UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[thesealocust]

Any other hearsay?

The biggest difference between Nelson and any other class is how much material he covers. We probably covered 2x the material in his class as we did in Coughlin's crim class, for example. Civ pro is already tricky, and wading through so much adds some extra challenge. Otherwise it's mostly just law students being hysterical, as usual.

[envisciguy]

Anyone have an opinion on Secured Transactions with Walt? I got in off the waitlist the other day and I'm trying to decide whether to keep it.

[dixon02]

Well I was told by a 3L Kordana reused an old exam and the answer key had been leaked (was told this happened two or three years ago) and there was a problem with grading as a result and people got credit/no credit grade unless they took a second exam.

Not saying that didn't happen, but if it did and they managed to keep it out of Above The Law, that would be quite the achievement for UVA.

It absolutely happened. It was two years ago when current 3Ls were 1Ls. I have friends who were in the class.

Either a year or two before that, he never graded his exams. Word was he was going through a divorce. Eventually they had to be graded by other professors, including the dean. I don't remember if it made ATL, but there was a post on the now-defunct UVA Law Blog about it.

[pjo]

Looking to buy the book for Negotiation Institute. PM me if you are looking to sell.

[NoodleyOne]

Anyone have Ford-Mazrui for Crim Law that could answer some private questions for me?

[Br3v]

Anyone have Ford-Mazrui for Crim Law that could answer some private questions for me?

I'm getting the vibe all of our crim classes are pretty philosophy heavy in the beginning if that's what your sweating.

[NoodleyOne]

Anyone have Ford-Mazrui for Crim Law that could answer some private questions for me?

I'm getting the vibe all of our crim classes are pretty philosophy heavy in the beginning if that's what your sweating.

That's part of it, but I was hoping to get an idea of what his exams are like, or maybe even take a peek at an outline to see what it looks like in the end.

[North]

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[anon sequitur]

The student bar association maintains an outline bank from previous students. Check to see if your professor's got an entry for whatever class you're interested in. Most big doctrinal classes have several outlines from each professor who has been teaching here for more than a couple years. Some of the outlines are great, some not so much.

http://www.virginiasba.com/Eservices_ol.aspx

[NoodleyOne]

The student bar association maintains an outline bank from previous students. Check to see if your professor's got an entry for whatever class you're interested in. Most big doctrinal classes have several outlines from each professor who has been teaching here for more than a couple years. Some of the outlines are great, some not so much.

http://www.virginiasba.com/Eservices_ol.aspx

Thanks for this. Sadly there was only one outline, and it was over 90 pages long and from 2007, so that's unfortunate, but it looks like they went through a lot of the same cases.

[cfr1225]

I was hoping to get an idea of what his exams are like, or maybe even take a peek at an outline to see what it looks like in the end.

Interested in the same for my Profs, but couldn't get up the nerve to ask.

Anybody have J. Johnston or Barzun for 1L and want to share some inside info? Would be happy to buy draanks for a fellow TLSer.

You can shoot me a message with your Barzun questions and I'll be happy to answer them.

[envisciguy]

The student bar association maintains an outline bank from previous students. Check to see if your professor's got an entry for whatever class you're interested in. Most big doctrinal classes have several outlines from each professor who has been teaching here for more than a couple years. Some of the outlines are great, some not so much.

http://www.virginiasba.com/Eservices_ol.aspx

Thanks for this. Sadly there was only one outline, and it was over 90 pages long and from 2007, so that's unfortunate, but it looks like they went through a lot of the same cases.

Ask your 3L PAs if they know anyone who had KFM for Crim. It's possible that he hasn't taught the class in a couple years though, in which case that 2007 outline is probably the best you're going to get.

I had KFM for Con Law though and he gave us two old exams along with sample answers from past students. I'd imagine he might do something similar for Crim.

[dailygrind]

I was hoping to get an idea of what his exams are like, or maybe even take a peek at an outline to see what it looks like in the end.

Interested in the same for my Profs, but couldn't get up the nerve to ask.

Anybody have J. Johnston or Barzun for 1L and want to share some inside info? Would be happy to buy draanks for a fellow TLSer.

I had Johnston. Not much inside info to share, but I'll note that he's got a strong personality that you either grow to love (I think most did; I thought he was one of my best profs, personally), or you grow to hate (some people don't like numbers or something? I dunno). He'll release a lot of his old tests later in the semester, complete with answer keys, and they'll give you a good idea of what he's looking for in an exam. Also, the SBA should have some decent outlines for him.

[Just]

Anyone had Sinclair for civil pro? How's his exam like?

