Study Group

I broke down. I made a study group. Maybe it was the subconscious input from profs alll semester. Maybe it was me not wanting to have any regrets or excuses once the semester is done. Whatever caused it, I made a study group. There are 3 of us. One is a guy, smart but not egotistical, who finished college at a DC school in 3years--definitely has a bit of a brain. The other person is a girl who's sweet, smart (another DC school grad) & keeps the guy and I focused and down to earth. We will probably all end up with 3 different grades in all the classes, but all of us are studious, so it makes the group work. Also, we tend to take pretty complete notes, so we can always plug holes we have.
I broke down and made a study schedule for the group in Excel. I had to. Looking at the tick-tock, I couldn't see how we were going to fit everything in and still have time to study, sleep & eat. So hence the schedule. When we're going to meet, what we're going to talk about, how far outlines should be done... it's really a method to make sure we get to everything and that we aren't tired and stressed by the time we sit to take the final.
The school has spaced our finals out really annoyingly. 2 weeks, a final every 3 days until the last one, then it's only a 1 day break in between. I am sure they do it this way so that we have enough time to sleep & study in between finals. Really, it is just irritating because I would like to get them all finished and go to the family home for the holidays by the 15th. But that isn't going to happen...

Back to the study group though... right, so how much faith do I put into a study group? If nothing else, it's great because I know my outlines are on track and I didn't miss anything. I also can tell if my outlining methods are going to work, or if they are going to be wacko and need changing (already found 1 I need to totally edit). Sometimes I feel like I am doing the same work twice... but I take it like this: The more times I go over the stuff, the better chance I have that *any* of it is going to stick. And by any I mean hopefully a lot..

So I'll update more as our study group really winds up into full swing... for now, it looks hopeful.

Tick-Tock

Everything now is about the clock. Beating the clock, learning how to use the clock, keeping an eye on the clock to not let it destroy you... but it's all about the clock.

• 23 days before finals are over and I can sleep for 2 weeks.
• 5 classes left before Thanksgiving break.
• 6 Contracts, 7 CivPro, 4 Property, 4 CrimPro, & 4 Torts Classes left in total.
• 5 finals to go
• 5 outlines to finish
• 300pp still to read (all the profs seem to speed up at the end because they lollygagged too long during the semester)

Stressed? No, oddly enough I am not stressed at all. Maybe that's a good thing. I won't know until late January how my new and improved "no stress finals" plan worked. For now, I watch the clock and wait...

Anti-Climatic

So last week turned out to be insane. I don't really know if I will recover from it ever, but if it's any indication that recovery is a long way off, I took the entire day off yesterday (unheard of) and spent it doing nothing of importance (by the way, I don't recommend going to any shopping areas the Saturday before Thanksgiving).
Why was last week so insane? The Memo. Yes, the dreaded memo. It's done now-- 18 hr, 20 emails to the prof, an hr citation session with the TA... but it's done. Is it good? Uhhhh no. But it's done. And turned in. I am sure I could have made it better if I had tweaked it more, or somehow made it clearer. But there comes that time when it's just better to let it go then to try and work with it anymore. So Thursday night at 8pm I printed it out and was done... turned it in at 8:26AM on Friday. Not that I was looking at my watch or anything (that's 4 days and 4 min early for anyone who's counting). But it was done. It was like turning in my thesis--completely anticlimatic. All that hard work and effort... for what? Nothing. It was just done and finished. I won't know till the end of January what I got on it, but do I really care? I dunno... I would like to say "I don't care at all what I got because I know I did a good job on it..." But I do care. A bit. Ok, a lot a bit. I want to do well on it. I want to get an A in Legal Writing. Ironically, I am fine with getting a B in every single class as long as it isn't Legal Writing. Weird, no? But it's done & over now. That's 1 class done, 5 more to go.

FIVE?! Yes, FIVE. Unlike most other rational law schools, mine does year long blocks for every class. Insane? Apparently it's to help us retain the info more. Really I think it's just to torture us with 5 finals both semesters. Ugh. More on this later.

