Ready! Set! Go!: Training for Final Exams
Posted by Aaron on Aug 21, 2007
Preparing for final exams is like training for an athletic competition. Both require long hours of preparation, detailed knowledge of oneself, and a strategy. It can be summed up with where, when, with whom, how, and how long.
Where you study is all a matter of personal taste. For finals, I decided to get the heck out of dodge, move home, and commute back for each final. While I studied exclusively in my dorm room during the semester, I moved home so that I could raid the refrigerator and so that my mom could read me bedtime stories (don’t judge). And, while I slept at home, I decided to do my studying at my alma mater, the University of Delaware. I did this because the last thing I wanted to be surrounded by was a bunch of people, like me, freaking out. At UD, I was mostly anonymous and being there meant I was about 20 minutes away from a television.
When and how long you study is also very subjective. I do my best studying starting in the afternoon and into the night. I would show up at the library anywhere between noon and 4:00 p.m. and stay until the library closed at midnight. The exams were spread out with three days between each. So, the day farthest from an exam would be a shorter day and the days would get longer as the exam approached. I basically lived at the library, but it wasn’t all that bad. I just treated it like a full time job. Unlike midterms, where you’re trying to study and prepare for your classes, the only thing you’re focused on during finals is finals.
Who you study with can make or break your preparation. Generally, I don’t like studying with other people. Things usually end up off track and what would take an hour alone turns up devouring an afternoon. The only time I value working with others is after I have had enough time to see what I can figure out on my own. So, usually two days before an exam, I meet with a few trusted friends and only go over the material that is unclear. Also, these group study sessions can end up confusing things even more. It’s like getting driving directions from four people who have no idea where they are going.
How you study can also determine a lot. What you spend your time doing and how long you spend doing it is all a matter of strategy. With three days to prepare for an exam, I would spend one day reading an examples and explanations book (prepare to drop about $100 each semester on study aids), the second day I would read over my outline and possibly meet for a brief study session, on the third day I would take practice exams and write and re-write rule statements.On the fourth day I would say, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so. I would make two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. I also would make the stars. I would set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And I would see that it was good.” (See Genesis 1:14-19, for a similar story)
Strategy is a big part of finals. What I did on each day was part of my strategy. Getting a lot of sleep and eating well was another part. I made sure I ate a big breakfast before each exam and made sure I took water and snacks to eat during the exam. Some of the exams can last as long as four hours, so some food around the half way mark isn’t a bad idea. My food of choice was craisins and cheese n’ peanut butter crackers. Keeping hydrated is also important, but be careful because taking three bathroom breaks can eat up valuable test taking time. And, while four hours seems like a long time, you will be amazed at how fast an entire morning or afternoon can just fly by.
Just as important is keeping motivated for that big push for your last final. I always proscribed to the thinking that the last exam was the one I should push hardest for; like a sprint before the finish line. My thinking was that everyone else would be getting burnt out. So, because of the curve, the extra work I did for the last final could potentially have the most benefit. I don’t know if that is actually true but it kept me chugging along so I guess it served a purpose.
In a nutshell, you know what works best for you. Have the guts to refuse studying with other people or at places that aren’t compatible with your studying style. Make every effort to create your ideal studying conditions and you’ll be fine.
Feel free to ask questions by emailing aaronsblog@mail.widener.edu or clicking the discuss link.
A Shrink and Law Student Walk into a Bar: Keeping Sane Despite Everything
Posted by Aaron on Aug 21, 2007
Law school can be overwhelming. Actually, overwhelming doesn’t really encapsulate it all. Perhaps a better word is “lklddhalksdfobvvsnlk,” which is a keyboard smash representation for “I am expletive-ing frustrated and I kind of want sit in the fetal position and cry.” To use an analogy, undergraduate is like summer camp and law school is like juvie. There were a lot of times last year when I just wanted to quit. There were times when the simple stress free life of a fast-food employee was appealing; after all, money isn’t everything.