[desertlaw]

Anyone have an opinion on Secured Transactions with Walt? I got in off the waitlist the other day and I'm trying to decide whether to keep it.

Very thorough but just a tremendously dry teacher that does no cold-calling. So it's easy to drift off and work on your fantasy football team all class-period long. Not sure if the class is really all that helpful for anything but it's on the VA bar, so there's that.

[5ky]

Anyone have an opinion on Secured Transactions with Walt? I got in off the waitlist the other day and I'm trying to decide whether to keep it.

Very thorough but just a tremendously dry teacher that does no cold-calling. So it's easy to drift off and work on your fantasy football team all class-period long. Not sure if the class is really all that helpful for anything but it's on the VA bar, so there's that.

if you want to do corporate, i think secured transactions is a pretty good class to take. it was one of the few i found helpful during my SA

[olive16]

As far as grading and the curve, what's the consequence of electing to do a paper in a class that also has an exam option?

Since sealocust is posting, might as well see if she'll bite.

[cheesus14]

anybody in Crim Investigation with Armacost know if she recorded the first two classes?

[thesealocust]

As far as grading and the curve, what's the consequence of electing to do a paper in a class that also has an exam option?

Since sealocust is posting, might as well see if she'll bite.

Don't have any experience with that I'm afraid. Conventional wisdom is that papers and paper courses were more B+ heavy, but realistically your performance is going to dwarf the impact of the general composition of the curve so it's not worth too much stress.

[albanach]

As far as grading and the curve, what's the consequence of electing to do a paper in a class that also has an exam option?

Since sealocust is posting, might as well see if she'll bite.

Don't have any experience with that I'm afraid. Conventional wisdom is that papers and paper courses were more B+ heavy, but realistically your performance is going to dwarf the impact of the general composition of the curve so it's not worth too much stress.

I took a course with a choice between the exam and a paper. I switched from the paper to the exam at the last minute and did okay - I guess mostly because the class was interesting and I'd been paying attention.

If I was to guess, I'd expect those that did papers would have been further toward the A side of the curve than those who took the exam.

[Br3v]

Cross post from 1L thread but probably way more appropriate for here:
So sometimes I feel like I am just rushing to get my reading done. This isnt because I'm behind, in fact the opposite (which adds to my worrying about it) and sometimes I'm just hurrying up because I want to go hang out or whatever.

How worried should I be about kinda rushing through some of my readings right now? My biggest concern would be skimming over something small that ends up being important but not answered in class.

[BigLawer]

Cross post from 1L thread but probably way more appropriate for here:
So sometimes I feel like I am just rushing to get my reading done. This isnt because I'm behind, in fact the opposite (which adds to my worrying about it) and sometimes I'm just hurrying up because I want to go hang out or whatever.

How worried should I be about kinda rushing through some of my readings right now? My biggest concern would be skimming over something small that ends up being important but not answered in class.

Dont worry about it. You shouldnt be putting in that many hours until October at earliest. Right now just do the reading and take good class notes.

Just wait till 2L, I still havent done a reading

[cfr1225]

Cross post from 1L thread but probably way more appropriate for here:
So sometimes I feel like I am just rushing to get my reading done. This isnt because I'm behind, in fact the opposite (which adds to my worrying about it) and sometimes I'm just hurrying up because I want to go hang out or whatever.

How worried should I be about kinda rushing through some of my readings right now? My biggest concern would be skimming over something small that ends up being important but not answered in class.

Dont worry about it. You shouldnt be putting in that many hours until October at earliest. Right now just do the reading and take good class notes.

Just wait till 2L, I still havent done a reading

Agreed. Shit doesn't get real until post-PILA Auction. I can all but guarantee that nothing significant is falling through the gaps based solely on rushing through reading. Showing up to class and figuring out what the professor wants out of you is the biggest part of the battle. The reading is just glorified hazing.

[plenipotentiary]

I took a course with a choice between the exam and a paper. I switched from the paper to the exam at the last minute and did okay - I guess mostly because the class was interesting and I'd been paying attention.

If I was to guess, I'd expect those that did papers would have been further toward the A side of the curve than those who took the exam.

Papers are a miserable time-suck, but if you elect to write a paper, you can almost guarantee a better grade by putting in more effort, whereas with an exam spending more time studying isn't necessarily going to keep you from getting median-pwned. I think a paper/exam option class (and opting to write the paper) would be a good decision for 1L Spring, as long as you don't procrastinate and front-load work on the paper. If you can get the paper written by, say, March and give yourself all of April to study for 3 exams, you'll be in a better position than many of your peers.

[Yardbird]

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