For now I am going to stare out at the rainy sky on this Sunday and marvel at the fact that I still feel numb, 48 hr after finishing the biggest assignment I have done in 2 years...

Autumn Leaves & Time

So everyone always laments about not having balance in their lives during law school-- about living, breathing, sleeping school. But really? It's all about choice, it's about what you CHOOSE to do and when. It's simple: everyone has the same number of hours in a day, they just use them differently. Personally, I know the importance of eating, sleeping & exercising-- nothing can substitute for a good night's sleep, it just doesn't work. There is also nothing that substitutes for a good run outside on top of the wet asphalt covered in fall leaves--there's something mystical, head clearing... something so basic about it that just makes stress bleed off.

But I digress yet again. So I just don't get it when kids lament about not having time to do things. They seem to have enough time to go out and party and drink and hang out with friends... that's the way they choose to spend their down time. So how exactly should I feel bad for them when come the weekend they have a ton of work to do? Or when they are up late trying to catch up on reading? Yeah... my sympathy level? Zero. Maybe I should go out and party... but you know what? That's never been an interest of mine. I just don't get it. I love going to a wine bar with a few girlfriends, or a sports bar with my man, but otherwise? Just to "go out"?? Uhhhmmm nah. No thanks. I choose to spend my time elsewhere. I like to chill out and let my body relax during my down time.

So why does all of this matter anyway? Because it's memo hunting season. And it's just starting to get interesting. Outlines are due tomorrow, and then on Nov 20th memos are do. It's like watching a social experiment--watching the procrastinators, the spazzes, and then everyone else in between... I get a good chuckle out of it and sometimes will add a little fuel to the fire to just watch it flame up. But really, I am so far past the spazzing over 1 assignment that this whole memo thing doesn't have me even concerned. It's meant to be an exercise in writing and an exercise in time management. A little a day. Didn't anyone every read the "Tortoise and the Hare" when they were little? Can't write it in a weekend-- you have no perspective, you lose ability to really pace and think things through. I don't want to post yet just how far I have gotten because people will be pissed one way or the other. But suffice it to say, next Monday and Tuesday (19th & 20th), I will be sitting on the sidelines smiling and watching the social experiment really peak. In the meantime, I'll keep plowing through... bit by bit... and running on the wet, leaf covered asphalt.

The Memo.

Let's talk about The Memo. It deserves caps, it really does. It's a nightmare. It seems so easy: Take the assignment, do some research, find some applicable case law, statutes, codes, whatever and then write a 15pp paper on it. Simple, right? But no. First is the problem that you have to write it in a specific legalese format... Conclusion, Rule, Explanation, Analysis, Conclusion (again)... and the sections have to be in a specific order. Second problem is that of course the assignment has all these twists and turns and little things that cause headaches. It's a lot like trying to write a term paper about the astrobiology of Mars. The astro-whaaaaat? Yeah, exactly. You have to learn everything about the background of the topic, the judicial & legislative history, the background of the client... all before you can even write.

I am at the cusp of writing, at the point where I am peering over the edge of the cliff, waiting to jump off... waiting for what? The right wind, the right moment. I take a deep breath and dive...

The Dreaded Memo

So it's 1L Memo writing season across the country. Imagine it like this: take your most dreaded seminar paper you ever wrote, add in your most dreaded manuscript you ever wrote, add a dash of a horrid topic and whamo, you have the Memo. It's the "term paper" for all 1Ls, that one little piece of writing that we all dread and will probably loathe even long after we've turned it in. Why is it so bad? Because it brings out all of our insecurities about legal writing. Sure, we've spent the semester doing various attempts at writing a good memo, but those weren't graded. This one, this one little Memo, determines our entire grade for legal writing and with it, a lot of other things. If you aren't good at legal writing, employers are going to notice. If you aren't good at legal writing, it's going to be hard to make Law Review or to give employers a good writing sample. A class that is just 1.5 credits basically becomes the class every 1L loves to hate. You can can feel it in the air, you can hear it in the way people talk-- the memo is the real unknown, the real thing that will shake the confidence of even the most overly-confident 1Ls... it's what will level the playing field. It's the one thing that everyone has heard about and everyone fears.

