…With exams that is. The week-long writing competition to get on a journal starts tomorrow. But wow, what a relief to be finished with exams! I apologize in advance for this post – I’m no longer capable of higher brain function. The last bit of brain power I had went into my last exam which I finished early this evening.

Exams went pretty well, apart from some minor technical difficulties that lasted for a few panic-stricken minutes. About an hour after finishing my con law exam, I got an email saying the exam file did not upload successfully. But that panic didn’t even come close to how I felt during my property exam when my netbook decided it didn’t feel like loading the exam software. They started the exam without me and then I had proctors trying to help me re-download the exam and re-run the program. I was terrified they were going to tell me I would have to hand-write the exam. That really would have been the end of the world as I knew it. There would be no way I could write a coherent exam by hand. I would fail for sure. But fortunately, my computer got over its bout with PMS and decided to work third time around. They gave me compensatory time so it didn’t even matter in the end.

It really feels incredible to be done with 1L. It went by ridiculously fast. I can remember one year ago looking at the glossy brochure that came in the admission packet. Every now and then I would flip to the last page and stare at the fresh-faced CLS grads decked out in their blue robes looking happy and accomplished. I couldn’t wait till that day. I still can’t. But now instead of it being three years away, it’s only two.

But since I just finished exams only today and haven’t really had time to adequately reflect, I’ll save the deep and meaningful reflection for my next – and final! – post.

I have jury duty next week. I postponed it once already so there’s no getting out of it this time. The last time I was called I was living in Massachusetts and I think it was really close to finals then too. I got out of it by telling them I had family members who were in law enforcement. Hopefully that works this time around too. I actually think I would really like to do jury duty, but it never seems to come at a convenient time, does it?

After the writing competition is over, I have one whole week of vacation before starting my internship. I’m not going anywhere, but there’s plenty to do in the city. Item number one is to repair all the friendships that have suffered as a result of my falling off the face of the planet for the month of May. So many calls have gone unreturned and emails unanswered. Most of my friends are not law school people so they don’t really understand what I was going through. As readers here know, law school exams are unlike anything and if you’ve never experienced them you can’t really understand. So I didn’t really bother to try to explain. I just let them know I’d be off the map until late May.

Congratulations to everyone who finished 1L. ☺

Well, the end of the year is coming and I figured, in case there are any 0Ls still out there paying attention to this blog, I’d post a few of my penultimate conclusions/advice/guidance for all those coming in to law school.

1) work hard. It sounds pretty dumb and maybe even a given in law school. But, to me, 1L year is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint. The problem with 1L year is, you have to be ready to sprint for 24 miles (or however long a marathon is). Maybe I’ve been able to stay up in grades (other than dumb luck …. again, crossing my fingers to keep that lucky streak rolling) because I work pretty hard. There is some advice out there that says, forget about cases, read the outlines/E&Es/hornbooks and learn the black letter law; then learn how to apply it through practice tests.

Overall, that’s pretty good advice. Learning the cases almost doesn’t matter …. almost. But I’ve found students get so wrapped up (especially in the beginning of the year and even this late into the year) in performing when getting called on in class or presenting some novel argument about a particular case’s reasoning, that they get lost in the fray and, come exam time, they are unable to decipher what law to apply where. However, while, as I said, the cases mean ALMOST nothing, there are times on the exam where it is apparent the professor wants you to make factual or analogical comparisons between a hypo and a case previously studied. This is really the only time that cases come in handy and where maybe idiosyncratic reasoning (or even policy arguments) in a case will be relevant.

So, my strategy, so far, has been the following: read the cases during the week and make sure to stay on top of the reading week-by-week (getting behind is the worst feeling ever and always seems to take more time to get back on track than it should). Once I’m on top of the reading, I’ll dedicate all other remaining time to 1) writing assignments when I have them (memos, brief); or 2) outlining. Ideally, the goal is to be completely done outlining at least by the time classes are over for the quarter. The rest of the time between the end of classes and exams is dedicated to (where I haven’t done so beforehand) skimming through E&Es and hornbooks to make sure I: 1) have a handle on some concepts I might not understand (like the entire second half of contracts last quarter); and 2) do tons and tons more practice problems than are available through professors’ past exams and such. So, in short, work hard.

2) think intelligently during exams. This one also sounds dumb, but it might be the only other reason (besides advice point #1 and obscene good luck) that I’ve been doing so decent in school. Take the point of view of a law professor, they don’t want to give you some fact pattern that will be a straight application of some legal doctrine. That would be: 1) too easy (so the curve would be ridiculous); and 2) boring for them. Instead, recognize that they are providing you with a fact pattern that lies between these rules. I think one of the best things to do on an exam is find HOW and WHY the fact pattern does not fit perfectly into one rule or another and then argue both ways (that it does or does not fit under the rule) using details and specifics and intricacies in the fact pattern. After all, every fact is put into this exam for a specific, and often well-thought-out, reason. I try to find that reason and make sure I address it appropriately. Red herrings in these question stems are usually pretty easy to figure out and dismiss and I sometimes hope to find specifics in the facts the professor may have glanced over or not realized it was as important as it may be to the question she/he poses. That’s a good way to stand out and perhaps be rewarded when it comes to grading.

