Posts Tagged ‘studying’

I know I complained earlier in the semester, but things have become positively dreadful here at Harvard Law School. In terrifying display of unity, every first-year female at HLS has stopped putting even the slightest amount of effort into her appearance. I want exams to be over, not because they are stressful or difficult, but because I cannot stand to look at and/or deal with another makeup-less, sweatpants-wearing, sleep-deprived 1L hyper-bitch. And no, I’m not letting the men off the hook either. If I see another guy in slippers, I’m going to fucking lose it. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to wear their sweaty Sharper Image foam slippers outside of the house. YES I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU WILLIAM.

And I swear on mother’s future grave, I think some of the 1Ls are enjoying this shit. There are 1Ls always hanging around campus who I have yet to see studying. I think they are just so into the law school experience that they feel compelled to discuss and analyze every moment of the exam period. They will walk up to you as you enter the door and tell you how they studied all last night and eating microwave popcorn for dinner. It’s irritating and disgusting. If this wasn’t a competition, I might explain to them that if they didn’t spend their days telling people about their late night studying, they probably wouldn’t have to study all night.

Terrifyingly enough, I’m hearing (primarily from the idiot gossips mentioned above) rumors of sloppy, stress-induced lawcest. Every day, I hear something new and ridiculous – like a guy a cheating on his wife with a positively hideous member of his study group after they spent six hours reviewing the incredibly easy torts material. YES I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU SHAWN (SEAN?). Sadly, I’ve been unable to capitalize on this phenomenon. Perhaps it’s because I’ve continued to be a 9.5 on the sad Harvard 1-10 scale? Maybe I’ll stop showering or something.

The upperclassmen, being better than our class in practically every way, do not seem fazed at all by the exam period. They are all of normal demeanor and attire. I guess the change happens over the summer…

So anyways, law school exams are extremely easy. I adjusted my sleeping schedule so that I wake up between 9 and 10 PM. If I have an exam (take home or traditional) the next day, I spend the next ten or so hours memorizing my outline. For one exam, the subject of which I can’t name because it would probably identify my section, these ten hours represented the entirety of my studying effort. I wrote for three straight hours, basically regurgitating the outline, applying the information to the various issues as they revealed themselves.

As I have no way to grasp how well I actually did, it seems foolish to brag about my performance, BUT I DOMINATED THAT SHIT. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be near the top of my class by the end of this semester. Vault 5, how YOU doin’?

Now that the first draft of the memo is in and our mandatory conferences with our LRW instructors is not for about a week or so, I’ve become focused on the disheartening truth that it is in fact several weeks into the quarter and, sadly, finals are just a few weeks away. As such, it is time to get in the habit of preparing. So now, instead of having additional free time since the memo is done, I take that time and use it outlining and reviewing supplements. I haven’t outlined at all since school started and it is actually VERY tedious and boring and yet VERY necessary (from what I understand).

But there is good news. At the end of this quarter, we only have 2 finals. One is in Civ Pro, and the other is in the nebulous, philosophical, and ever-enraging course that is Elements. Remember how I said I just couldn’t handle that people told me: “You either get it, or you don’t” with this class? Well, after so many weeks, I’ve decided I don’t get it. But (more good news) when it comes down to it, this class is worth a very small part of a 1L’s grade and U of C is pretty unique in having this class, which (so far as I can tell) really doesn’t have much if any importance in practicing law — so, in other words, it might not be too hard to explain away or downplay a less than stellar grade in this particular course. So while I’m not saying I’m writing this class off entirely (because I am sure I will do my best to study diligently, outline appropriately, and try to take some kind of practice tests), I’ll say I won’t be disappointed if when grades come back I end up lower on the spectrum than I do in other classes. In fact, I might even be expecting to do not so well in this class.

More good news, last week, to celebrate finishing the first draft of many people’s first ever legal memo, the Law Student Association hosted our annual “Party of the First Part”: a $20, all you can drink party that occurred last Thursday night. It was off the hook! Good times with most of the 1L’s getting good and social and dancing/drinking it up somewhere downtown. I don’t really remember where (not because I was drunk though, because I don’t know the neighborhoods very well). The best part: everyone had class the next day. Which class? Elements! I think there was probably (in total) an entire row absent from the class, which is probably about one-eighth or one-seventh of the class. So, in short, people had a good time . . . even the gunners.

To follow that up, Halloween was Saturday (I know, what a surprise, right?) and once again the U of C 1Ls were out in force for some serious costume-wearing debauchery.

But that was then, and this is now. Another dreary Monday and all the sadness and drudgery that comes along with it. To boot, we have our class’ first Career Services meeting later in the afternoon — certain to increase the dreariness of my Monday, in case you haven’t been paying attention to the economy.

I don’t know what my problem is. I have the attention span of a three year old. I woke up on Saturday at 8:30 in order to meet Dana at a local café to study. She’s taking an undergrad course in biochem in preparation for a master’s degree. We thought getting together would help us stay disciplined. We could act as enforcers to make sure the other one’s attention didn’t stray. Well that was an epic fail. I would say we were diligent for about 45 minutes before we spent the next two hours chatting.

I went home, read the cases for my memo, and took a four hour nap. It should’ve taken me two hours to bang out the outline (due Monday), but five hours later it still wasn’t finished. Rather than take personal responsibility, I blame Facebook. And Google Reader. And now Sporcle. (This last I discovered during contracts when the girl in front of me was playing cool-looking games on it during class.)

