Finals, et.al.

Wow, it has been far too long since I posted. That's because the marathon that is finals hit me like a caste iron kettle. Everyone warns you: first year fall law school finals are horrific. Well, that's true, but not in the ways most people think. Here's the thing about law school finals: it's mastering a game. Really, that's all law school is in general--learning how to play the game, then learning how to kick it's butt. It's all about studying smart--not studying harder, just smarter.

Outlines: Starting my outlines in October was immensly helpful- it allowed me to consolidate my notes early & often, I wasn't forgetting concepts we learned in September, and best of all, come finals, I didn't really have much work on my outlines to do. So definitely the earlier the better... Once reading period hit, I simply had to make quick sheets off of my outlines. A lot less work at a time when I really could use any help I could get.

Studying: My law school is bizarre in the way they do finals. Basically it's final-off day-off day-final. Repeat cycle 5x, except at one point we had an extra day in between & then the last final we only had 1 day in between. So it works out to the same thing overall. So here's the problem. At the start of finals, you don't think it's going to be so bad... then you take 1 final... then 2... and you start to realize you're getting mentally tired... and then comes the 3rd final, and all you want to do is sleep... So it becomes a game with yourself to try & focus, to push through, to get to the end. I ended up taking the day after a final off, then doing 8hr or so of studying the day before the next one, and that way I wasn't so burned out that I couldn't focus. But yeah, it was a definite marathon. There's nothing to equate it to. I can't even think of anything that felt like that. My Masters thesis didn't even come close...

Finals: Oi. That's all I have to say on that. What a mess. Everyone stuffed into classrooms with their laptops & earplugs, typing like bats outta hell for the entire time period so that they can try & give enough verbal dysentery to pass the course. I only stayed till near the end on one exam... Otherwise, I went in, wrote, and left. I have learned my lesson over time on changing multiple choice answers--DONT DO IT. Never worth it in the end, unless you are 100% sure you picked the wrong thing. And law school multiple choice?! Dear god... profs don't get that multiple choice is NOT short essay. Take CivPro. The prof had about 20pp of them. TWENTY PAGES! It was like having to dive into reading Cell Bio essays & pull apart what is good & what is just total trash writing. It was a nightmare. Those were the worst, though other classes were nearly as bad. Contracts had a long essay on something we barely touched on in class. But such is life, right? I'll write more on actual finals in late Jan, when grades come out. I am not jinxing myself. But, yeah, they went fine... right... A little worried I didn't pass 1 of them... other then that I am feeling sort of ok...