Anyway, hope that makes some sense. Off to outline.

Two exams down, two more to go.

I came out of the con law exam feeling spent but pretty good overall. Ever take an exam and have one of those moments where you map out your whole answer, feel awesome about it, and then realize – oh holy crap, I completely forgot this Incredibly Important Thing? Yeah, I had one of those. At first it was like – whew! That was a close one! Then it was like – well, Jesus – if I had forgotten THAT, I’d be fast-tracking it to C+ land. And then it was like – well what the hell else am I forgetting??

Crim law was a different story altogether. I had certain expectations going into the exam, which was probably my first mistake. Based on the past exams I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but I was wrong. The questions weren’t exactly unfamiliar, but I expected the layout of the exam itself to be different. What’s more, there wasn’t a suggested time limit for each question, which threw me for a bit of a loop. It has been my experience so far that professors generally put suggested time limits for each question and that signals which questions are weighted more heavily than others and thus where you should spend the bulk of your time. Without time limits, I can only assume the questions are weighted equally which terrifies me a bit considering I spent way more time analyzing two questions than I spent on the other. They also had more parts so I find it hard to believe each question could possibly be weighted the same.

I walked out of that exam feeling completely and utterly spent. I walked back home practically zombified. My mind was blank and I felt incapable of higher thought. I got into my apartment and sat down at my computer and couldn’t really remember the walk back from school.

I hadn’t planned to, hadn’t wanted to, but I ended up taking the night off and curled up in bed watching a few stupid movies.

My approach to exams this semester is the exact opposite of what I did last semester. Last semester I was attentive and present and engaged in classes and by the time finals rolled around, I wasted a lot of time and didn’t study very hard. This semester I tried the opposite approach. I skipped a lot of class, hardly ever volunteered, and kept up with the reading in only half my classes. But now that exam time is here, I am studying my brains out. Literally.

I’m completely isolated. I hate studying at the law school (I know, I’m a broken record on this point) so now that I have my air conditioner installed (thanks Dad!) I’ve been holed up in my apartment for days on end emerging only to take an exam or print something. I made a bunch of food before classes ended and subsisted on that, but now my fridge is running on empty. I’ve tapped into the emergency rations – canned soap, oatmeal, and a box of raisins I didn’t know I had. I’m out of soda except for a half a bottle of Diet Stewart’s Root Beer, which I’m saving for when I need a jolt of caffeine-infused happiness.

But it’s almost over. I can see the end in sight.

So, now that the brief is in, which was the worst thing of my life by the way, the only thing between me and the end of 1L year (and, therefore, the end of caring even marginally about law school … if I still care at all) is just about a month away. Only 4 more exams and that’s it. Granted, this will be by far the hardest and most stressful quarter ever — I have just as many exams as I did over the first two quarters combined. For some reason, the school has found it a good idea to focus more than half of our entire 1L grade in the final 10 or 11 weeks or whatever of school. So that sucks for me, but whatevs.

In other news, this past weekend was a blast. Since everyone turned in the brief, we all decided it was time to take a brief (haha) hiatus from working on law school and go out and have some fun. Bar review was pretty amazingly fun and it was nice to see people come out of their shell a little bit just before buckling down one last time to deal with the hazing that is 1L year. Plus, next weekend is Law School Prom, which is going to be amazing. My girlfriend couldn’t make it out, since the event was not very brightly planned on the same weekend as Mother’s Day, but I managed to find myself a plutonic date for the evening (or, she managed to find me). Speaking of my girlfriend, things are progressing pretty well. We’ve been talking pretty much every day and I think things are starting to get pretty serious, which is both kinda scary and kinda exciting all at the same time. Considering she still lives very far away, we’ll have to see where things go from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her out here in Chicago sometime in the not so distant future.

Let’s see ….. we also have some kind of training coming up from the Career Services Office about the Fall OCI. To be honest, I think it’s going to be a huge waste of time (the training, not OCI). I think I’m more partial to the advice I’ve been given by 2Ls and 3Ls instead of the Career Services people. Many of them seem like they are just there to placate students and make them feel like everything is going to be all right. It’s not their fault. Prior to this economic downturn, they didn’t have to do much of anything. Now that things are tough, it definitely seems like they’re trying to scramble to come up with ideas on how to: 1) continue to get Chicago students the same kind of jobs at the same rate (which is impossible); and 2) continue to make sure students think Chicago students get the same kind of jobs at the same rate. So far, they’ve been mildly successful with our class in Goal #2, though most of us are starting to wise up … and some of us are starting to get more and more worried as more and more grades come out.

Anyway, we’re not all as special and unique as our Mom’s all told us we once were. Or, at least, I’m not. Here’s to mediocrity.