Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes: Fall Grades & Spring Semester.

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

Well as you can see I completely suck at keeping up with posts. My winter break was all that I wanted it to be.... A BREAK. I caught up on sleep, started Gossip Girl, and was happy to be nothing but a bum considering how drained I was after my first semester of school. 

Once again I had planned to catch up on posts but I just didn't have it in me to go back through all that happened in the Fall. In all honest,y after finals, I was completely distraught. I didn't know how I did on my exams but I can tell you how I felt about them... disappointed. anxious. frustrated. To say the least. The last thing that I wanted to do was sit down and write do's and dont's for law school when I didn't even know where I fell on that spectrum.

How could I give advice on how to succeed if I ended up doing poorly?  That would be too hypocritical for me liking. So I've waited until now to go at it.

Fall semester I did decent - I ended up with a 3.2 overall which, while I am not completely okay with, my goal was to get a 3.0 my first semester and work myself up from there.

So why do I not sound so thrilled about this 3.2 GPA? 

I just don't feel like I put my best foot forward my first semester. I got distracted easily - it was much easier to push work to the side to go out to Law Society Socials or hang out with friends during the week than it was to put my head in a book and get shit done. But I think this in part had to do with the fact that my 4 years of undergrad consisted of papers and thats about it. I never had to sit down and outline an entire semesters worth of material for a cumulative exam.. I was lucky if I even had an exam. So it was one of those things where I constantly found myself thinking "I've got time, I can do it later" WRONG. SO UNBELIEVABLY WRONG. You have to keep up with outlining, reviewing and talking about the material in order for you to understand the material and apply it to new fact patterns.. its how you learn the law. 

 I got that "THIS ISNT UNDERGRAD" wake up call towards the end of the semester when preparing for finals kicked my butt to say the least. I didn't even feel prepared for my contracts exam... I actually almost started a full on break down during the exam. But by some good graces of god I did okay. 

Lessons learned?

I got lucky and ended up with a decent GPA for what feels like a total lack of effort on my part. But I'm turning that into a positive and letting it fuel me for this spring semester. I've already made some changes that have been working out so far... 

1. SET GOALS
2. Read for the week on F - Sun.
3. Review HW Notes for each class during day
4. Print out Class Notes and HW Notes at the end of the week
5. Outline at the end of each chapter
6. Organization! 
7. SLEEP

If you don't have an end goal in mind, then what are you working to achieve? A little blunt but it's true. I set myself a goal... gpa of at least a 3.0 and I worked towards it. I may not have felt as accomplished as it may "appear" but I still accomplished that goal. Goal setting is basically setting a threshold... I don't want to fall below XYZ, I want to do XYZ. Just writing them down and putting them in  place where you can see them often is a good way to constantly remind yourself what it is your working for. Every time I see my current goals, I get excited. Its the reminder I need to push harder. 

Last semester I read day by day and for the most part it worked but this was only because my professors got behind on material easily and reading to far ahead would hinder rather than benefit. But i decided this semester I was going to read the weeks worth of material over the weekend and see how it went. So far it has worked out.

F - Criminal Law and Negotiations

Sa - LCR and Con Law

Su - Property (I seriously need a whole day, sometimes two)

Obviously, this schedule doesn't always work out but I have been trying really hard to getting at least two class' worth of reading done on Friday and Saturday. I still believe in giving yourself a day off, or at least a night, from law school because you need to re-charge and prepare for the week ahead. 

Like I said last semester reading ahead just wasn't worth it to me. I would read for each class the night before and take notes. I wasn't reviewing what the day's readings were about and it really showed considering how half the time I felt lost or zoned out. By reading over the weekend, I have time before each class to sit down and go through my HW notes to prepare me for class. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine, she asked how the work load for the semester was and I told her "insane... I literately have to prepare for each class as if I'm walking in to take a test" but its true. This semester a few of my professors have a thing for pop quizzes - its wonderful... -  and their style of cold calling is more in depth than it was the first semester. But I don't mind it because it forces me to really hone in on what in the world is going on.