There were some pretty low points to my first year. Perhaps the one that sticks out most in my mind occurred in the fall. It was a Friday night, and I was in the frozen foods section of a grocery store. As I stood there, trying to decide which frozen entree I would sentence to a steamy death in my microwave, I realized that the quality of my evening was solely dependent upon the selection I made. That was the first time I had ever been psychologically dependent on food, and the frozen food section had never felt so cold and empty (well, maybe it had felt that cold but definitely never so empty). In case you were wondering, I think I ended up getting some kind alfredo pasta thing, and my night ended up being so-so.
One of my problems is that when I get stressed, I get reclusive. Living in a single dorm made being reclusive very easy. So, stress plus being alone can lead to some pretty low moments. To combat this, I forced myself to take trips to see friends. A change of scene and being around friends that have no interest in talking about the law beyond the obligatory “hey, how’s school going,” can be a godsend. I also got a hobby. I decided to build a road bicycle. The beauty of building a road bike was that I had absolutely no idea how to do it. So, for four months I researched, accumulated parts, and built it. In the spring, I took it out for my first ride and subsequently my first and second crashes. Having a hobby allowed me to be productive and keep my mind off of school. It was also nice to see real tangible progress, in that each part I got produced a visible result; something that law school cannot always provide. This year I plan on riding the bicycle as my hobby, or maybe clog dancing.
Having a good friend to talk things out with is also amazing. With law school being competitive, it can sometimes be hard to spill your guts to your “adversary.” So if you find that person who knows what you’re dealing with and won’t judge, then keep a hold of them because sometimes there is nothing better than just knowing that someone else is freaking out too.
I guess the one thing to remember is that it gets better. So, just stick it out and wait for the wisdom of hindsight to show you how foolish you were being.
Feel free to ask questions by emailing aaronsblog@mail.widener.edu or clicking the discuss link.
Sprinting in the Dark: Midterm Exams and Assignments
Posted by Aaron on Aug 21, 2007
Midterm Exams come in early October and will occur in at least one of your classes. The six, or so, weeks from day one to exam day seem like forever in August, but the night before your exam you’ll be thinking “Holy expletive, that was fast.” I had what I consider to be three midterms; the one mandatory midterm in my Property class, one professor elected midterm in my Torts class, and a paper due in my Legal Methods class which came at the same time as midterms and was just as hard.
Midterms are your first real challenge in law school. If orientation is riding with training wheels and if the first five weeks of the semester is the wobbly post-training wheels period, then the midterms are like riding a bike race without using your hands. It’s tough because during the time leading up to midterms you are sprinting in the dark. You know you are moving, but you can’t tell whether you are heading in the right direction or where the finish line is. You fumble in the darkness, desperate for guidance, hoping the hours you are spending will bear fruit. You’ve never studied for a law exam, you’ve never taken a law school exam and, for that matter, you’ve never even seen a law exam.
Rather than go through the experience chronologically freak out moment by freak out moment, I’ll just tell you what I learned worked and didn’t work and some other useful-ish information.
The legal methods paper that is due around midterms is the closed memo. It is called a closed memo because the research is provided for you; thus, research is closed. You’ll spend a lot of time in class talking about this paper so for me to hash out all of its requirements would be a waste. As for the tips, first, start early. This seems pretty obvious but writing in a new format can eat up time and there will be little hiccups that slow you down. Second, there is a word limit and I guarantee you that when you finish your first draft you’ll be about 300 words over that limit. So, start writing efficiently from the beginning. This is where that vocab book and phrase thesaurus I recommended for summer reading will come in handy. Chances are you’ll still probably spend more time taking words off the page than you did putting them on it. Third, go to office hours often. The only person that you can really trust to tell if you’re heading in the right direction is the person who will be grading it and, besides, you’re not allowed to work with anyone else. So, go see your professor, ask a lot of questions, and make sure you understand what they want. When I was writing my paper, I kept a piece of paper close and wrote down the questions as they came up, then took that paper during office hours. Fourth, edit, edit, edit, and make sure you know where a comma and semicolon go (see The Elements of Style by Strunk and White).
