My orientation days are Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I've been through two days of orientation so far. After I got home on both days I went straight to bed. I'm just emotionally exhausted and stressed out.
Yes, I'm so stressed out that instead of reading, I'm blogging. I know that's not unusual. I don't know how many times I've read, "I should be studying for finals, I should be reading, I should be...." I can at least take some comfort in that, I suppose.
I've bought the wrong books twice - once from the bookstore, once from Amazon. *sigh* That's not helping my stress level. I'm not used to having to buy books from the bookstore, I'm used to knowing what to get in advance and getting it from Amazon and saving a TON.
Orientation has been okay. I've met only *one* person from my section, though. All the C section (ha ha!) people I've hung out with are really nice. It seems as if law school is composed of guys and tan, blonde haired girls.
We have classes with our LRW profs during orientation, so I've met one of my profs. Prof LRW seems nice, relaxed and funny. I even answered one of his questions. I was going to write it down so that I could share it with y'all, but I told myself, "Certainly I won't forget this momentous occasion." Certainly I did less that ten minutes later.
I'm glad that I read about briefing during the summer, because we didn't really go into it in detail. I wish they'd show us something about outlining. I'm not sure how detailed or general to be, only that I need to do it!
So to combat my anxiety, I'm going to put clean sheets on the bed and go for a run. I'm going to put all my law school books on a shelf in the library, just like I did in undergrad, pulling off only the book I need for the next hour.
There's a couple of links I need to add to the 1L advice list. Maybe I'll do that later and actually go read some of them. I know they say to just relax. Maybe that word will sink into my thick, anxiety addled skull. Relax. R-E-L-A-X
I see that I haven't talked a lot about orientation. Maybe I'll do that on one of my study breaks later today. When I do that, I'll be able to discuss the new zen mind I will have developed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Re: outlining- outlining is different from case briefing for class because it's what you'll take into your final exam. That means that you'll only want enough details to jog your memory of the case, but you'll really want to know what the case stands for (the legal rule that it states). My trick was to put a clipart picture next to each case in my notes in class. Then when I went to create my outline, I'd cut and paste the picture and case name, and then summarize the legal principle it illustrates. When I went into the test and spotted an issue I'd think (e.g., on a tort test) "oh! this is an issue of duty! That's like that train case we read." I'd flip to my section of my outline on duty and find the train picture and see that it was the Palsgraf case. Then you explain how duty applies to the test problem and cite Paslgraf.
If you wanted to build your outline along with your notes, you can. I started my outline a month or so into school and it was a good way to refresh my memory. I'd update it every few weeks or so. Your outline should be organized and short enough (about 10-30 pages, depending on the class) so that you can find things very, very quickly. Number the pages and tab it the night before the exam and put a single page Table of Contents on the front.
also, if you can snag an outline from a student who had your professor last year, that can be helpful. Don't rely solely on their work come test day, but you can both a) see more or less how a law school outline is supposed to look, and b) use theirs as a framework and add and delete stuff as your notes lend themselves to doing. This is KEY, as it's the re-reading and analyzing of your notes that's in many ways more useful than the end outlined result. It's not necessary to have an old outline (I've done well and not so well in classes where I've had an outline to work from, just as I have in classes where I've built my own from scratch), but it can be comforting to know that you're not alone in the wilderness of legal knowledge, that someone else has treaded these paths before you.
Section C, Holla'!
No worries, no stress. Believe me, you are smart enough to do this. A key part of law school is learning to weed out the bs, avoid being psyched out, and ignoring other people's neurotic explosions. Red wine helps, too. You can do it. Now, go kick some ass.
GOOD LUCK! You should know that no matter how much advice you get, each of us does things differently. I am in my last year and am still experimenting with different outlining techniques. Perhaps I will try clipart next. Depends on you and the subject matter of the class and the way the prof. tests the material. Regardless, you will have it all figured out by the time you need to:-)
Post a Comment