Organization is KEY. Last semester I was not organized. The whole first semester of law school, and even the second, is a trial and error period for most. You're figuring out what works and what doesn't for YOU as a student.. what your peers do doesn't matter.. you can try it but if it doesn't work don't be afraid to get creative and try new things.

One of the goals I had set for this semester was staying organized and on top of the material. To do that I purchased two 2" binders to keep all class related materials in. Two classes per binder, divided up in sections for Class Notes, HW Notes, Outlines, Additional reading materials or any class specific sections. So far I have been consistently printing out all of the previous weeks notes, for both class and hw, and organizing them. It really has helped with outlining - even though I have only had the chance to outline for Property at this point. 

SLEEP. I cannot stress how important it is to sleep yet alone to take care of yourself. It seems so obvious but its easily forgotten. Perfect example... its only the end of week 4 and I am just getting over a cold... yes the weather here has been bipolar BUT its nothing new so the chances of me having a cold that is related to the weather is slim to none. But the chances that it is related to my body hitting its breaking point is highly likely. I have been getting maybe 5 hours of sleep each night.. going to bed around midnight to have my lovely alarm go off at 4:45am. But sleep is not enough... you need to eat good portioned meals and drink water which I suck at doing.. I just forget to eat and I know that it doesn't help with the whole taking care of yourself in the mind, body, soul kind of way. Im working on it though... in fact I had to invest in melatonin for those nights when I just cannot pass out. so far so good.

Break = Break

Its finally winter break… I cannot being to tell you how excited I am to just HIBERNATE for these next four weeks: catch up on some long over due sleep, Netflix, maybe read a book, gym.gym.gym and spend time with the pup - I feel like I've barely paid any attention to him (thanks mom and dad for dealing with his spastic ways). I’ve never been so exited to just do absolutely nothing but lay in bed. I honestly can’t rememberer the last time i’ve had nothing to do… I think it was June? 

I feel like a broken record when I say this but I cannot stress enough how important it is to take care of your health when going through any higher education program. If you aren't at your best, your work won't be either. While thanksgiving break wasn't much a break, winter break is. There’s no class, no homework/readings/test, no papers. You’re free for about 3.5 weeks or so. The final days of break - if not early, will be spent preparing for the first week of spring semester.

It’s not allllll netflix and sleep

Although while 90% of my break will be spent resting up, there are a few things that I need to knock out:

BOOKS

this has been nothing short of a hot mess. thankfully i don't need as many as i did the first semester - i don’t have to buy any new books for LCR II. But the books that i do need have been such a pain in the rear to get; Property is a custom book and they only print so many at a time - I ordered it when the professor released it, it was back ordered so now I'm waiting to find out if/when I can get it. Criminal and Constitutional Law both require the 2016 edition which wasn't released until December 16th… the day of my last final. I got on December 17th to order and they were sold out of both of them… I still but in a purchase ordering but yet again I'm waiting to find out if/when I’ll get them. Although I did have luck with my elective - Negotiation - the book was only $10 brand new - why cant they all be than cheap?! and it came in the mail yesterday… Is it sad that I already want to read through it… uh yes.

Resume

THIS IS A MUST. The resume you used for your undergrad and even your law school application has to be reworked. Thankfully, our student life office has a pdf document that we can use as a guideline. I’ll be sure to do a post just on resume’s once I start it next week.

Office Makeover

I was fortunate enough to have my parents agree to turn my old room into an office space. Over the summer, my cousin and I made a wall length desk that I am absolutely obsessed with but I never got around to doing the finishing touches for the whole room - large white board, new storage cube, organization bins, binders, etc.

