That sucks considering how important first semester grades are.sebastian0622 wrote:Not only that, going to class means you have to be prepared to discuss the cases in a level of detail that is completely unnecessary and unhelpful. You might get called on and be asked to name minute details of the case. These details have no bearing on the overall point(s) of law that you need to take from the case in terms of preparing for the test. So if you skip class, you don't have to waste the time reading that closely at the risk of being unprepared for class if called on.Opie wrote:Some have said that class time actually hurts them because it makes them think certain things are more important than others because they were addressed in class, when really that isn't true at all.
This is a big part of the reason why you can't tell how good students are based on how smart they sound in class. I probably sound like a jackass in class because I don't study the cases that well, but my grades are usually top 1/4 or so. I don't study the cases that well because they don't help on the test. I use that time to screw off, pace myself, take good notes for an outline, and learn and remember the overall points of law from the cases. My first semester, I probably sounded fairly smart in class b/c I studied the details, but I got by far my worst grades of any semester of law school.
I've even heard horror stories about people who don't prepare for class but still go in order to derail the discussion, send the professor down rabbit holes, etc. in order to improve the curve. They don't care if they get called on because they don't care about looking like a fool.