As for studying for the doctrinal course midterms, first, the core of exam studying in law school is the course outline. The outline is a condensed version of your notes. My outlines consisted of information from my notes, the textbook, and whatever source I found helpful. As with everything in law school there is a strategy to outline making. Some people start their outline very early and add little by little as the course progresses and others wait until the last minute. I take the middle road. I feel that starting super late may put you in a time crunch where you aren’t left enough time to actually learn what you’ve put into the outline. Conversely, I feel that starting super early causes me to forget all the information from the beginning of the year. I have a habit of leaving out information that seems very obvious at the time but when reviewed two months later makes absolutely no sense. So, a month, or so, before exams I work on my outlines. When exams come around, the info is still pretty fresh and I also have enough time to memorize it all.
While outlines are great at helping to memorize all of the rules and exceptions to those rules, a huge part of law school exams are recognition of fact patterns and the application of the rules to those facts. So, tip number two is get a hold of some of your professor’s old exams and practice taking them. However, there is probably only going to be two or so exams on file for you to practice on. So, get a hold of some kind of study aid. I was/am a big fan of the examples and explanations books. They give an easy to read narrative type review of the material and then give practice questions with answers. For tip number three, I would say write and rewrite your rule statements. It’s great that you know what the rule is but, if you just try to free ball it during the exams, your perfectly memorized rules will devolve somewhere between the brain and your pen into incomplete sentences. Also, having the rules already written leaves you more time to discuss its application to the exam facts, which is where you get most of your points. Finally, do not stay up all night. I made this mistake as part of my no regrets policy with myself. My thinking was that, rather than have regrets about whether I spent enough time studying, I would just spend the maximum amount of time. And, while cramming all night may work perfectly well for a binge and purge undergrad essay on the three Punic wars, being fatigued while writing a very analytical exam is another story.
It really all boils down to practice and more practice. My results for midterms weren’t too bad, but I was middle of the pack. At the time I was very disappointed. I remember thinking that I had worked the hardest I had ever worked before and I still hadn’t excelled. But you can’t let little disappointments shape the rest of your law school career. Midterms are all trial and error, and after some errors, you figure it out and you end up being right where you want to be.
Feel free to ask questions by emailing aaronsblog@mail.widener.edu or clicking the discuss link.
Life Beyond the Books, Part 2: Broken Social Scene?
Posted by Aaron on Aug 21, 2007
It is sometimes easy to forget how many changes actually occur when you show up at law school. Sure, your class schedule and living situation change, but unless you had a large contingency of law aspiring undergraduate friends, you’re also going to have to start from scratch on the friend front. And while your professors and class schedule will affect your experience, a group of good friends can mitigate any misfortune your school work may bring.
The first week of law school is a super meet and greet where everybody is friends with everybody. You latch onto the few faces you know. Suddenly, the guy who sat next to you in orientation is your best friend and the girl that lives down the hall from you is your other best friend. As time passes and you meet other people, you realize that friend selection based on spatial proximity may not be the best criteria. It’s an evolving time where you grow closer to some people and further away from others much like any other social situation. Law school doesn’t change how you make friends or what you look for in friends; it just makes you do it again.
Last winter, I went out to lunch with my old rowing coach, who is also a lawyer, and he asked me if there were a lot of cliques. I replied something to the effect of no, and that I just hang out with a few people and don’t really interact all that much with everyone else. Well, I had pretty much given the definition of a clique and feeling very silly, I conceded the point. But looking back, I’ve come up with a better defense. Yes, I did really only have a few people that I was very close to, but I wasn’t close to them at the exclusion of everybody else. It is just a matter of convenience that a large group will break into smaller ones and, while everyone had their groups of close friends, there is a sense of “we’re all in it together” that bonds the whole 1L class. And while there will always be that guy who annoys the crap out of you, there will also be those two guys that make you laugh so hard at lunch that your face hurts, that console you as you walk to your car after a seemingly horrible exam, or even take that late night phone call to listen to you whine about the amount of material we have to learn.
Your friends you make at law school will save your sanity because, after all, they are the only ones that know what you’re going through. Your mom will tell you everything is fine and your other friends will tell you that you’ll be ok but, in the end, they have no idea what they are talking about. The only voice that will bring any sort of comfort will be that of someone who knows what you’re going through, who is suffering right beside you, and who will be there next to you at the finish line.
Feel free to ask questions by emailing aaronsblog@mail.widener.edu or clicking the discuss link.