Revisit final LCR paper

This is also a must. At least for me, the final LCR paper is the one I will be using as my writing sample for externship/internship applications. I want it to be in tip top shape. Even though we haven't received our grades/ papers back, I plan to edit the final I turned in and fix it up as much as I can, then combining that with the edit from my professor.

Any supplies for next semester

Readings/Notes for the First week or so

Winter Break Plans?

Sleep. Netflix. Gym. CHRISTMAS. A good leisure read. Four weeks is probably going to fly by but its completely okay. It’s only my 4th full day of break and I already feel re-energized and myself again… Those last two weeks of finals was draining. I felt like a complete zombie, scattered brained and frazzled to no end. I even made sure to get at least 5 hours a sleep at night - I literately cannot function on 2-3 hours a sleep like most, I would have been setting myself up to fail.

But with break sleep is endless along with Netflix. Speaking of which I’m hoping to find a new show to dive into because I’ve watched the vampire diaries about 4 times through already and I don't know if I can do it again just yet. So here’s a list of a few “law related” shows that have caught my attention:

How to Get Away With Murder

The Deep End 

Conviction 

Law and Order SVU (definitely an all time fav.) 

As well as a few random shows that have been recommended to me:

Parenthood

Black Mirror 

Gossip Girl 

The Originals 

The list is full and the time is short.. I am definitely going to start with HTGAWM and possibly parenthood or gossip girl which ever I enjoy more after the first episode. But I also want to get through a book or two as well because leisure reading is hands down one of my hobbies.. I’m a sucker for a good fiction novel and have my eye on a few:

The Whistler - John Grisham

(all of his books are based around the legal profession & extremely hard to put down once you pick them up)

A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

Never Never - James Patterson and Candice Fox

I hope that all of you enjoy your break and take the time to RELAX once the holiday madness is over.   Go sledding, ice skating, coffee or a movie with friends, or be like me and spend time in bed with Netflix. whatever it is, enjoy it and take advantage of it. YOU'VE EARNED IT.
Happy Holidays && Enjoy this time with the ones you love!
xoxo H

Where Do I Even Begin?

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

Honestly, I don't even know how to remotely approach the crazy ride that I took a front seat on for my first semester of law school. There were so many twists and turns, successes, failures and lessons learned that will definitely shape my approach to tackling the spring semester. Over these next 4 weeks, I plan to dump it all on you so be ready because there's a lotttttt - && because I don't plan on doing much over break other than netflix, blogging and hibernating.

"So how's law school?"

you'll get this question so many times within your first semester that you can pretty much count on it being the first thing you're asked. I can't tell you how many times I lied and said it was great or I was doing well when in fact I could barely remember if / what I ate for breakfast that morning yet alone sort my life out while figuring out how to do this whole "law school" thing. 

It wasn't completely horrible though, I did have a few break downs.. questioned whether this was really for me but thanks to my lovely best friends, I got through it. I can finally say that the first semester is over and I made it - now grade wise... I don't even know. Its hard to guess where I am at because of the curve and I find that I always beat myself up over exams. I did not feel confident with my last exam though that is for sure, I was drained. I should have studied more than I did, covered more ground because I sat in this exam thinking over and over again "WTF am I being asked" and shunning myself for not being more prepared. So before I go into all the topics I have planned, here are a few tips to consider before going into the next semester whether you're in law school, grad school or undergrad:

Tips.. I got lots of them.

If You Don't Like Coffee, You'll Learn to Love It. 
its really that simple. I could not have made it through this semester without my DD every morning and most after noons. 

OUTLINE 

&& stay on top of it. This was my number one mistake was not staying on top of outlining. But I only have myself to blame. I will admit, my lack of outlining came from my stubbornness to admit I didn't know how to. My 4 years of undergrad was spent outlining papers for english papers. I never had to outline for an exam let alone take a cumulative one. I thought I knew what I was doing but once midterms had gone well I thought I was doing it all correctly... come finals I realized how completely wrong I was and how far behind I was. It was a struggle. 

