Yes, law school is a learning experience, and not just by way of books. I learned a lot about myself and the type of lawyer I want to be.
First semester:
- I skimmed reading, and quasi-book briefed.
- I focused more on my research and writing course than my other four courses combined.
- I relied on other people's outlines.
- I didn't group study.
- I made it a point to work on friendships with classmates.
- I actively participated in professional opportunities on campus.
- I was too proud to ask questions, or admit that I didn't understand concepts.
- I took weekends off, for the most part.
Second Semester:
- I actively read and book brief for all classes.
- I focused on my core courses rather than on research and writing.
- I attended every class, and made no excuses for myself.
- I focused on what my professor's were saying and why they were saying it.
- I let several friendships unfortunately slide so that I could keep up on my coursework.
- I worked every weekend, often in tears.
- I gave myself Friday nights.
- I utilized breaks between classes much better than fall semester.
- I still attended several professional events but I was pickier about which ones to participate in.
- I regularly met with our academic support staff to talk about my studying habits, which I highly recommend.
- I outlined over spring break which lead to my outlines being done prior to finals so that I could study and refine the outline's content.
In all, I studied like it was a sickness. I pushed myself moreso than I ever have before...now I just have to wait to see if it paid off. If improving my studying doesn't improve my grades then I know that I may have to look at how to improve my exam writing skills.
Like I said, I unfortunately let some friendships slide this past semester. Law school is a professional school and in some ways I need to keep that notion of professionalism in the forefront at all times. I learned that it's difficult to balance a social life with law school without looking like a complete "gunner" bitch at times. But it's my choice. This balancing will only get more difficult as time passes, so I may as well start practicing this balancing act out now.
In addition, I'm just now finding classmates that I look forward to hanging out with. That in itself always takes time. It may very well be true that those who are your friends the first year aren't your friends that last year. We'll have to see.
So I've been missing...
and feeling very un-bloggy.
Enough of that! Back to getting some readers!
So, I really pushed myself the last two weeks of finals. I was at the library every morning, ready for eight hours of group study time. It sucked...majorly. However, I'm really glad I pushed myself toward group study because I learned the material so much better than I would have just on my own.
As you know, I asked Nosy Nancy to study with me, which turned out to be a great decision for the both of us. Then another classmate, B, joined us so we were three, and three was a great number. Together the three of us worked on our outlines and talked through concepts outloud. B was great because he always had excellent questions to challenge us.
The three of us worked happily together until the day before our first exam when two other classmates joined us. So my small little group ended up being five people throughout all four exams...and we worked amazingly well considering how tired, scared, irritated and angry we all were.
Our last exam was six hours long, with a three hour multiple choice test (not as easy as you would think). Our professor put copies of a multiple choice book on reserve for us to work through and familiarize ourselves with her style, the only problem was that my fellow classmates liked to hide the copies. In addition, the gunner in our section told me that it was rude of me to take two copies of the book. I looked at her as politely as I could and said hell no, one copy for five people is NOT workable. This is the same gunner who asked six long ass questions of our professor, knowing that we were standing outside her office for close to a half hour.
As much as I tried to be helpful and not resort to childish tactics like that of the gunner and my fellow classmates I couldn't help but feel compelled to travel down that path. This is what law school does to you.
NOW RUN!! RUN AWAY FAST!!!
Since my last final I've been relaxing, cleaning, and spending a lot of time thinking about how I want to approach my 2L year.
I've got a busy summer ahead with room for plenty of postings.
Now I've just got to see if anyone out there is still reading...HOLLA BACK!
I've been a horrible blogger.
You see, there's this thing called law school which has eaten all of my time.
So...
My oral argument went well. Our judges were local attorneys which made me prepare even more. I was very, very nervous about oral arguing and after 12 minutes I couldn't believe how easy it was.
After that, I spent a lot of time on my brief. When it was good and turned in I quickly switched gears into outlining. I'm proud to say that my outlines are all done! Which means I can focus on learning and applying my outlines prior to exams. So far I've completed two exams with two to go!
It's been hell but in a week I'll be done!
However, my summer is crammed with lawyerly-like goodness. :) I'll leave that for later!
