Sprout]

There's no way to know you're going to grade-on anyway right so everybody has to work hard on this.

Good to know there are red herring cases though.

There are a bunch of red herrings, actually. If I had to do it all over again, I'd sift through the case materials, go in with my bluebook already tabbed to oblivion, or better yet, buy the e-book version (control F beats leafing through the pages). After selecting the cases that are relevant, create an outline or diagram with my basic premises/arguments, and case law to support them, then put that down, and put in eight hour days on the bluebook exercise, since it is the most time-consuming part of the process, and equally weighted. Once that's all finished, go back to my outline for the memo, and shit that out as quickly as possible to go back and do edits. Granted, I procrastinated, and didn't get to do any of these things, and paid the price for it. My body gave out on the last day of the competition, and I opted not to turn in what I had produced, since I figured that none of the secondary journals would be worth it. That's my advice, for what it's worth.

fwiw, re: bolded, it depends on the journal how they divvy it up, but they are definitely not equally weighted.

[tebowtime23]

Anybody remember when their grades came in after second semester? I know it's foolish to expect them this soon (even though the LRM exam was nearly a month ago), but about when should I start compulsively checking Webstac?

[RareExports]

Anybody remember when their grades came in after second semester? I know it's foolish to expect them this soon (even though the LRM exam was nearly a month ago), but about when should I start compulsively checking Webstac?

LRM exam was over a month ago now. I'm expecting it any day. I'm not expecting anything else until the last week of May, at the earliest.

[Cellar-door]

Anybody remember when their grades came in after second semester? I know it's foolish to expect them this soon (even though the LRM exam was nearly a month ago), but about when should I start compulsively checking Webstac?

Last year Osgood was first on the 19th, most don't come in until very end of May or early June.

[robert88]

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Anybody remember when their grades came in after second semester? I know it's foolish to expect them this soon (even though the LRM exam was nearly a month ago), but about when should I start compulsively checking Webstac?

LRM exam was over a month ago now. I'm expecting it any day. I'm not expecting anything else until the last week of May, at the earliest.

[PeanutsNJam]

Tamanaha has something like 160 exams to grade I'm not expecting to have my final 1L GPA until mid June

[robert88]

He has been working hard on grading them since the exam day, and if nothing else works, he can always use the count the pages grading method, in which case I probably would not blame him.

Tamanaha has something like 160 exams to grade I'm not expecting to have my final 1L GPA until mid June

[KunAgnis]

He has been working hard on grading them since the exam day, and if nothing else works, he can always use the count the pages grading method, in which case I probably would not blame him.

Tamanaha has something like 160 exams to grade I'm not expecting to have my final 1L GPA until mid June

From when I was watching him grade, he was pretty thorough and marked up every page with a pen. Highly doubt he would compromise this method for speed.

[RareExports]

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

[tebowtime23]

Tamanaha has something like 160 exams to grade I'm not expecting to have my final 1L GPA until mid June

That's what I was afraid of. Hoping to transfer, was hoping not to have to wait that long. But you're probably right.

[tebowtime23]

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

I honestly wouldn't put it past them just to hold the grades so that we get them all closer together.

[robert88]

I am saying he could, not he will or I hope he will. He could decide a few weeks down the road that there are just too many exams and the page number seems to correlate well with the scores (which is understandable given the number of issues). Again, he probably would not use the "count the pages" method right in front of you.

He has been working hard on grading them since the exam day, and if nothing else works, he can always use the count the pages grading method, in which case I probably would not blame him.

Tamanaha has something like 160 exams to grade I'm not expecting to have my final 1L GPA until mid June

From when I was watching him grade, he was pretty thorough and marked up every page with a pen. Highly doubt he would compromise this method for speed.

[RareExports]

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

I honestly wouldn't put it past them just to hold the grades so that we get them all closer together.

I'm not saying that doesn't make any sense, but that doesn't make any sense.

[robert88]

The one reason I can think of is that they don't want to look bad for finishing grading earlier than the others. Nobody likes gunners students or gunner professors for that matter.

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

[RareExports]

The one reason I can think of is that they don't want to look bad for finishing grading earlier than the others. Nobody likes gunners students or gunner professors for that matter.

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

As far as I know, quick grading is encouraged among the faculty. The LP and LRM professors try to release grades together, but I don't think once they all finish they wait for the sake of waiting.

[robert88]

I am sorry I meant some professors have the grades ready (my professor does). When you have many professors that need to coordinate to release grades, chances are that someone will be slow, and the others will just have to patiently wait, so are the students.

The one reason I can think of is that they don't want to look bad for finishing grading earlier than the others. Nobody likes gunners students or gunner professors for that matter.

I probably wouldn't expect LP or LRM to be that fast. Rumors are that the grades are out already, but they just don't want to release it so early.

Why would they be opposed to releasing grades early for no other reason?

As far as I know, quick grading is encouraged among the faculty. The LP and LRM professors try to release grades together, but I don't think once they all finish they wait for the sake of waiting.

[WhyYaCryin]

gunner professors

Lol wtf

[acr]

gunner professors

Lol wtf