I suppose I could always try to study in the library. I haven’t set foot in there once since arriving at law school. My problem with that is they don’t let you bring in food or water, except in this library-sanctioned cup that’s too small to hold anything. I also hate the idea of unpacking all my study things, spreading them out, organizing them in my typical OCD-fashion and then having to put it all away and take it with me if I have to go to the bathroom or get a snack. (Campus police sent around an email the other day about someone coming into the law school and walking out with someone’s laptop and messenger bag so leaving my stuff unattended is not an option.) I like working at home because I like having access to my stuff and my bathroom and my food. And I can lounge around in not-suitable-for-the-outside-world comfy clothes.

But home is where all the distractions are. Even without a subscription to cable, I’m able to waste an insane amount of time on the Internet, Simpsons DVDs, various little home projects that suddenly take on an importance they don’t have when I don’t have homework…I’ve taken to spreading my reading out on the floor and doing it there. (I learned in undergrad that reading in my bed was a recipe for disaster. Took four years of getting no reading done, but feeling remarkably well-rested, for that message to sink in.) I figured there’d be no chance of nodding off on the floor, but I was wrong. And when I work at my desk, I can’t resist things like this.

So I haven’t quite worked out the best study arrangement yet.

Friday night I met a couple friends at my favorite bar in the city to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game. They left in the middle of the sixth inning, but I stuck around for the whole game. I met a guy who works as a bartender at a new place in Alphabet City and promised I’d bring a bunch of girls there next weekend.

In other news, living above a restaurant sucks. I know, shocker of the year. Usually I’m not home midnight on a Saturday, but I have a feeling it’s only the first of many, this being law school and all. So not only do I have to deal with the kitchen workers blasting their Spanish techno at 6AM every day, but also the extra decibels no doubt justified by the fact that it’s Saturday. The bass reverberates throughout my floors and I don’t know what to do. It’s still relatively early on a Saturday night (or, I guess Sunday morning is more accurate) so I don’t know how unreasonable I would be to request that they turn it down a bit. Also, it’s not really worth getting dressed to run down there and yell right now. Eventually, when it reaches the I Just Can’t Take It Anymore point, I’ll go down there in a bathrobe, shower cap, and shake a rolling pin at the unruly brats in true old lady fashion.

I had a pretty low-key weekend that consisted mostly of reading for class. In Civil Procedure, we’re behind in the syllabus so (like any normal person) I allowed myself to fall behind in the reading and made sure I only read as much as we were likely to discuss in a given class period. But on Thursday the professor threatened to catch us up in the syllabus this week so I wanted to make sure I had it all done.

Friday I had dinner in Union Square with my friend Jaye. She and I went to college together but didn’t really become friends until after graduation since she was the only person I knew who stayed in Boston; I convinced her to move to New York last year. After dinner, I ventured out to Brooklyn to see her new place in Cobble Hill (Sidebar: I’m in love with Cobble Hill.) and meet her new cat. We saw District 9 finally (loved it), got some Tasti, and parted ways. Saturday was devoted exclusively to Civ Pro reading. I went to bed fairly early and was up by 7AM on Sunday due to the musical stylings of Daddy Yankee reverberating throughout my apartment. (I suspect the kitchen workers from the restaurant I live above are to blame, but no proof as of yet.) I spent Sunday with Rachel, one of my best friends from undergrad who recently moved out to NYC from LA, studying in a coffee shop. We spent 7 hours and $22 there and I managed to get through all my torts and contracts reading. Admittedly, our studying was constantly being interrupted by bouts of conversation and catching each other up on all the various dramas recently experienced. But still, a productive day.

Exciting things going on around school this week include no Contracts for the rest of the week (!!), Legal Research being added to my schedule, the first TA session (Civ Pro) of the semester, a public interest social event, and a review session for the Legal Methods final exam. This last is on Friday at 5:10PM, an inherently hostile move on the part of the professor, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that having the session at such a heinous time came down to room reservation issues and not some personal hatred for us. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be there any more than we do at that hour. But the Legal Methods final is next Friday and as a result, Thursday and Friday classes are canceled next week so we can study. I can’t believe it’s already that time.

I must confess I haven’t gotten into the habit of attending club events and lunchtime presentations (with the requisite free pizza). I tend to keep my participation in non-class engagements restricted to those that bear the word MANDATORY in the email subject line. But I was excited about a public interest fair going on last week. I thought it might be fun to get involved in a pro bono project and start chipping away at my 40 hours requirement as soon as possible. To my dismay, the ONE organization I was interested in was the only organization that didn’t show. I wasted some time in the computer lab and checked in again, but she still hadn’t arrived so I got her contact information from an administrator and went home. After thinking about it some more, I figured there’s no chance in hell I’m getting a paying job this summer so it’s more than likely I’ll knock out those 40 hours within one week of starting whatever internship I manage to get. So I might as well not make things any more difficult for myself by starting a volunteer project this semester.

I’m officially not allowed to start thinking about the summer until November 1, but unofficially, I would ideally like to work for a judge. Unfortunately, working for a judge doesn’t qualify for the public interest summer stipend CLS offers so unless there’s some other funding out there I don’t know about (anyone??), that leaves me stretching my financial aid award into lasting 12 months as opposed to the 9 months the financial aid powers-that-be say it is to last. I just don’t know if that’s feasible. It’s hard to tell at this point what, if any, amount is left over after my monthly expenses since it’s still relatively early and I had some startup costs to deal with so September isn’t really a representative month. But I think ultimately I’m going to have to find an internship that qualifies for CLS public interest funding.

But it’s way too soon to be concerned with that. There are more important things going on right now…like the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother. Until next time…