Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Weekly Recap #8

So...it's Wednesday morning and I am just now getting the recap for the week in. Sad you say? Well I say midterms. I had one on Thursday and one on Monday and they were both in their own special way brutal and amazing all in one. First the one on Thursday was my first knock down, drag out IRAC exam. Open book, open notes. I had the information down, but I didn't trust myself so I spent too much time outlining my answer and could only get the minimum information on my actual test paper. Oh I started shaking, I was crying after it was over (yes I was that person who brokedown in front of my entire section), but I dealt (had some ice cream), cried more, slept, and woke up and got over it. I mean I had another midterm to think about plus that particular one is only worth 20%. Every test counts, but I realized that even if I bomb that one my next one (worth 70%) is weighed far more and as long as I do well I will balance out and come out with a decent grade.

Now the next midterm, 60+ cases, over a month of classes, F.R.C.P., parts of Article III of the Constitution, all wrapped up in one 14 question (28 once you factored in the multi-part questions) short answer (an oxymoron really because you have to explain so it's sort of hard to keep things short) test that needed to be completed in 1 hour and 15 minutes. One person finished with 8 minutes to spare, one with five, and the rest were furiously writing until the proctor called time. Not such a good sign, but we knew it was going to be hard. There was a lot of material and very little time. So I complained for a minute, but now I'm like get over it, move on. Everyone had some issues so we'll just have to wait until we get the tests back to see how that curve affects us. But we knew it was coming. Listening to other people I'm getting a little frustrated because it feels like they don't want to take responsibility. They want to blame everything on the professor, but she was just doing her job.

One thing that was pointed out to me by a friend is although law school tests are supposed to test how we work under pressure, when, as an actually attorney, will we ever be given that breadth of information and told we have an hour to do as much as we can? If you have some war stories that can answer that please let me know. Well now I have to get back to the work for the classes that I have been neglecting for the past week so until next week...

1 comment:

  1. I'm not an attorney yet but just knowing what I have heard about billable hours, you best be cranking out what you can in that hour or explain to your client why you couldn't.

    Don't sweat it. It gets easier. I have drawn a complete blank more than once. You learn to just breathe and do what you can.

    One tip that I am sure you probably have heard: study for open notes exams like you won't be able to use your notes. Many time students spend too much time looking at tid bits in their notes instead of just putting what they know from memory down on paper. If you feel you have it well enough from memory resist the urge to look at your notes unless you have time at the end of the exam. Also, I have learned to bring a stop watch into exams. I allot myself a certain amount of time on each question. When my time is up, I move on, even if I am not finished with the question. I can always add more later on.

    Didn't mean to ramble but hope that helps!

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