Manage your time

seriously outline your day's to the minute. It was so easy for me to be like "eh I have all weekend to do this" and before I knew it, it was Sunday and the work piled up. I shot myself in the foot with this quite often because of a lack of organization and motivation. 

Organize. Organize. Organize. 

You know what does and does not work for you. I've learned a lot about myself as a student this semester and have already begun to make a list of things that need to be tweaked for the spring semester. I'm usually a fairly organized person but this roller coster ride threw me for a loop when it comes to staying organized when it comes to notes for class, readings, etc. 

Study Group

Find a group that isn't made entirely up of your friend group. Pick a time to meet at the very least one time a week. STICK TO IT. I was in a group made up entirely of my friend group, and don't get me wrong I loved knowing the people in my group, BUT it was entirely too easy to push back the studying and lose focus. I know that next semester it needs to be a bit different when it comes to study groups because they're important. you need to be talking about the material - if you can explain it to someone else, you're one the right path. 

Take time for yourself. 

If you don't, you're going to burn yourself out. That's exactly what I did. I expunged all my energy on midterms when I should have saved that turbo boost for my finals. After midterms I was drained, unmotivated, lacking focus. I needed a break and instead of taking a personal day I pushed myself for another three weeks before I had a melt down. While the melt down was needed... I should have taken that needed me time wayyyyyyy before and things would have been okay. I wouldn't have burnt myself out like did. The other thing I regret was letting my gym time go. I enjoy staying active, it relieves stress and keeps me feeling energized, focused and on track. I let it go way too easily blaming it on not having time when I actually did. 

Upcoming Posts

Finals Crunch Time 

Notes/Organization

Midterm Madeness

BREAK = BREAK

Preparing for the Legal Interview

Midterm Explosion

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

I honestly don't even know where to begin. My intention was to keep up with blogging as I tackled the first semester of my 1L year but it quickly proved that I barely have time to remember if I ate breakfast or not. But I just finished midterms last week and I think there are a lot of lessons learned that should be shared and some great insights that I can give.

We are now at starting week 8 in the fall semester and so far law school has been

Different

Challenging

Rewarding

Stressful

Exciting

Frustrating 

Different in the sense that it is nothing like undergrad.... those nights of cramming all that information in your head about the material or starting your paper a day or two before it is due are longggggggg gone. Organization is key so make a schedule and stick to it. This has been one of my weaknesses and something I am trying to tackle.. the beginning of my week starts out strong but by Thursday night I am drained and my focus starts to fade. I think it is important to take a day off from all the law school madness and just do something that I enjoy doing whether it be going out with friends or staying in and binge watching netflix... me time is important. It keeps me sane and lets me refocus.

Law school is hard... its supposed to be or else everyone and their mother would join in on the law school train and pass with flying colors. But the challenge is rewarding when things start to click in place. Its week 8 and things are JUST starting to click.. some things - like contracts - are taking a bit longer than I was hoping and for me that is beyond frustrating. Im the typically one that forces myself to learn it until I know it because I cannot deal with not understanding things.. it makes me feel dumb. These first 8 weeks have really changed my view on learning in the sense that I've had to accept that its not going to click right away. Its going to take time and practice in order for that light bulb to light up and when it does, or even when it starts to flicker, its such a good feeling to be able to say "okay, I'm starting to get it" or "I KNOW THAT".

Law school is exciting yet the most frustrating thing. Time management is key and I have definitely been slacking in that area. I plan ahead and fall behind and that becomes extremely stressful. Sometimes its simply because we don't get to things in class other times its because one class is pulling for my attention more than another so things get slightly pushed to the back burner until the weekend. BUT MAKE SURE YOU CATCH UP. For example, I had a midterm this week for one of my classes but it was my strongest class. Unfortunately on top of the stress to take our first law school midterms we all still had classes to attend and readings to do.. some of my professors actually included material from this week on their exams. I focused my attention on the two classes that I have been struggling with the most, did the readings, looked over my outlines, completed hypos. Although for the class I am doing well in, the class readings for the week were not my priority unfortunately.. but this was ONLY because

A) class was canceled one day this week so that took out a good chunk of class prep work AND more importantly

B) the material from this week was NOT going to be on the exam.