Too dramatic of wording for a simple paper? Come visit a group of 1Ls here right now and you'll see. In the meantime, I am going to go bang my head against my laptop and stare at the blinking cursor, which is calmly beating at 82 blinks a minute.

Cyclical Ridiculousness

So just when I was ready to actually conquer the day, it happened. The Wall. I call it The Wall, but really it's the 2hr block of time that I have CivPro and Contracts back to back. It's The Wall because I always hit it and it always flattens me on my butt. I wish I could pretend like it doesn't but no, it really does. First off, there's CivPro. And today was one of the bad days. He gets started on a subject that at face value isn't difficult-- removal jurisdiction-- but then goes off on tangents, gets complicated, loops back on himself 100x. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so frustrating. It makes me want to cry, makes me want to scream, makes me want to throw my thick book at him and demand that he focus himself for 50 minutes. But yet, I sit there, trying valiantly to follow along as much as possible, trying to take notes. At the end of class today, I realized my 1pp of notes made NO sense. Sighs. Am I the only one lost and frustrated? And then part deux of The Wall happened. Contracts. Ok, he asks a question, no one answers, so I raise my hand. He totally ignores me, says "let's hear from someone we haven't in a while." Dude, there are only 40 people in the class, and I don't want to go through a cycle of student answer-prof blithering-student bumbling-prof smirking. So I raise my hand. Whatever. I shouldn't bother. That's another class I do better with not going to class. And I don't understand what's so hard about Damages. Look at the contract, look at who breached and why, look at the difference in the two parties now. Viola. Magic. I think it's become so complex because he's gotten so far into the weeds that we're examining soil types (hang in there, I know that was a science analogy). Ridiculousness. And today he then speeds through Liquidation Damages at 100mph so we can move on. What was that all about? And let's not forget that with the Observer (think "Tenure committee watchman") in the back of the room the past 2 classes we've actually had a differently behaved prof. Can't wait for Wednesday and another round of The Wall.

Exams on the laptop

Dear god this stuff has become so sophisticated. What ever happened to bluebooks? The Exam software we individually upload on our laptops ends up taking 90% of the "fun" part out of the exam. I mean, how stressed can you really get when you're sitting there clicking away on your own laptop? And there's a countdown timer, it auto-saves, it will give you reminders when time is running out... Pretty much it's dummy proof. I am somewhat sad, because where am I going to find my humor now?? I can't laugh at everyone! Nor will my hand be cramping every 5 min during finals. And it auto-formats your font. Pretty much, all you gotta do now is type the stuff in and spell it right. They even have accounted for issues on exam day--they sit outside the classroom if you have tech issues and you can hand your laptop over and they'll fix it + give you extra time at the end that you lost while your laptop did it's malfunctioning.

Ahhhhh technological bliss...

Contracts

Someday we're going to talk about Offer/Acceptance and Formation of Contracts. Someday. But until then, I'll be content knowing how to calculate just how much money someone gets if the other party breaches the contract. Ironic if you think about it--we don't know how to make a contract, but we can figure out how to get money out of it when it breaks. Reminds me a lot of the centrifuge (think big machine that spins things really fast) in the lab--never knew how it worked, but boy I knew what to do when it broke. I called the repair guy.

1-800-cnt-brch, anyone?

Maybe next semester we'll actually learn how to make a contract. Or, if we all believe our cynical professor, maybe we'll just make $300k/year and make some lowly paralegal write it for us.

Cynicism is a great thing, isn't it?

Civil Procedure

Let's discuss Civil Procedure (we call it "CivPro"). It's 1/3 of the 1L class in size (about 80-100). My professor has clearly taught the class for a few too many years. He stands up at the alter (ok, it's really an elevated platform with a podium, but it feels like an alter) and gives 150min of oratory over the course of the week. I originally chose a seat about halfway back--just where I like it. I can keep a cautious eye out for what's happening both with the subject matter and with the rest of the students, but I am not in the prof's line of fire or eye contact. Anyway, so he has a seating chart with our names and pictures on it. For the first 2.5 months, the girls were all safe--he ONLY called on males. Imagine the groaning and gasping shock of all the females in the room the first day he said "Doe, Jane." We were no longer safe from the firing squad. Not that it matters really. He randomly calls on students and then whether or not they get the correct answer, spends 10 min in oratory about the topic which is in some way suppose to relate to the question he asked. I'd say that I could follow him, but I am lucky to follow about 25% of what he says. And I have discovered that it is quite common for everyone else to have the same percentage. He constantly circles back around on his point over and over again.