The downside to me doing this was having to do the reading over the weekend on top of all my assignments for next week but that is the price I chose to pay.

MIDTERMS - one word that brings out too many emotions.

I don't think I have ever been so overwhelmed in my 19 years of schooling. In undergrad 80% of the time I had other assignments or mini quizzes that lead up to the midterm so I knew what to expect. I had absolutely no idea what I was to expect when walking into any of my midterms last week other than that

Contracts was a 3 hour exam & not graded

Torts - 1hour and 45 min. & 20% of overall grade

Civ Pro - 2 hours, 20% of overall grade

Contracts

My first midterm was for contracts. I thought to myself there is absolutely no way I will be here for that full 3 hours because thats just insane. WRONG. SOOOOOOO WRONG. The time started ticking and the next thing you know the proctor was informing us that we had 15 minutes left. Thankfully I was almost done with my last question but I couldn't believe that I had been there for the full three hours.

Torts 

If contracts had been graded that would have been the test I was concerned for the most, but because it wasn't my entire focus was on this exam.... It was an hour and 45 minute exam with two fact patterns - one was 4 pages long the other was 3 so by the time I was done reading the dang fact patterns I could barely plan out my answers. I was flustered but I got through it... hopefully I didn't miss too many points but I believe that I did hit the main ones.

Civ Pro

Okay so I love love love civ pro and I think that is mainly because my professor is absolutely wonderful. I was the least nervous about this exam until I read over the fact pattern and saw the question. The question had us take what we had been doing and rather than arguing for the topic, we had to argue against it. I pounded out the first 4 pieces with no issue proving as to why the court couldn't show personal jurisdiction.... then it came to the last option and I got beyond flustered. In my head all I kept thinking was "BUT THIS ISSSSSSSSSSSS SPECIFIC JURISDICTION.. HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO FLIP THE ARGUMENT?!" but the point of the question was to say how it wasn't... I walked out of the exam more flustered than ever because I would have never thought to prepare by arguing the opposite side. 

One huge piece of advice that I think is perfect to give right this second is when you walk out of an exam either tune out what every one else chose to write about or take what they did for answers with a grain of salt. The first two exams I took it with a grain of salt but after civ pro I had a total freak out after listening to one of my classmates talking about how they included something that I did not. At the end of the day, you can do anything about it at that point. People are going to have different answers and you really won't know what you did right or wrong until you get the exam back so DONT LET YOURSELF GET WORKED UP. All it will do is cause you a minor panic attack and you've got enough on your plate to worry about. 

If theres one thing to remember when it comes to midterms, if you have the, is to just give it your all. For most, they won't count as a huge piece of your grade so it is a great way to see where you are at, how you can improve, what is working for you and what it is not. Its also the only way you are going to know what your professor's exam will be like so TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. Breathe, study and put in your best effort and it will be okay.

Catching Up... Literately.

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

The original plan was to blog after my first day of classes and then first week... well the first day went by in the blink of an eye and before I knew it Monday of week 2 was starting so instead I'm putting it all in one simple post. Be prepared to answer the question of "so how is your first day / week going" about 100+ times. But my answer changes as much as my clothes do buttt if I were to sum up week one/two I'd say:

Contracts = the devil

Cold Calling isn't that bad

Eat. Breathe. Sleep. Law School.

Skimming the readings does cut it.

Stressed out has a whole new meaning

ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE

Starting week two I was frazzled, in fact I had my first of many break downs on my way home the other day. I actually called my best friend and told her that I didn't know if I was actually cut  out for all this. A lotttttt of the stress is coming from one things - Contracts. It''s completely stressing me out.. I'm not understanding the material and I feel like everyone and there mother is at least getting some of it and I'm sitting there like a deer in headlights praying the professor doesn't call on me to answer anything but the facts cause.... "What in the world am I looking at" is really all that goes through my head for the entire hour and twenty minutes of class. I think what throws me off the most is my professor goes through it so quickly.. the first five minutes of class we are reviewing allllllllll the material from last class and then he hops from one thing to the next. I barely have enough time to take notes because we can only do so through hand written notes, no laptops are allowed. This really gets me going because half the time I start writing down an important point and he is already on to the next important point before I get the first one down. So I'm stuck with a half written important point... because thats helpful. The other thing that drives me nuts is that the professor confuses himself. Last class he skipped and entire case without realizing it and then started mixing the facts from the case we were working on with the one we skipped.. writing that out is even confusing. By the end of that class I was so flustered and the thought of sitting down to read for contracts just got riled me right up. Everything else besides that has honestly been okay. Law school is do-able. Its an adjustment, and by adjustment I mean take everything you did in undergrad and flip it on its head... but its an adjustment that once it all clicks and you get into a return you will be okay. 

Read, then re-read and then re-read again.

In undergrad I could get away with reading what was required, taking some quick notes and know that I'd be okay in class because we would just talk about the readings. Reading cases one time through isn't enough... I think I've read each of the assigned cases for contracts about 3 times before I understood what was going on. Re-reading helps you understand what is going on better, it lets you catch any details you missed and prepares you for class and hypos. Here's an example of what my book looks like after I've read through it a couple of times.

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

Skimming won't cut it. For example, one of my peers was called on in class the other day.. they put their head down and began flipping through the book. The professor waited for a few minutes, in silence before moving onto the next person. It was obvious they hadn't done the reading.. or if they did, they didn't pay attention to it.  Save yourself the oh shit moment and stay on top of things. 

Cold Calling

So far cold calling or the "socratic method" hasn't been as bad as I had anticipated. Both my Civ Pro & Torts professor let our class know when students will be "on call" (any questions are directed to you). Civ Pro actually goes by row. This week was actually my week to be on call, whats nice is that there was 6 of us. If one of us didn't know the answer, our "co-counsel" could assist. It has all made cold calling become less threatening and I actually really enjoyed it. It made the class go quicker & the material easier to understand buttttt if I was on call for contracts I would have easily been freaking out because lets be honest...all I understand in that class is the Facts of the cases. 

Law School = Life

To sum up the last couple of points I made, the thing that I have been struggling with is staying organized so I can  stay ahead of the game. When I say Eat. Breathe. Sleep Law School.. I mean exactly that. If I'm not doing something for one class, it's for another. The syllabi constantly changes for some classes and other we stick right too it, so that can be confusing at times - There was one time this week where I didn't look at my syllabi close enough for torts and missed a reading... I got to class and the professor began talking about it. I was confused.. and then terrified I would be called on.. While its important to keep up with your readings and get ahead if you can, kind in mind that getting too far ahead could bite you in the butt if your class does fall behind like my torts one has.

I have noticed though that these last couple of days I have been so tired that reading at any time past like 7 just hasn't allowed me to retain anything - night time would more or so be a good time for me to review/ prep for the following days classes or work on my outlines. So starting this week, I am going to wake up an hour earlier than I have been (I get to campus an hour early as is) so that I can really get reading done. These past two weeks has been trial and error && figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. 

I think the best thing you can do for yourself though is take time for yourself. You're probably sitting here thinking.. she just said stay organized, stay on top of readings that can take you forever, etc etc. But if you don't take time for yourself you'll burn out and you've worked far too hard to burn out. So take some time for yourself, either be by yourself like I sometimes need, have a night out with friends, family or a significant other - whatever it is that gives you that "you time" do it. you'll be blessed stressed, more focused and overall happier.