And that brings me to my problem in that class. I just can't pay attention. First of all, the school installed wireless internet. Brilliant. So the temptation to talk on IM or email during class is high. Second of all, I can't pay attention because the more I listen, the more confused it becomes. He discusses a case, then goes off on hypothetical questions for days on end. Commercial outlines don't help the situation at all-- they just reiterate the fact that he's blithering on and on and on. My notes have progressively gotten shorter, my briefs down to about a paragraph, if that. It's the one class that I dread going to-- I never know how bad it will be any given day. And I have tried to participate, but he just twists whatever you say around and around until everyone is left confused.

And let's be honest: the topics we cover are classic and not all that hard to understand...in personam/subject matter/in rem/federal/diversity/removal jurisdiction...It's November and I am seriously starting to wonder if he won't dream up some other jurisdiction just so we never move onto another topic. Apparently next we're going to be talking about "Venue". That's if we ever stop talking about jurisdiction. It isn't a hard concept, really. You have jurisdiction if a-b-c-d apply, if e-f-or g apply, you don't. Look at the statutes. Look at the rules. Look at the cases. Evaluate and conquer. Not a lot of brain power required. But the way he presents the material drives everyone up the wall and I think some of my classmates might be nearing insanity.

I look around the room during class, and I'd say maybe 10% are paying attention. Some are just relying on self-teaching, commercial outlines, old student outlines, etc. to get them through the class. I have a ethical issue doing that--first off, I am paying $35k/year, so I am going to get my money's worth. Second of all, you never know when he's going to say something that is actually valuable/relevant. What other people (commercial or former students) think is valuable or helpful might not be at all for you. So isn't it worth it to pay attention in the class? At least as much as your sanity will allow?

But the class is definitely draining. I need caffeine or sugar to get through it, and at the end my head hurts and I just want a nap. 13 left to go. Then the dreaded final.

5 weeks and counting...

We're more than halfway. Good and bad depending on how you look at it. 5 weeks of classes, then 2 weeks of finals, then this first semester is over. In my view it's a good thing-- only 13 more classes of CivPro torture, only 7 more weeks until I get a weekend off without feeling guilty about it. Of course, the other side is only 5 more weeks to catch up on outlines and to really figure out if I understand what we've been talking about for 4 months, or whether it's all just a great illusion.

Everyone warns you before you start law school about the immense reading load and briefing you have to do, and the Socratic Method style of teaching that leaves some 1Ls wishing they could curl up and die. Everyone has seen "Paper Chase" and "Legally Blonde", read "1L", read blogs, talked to friends/family/pets/4th cousins removed. I just haven't really found much of that to be true. Perhaps it's because I am 4 years out of college, perhaps it's because of my anal retentive organization and planning skills. Perhaps it's simply that I never give in to hype. Whatever the reason, I just haven't ever felt that "1L pressure" that's so blogged and written about. Sometimes I'll sit and wonder if maybe I am not doing enough, if perhaps I am not working hard enough. But then I look at my planner, look at my outlines and realize that I am just fine. It's a strange feeling to have when so many of my fellow classmates are struggling to keep their heads above water.

I look back at college and realize that my time management skills kept me afloat back then-- between activities and classes, there's no way I would have been able to keep up with everything unless I pro-actively finished assignments early and kept up. It also was always making the decisions between reading for Class A or Class B, studying more for a test or going to class... Luckily, I seemed to have a knack for making the right decisions back then... So maybe that still holds true now... I guess in 7 weeks we'll know. At that point I will either have sank or swam and this first semester of the journey will be behind me.