The Spring Break Agenda: Tackling Outlining

I said that this semester I was going to turn over a new leaf and stay ahead of the game. Well these last few weeks before spring break that kind of slipped away a bit but thankfully we are on break and I can FINALLLYYYYY draw in a deep breath. Although its not all sleep netflix sleep netflix. My property professor gave us the advice to take 4-5 days off completely from law school over our 10 day break and I'm not taking his advice lightly. 

Why? 

Up until last week I could feel a major burn out approaching and that is the last thing I, or anyone, wants to happen. We still have another month before finals and summer so having this week off couldn't have come at a better time. The first weekend of break I went out of town for a weekend to see some friends from undergrad and let me tell you it was needed on so many levels. I let loose had some fun and didn't think about law school for two days - just like the professor order. On Monday I spent my day doing law school related things:

1. Cover Letter for Summer Intern Applications 
2. Criminal Law Outline
3. Created Remaining Spring Break Schedule

Unfortunately though today we were hit with a big snow storm that is supposed to continue until tomorrow night. I wasn't able to make it into school and while I had planned to do outlining today I had to run some local errands with my mom before the snow hit. By the time we got back I got to do some child labor by shoveling - which turned into my 23 year old self playing in the snow with the pup. Long rant cut short, I had another fun day that ended with a Netflix movie binge. Whoops. But I decided I couldn't be completely unproductive so here I am.... blogging :) 

But that also meant some adjusting to my spring break study schedule so I figured now would be a great time to share it in case anyone else needs a reference on how to approach it and stay productive. 

Keep in mind that for me whats in each box is more so a guideline to what I should be focusing on. I do want to do Hypos but I want to make sure my outlines are up to date and I have some time to review them before I dive in to practice problems so depending on how the rest of my week goes my plan is to tackle some hypos on Sunday along with some more readings.

Now lets get to the "fun stuff:

OUTLINING

Out of the 4 years of my undergrad career I never once had to outline. I was an English major, Political Science minor so a majority of my final exams were papers and those that weren't were not cumulative. Coming into law school I had no idea what in the heck I was doing when it came to outlining hence why I waited until the last minute to do it because I didn't think it would take all that long... I was very naive the first semester. Because of this I decided at the beginning of the spring semester that I was going to keep up with outlining... So far I have failed at that... Honestly time just flies by and it seems that this semester, with the extra course, I always have something due on Monday or Friday to where I don't get as much done as I plan on... another reason why spring break couldn't have come at a better time. 

(1) Monday I spent most of my day working on my Crim Outline and here is how I did thatI went through the class Syllabus and put all of the headings in a word document - My professor was nice enough to have topic Headings, subheadings and the cases already laid out so in a document it was the barebones outline for the semester. All I had to do was plug in the information.

(2) Following the barebones, I began by going through all of my class notes and the condensed power points my professor posted and plugged the important pieces of information into the outline.

(3) Once I went through all of my class notes, I went through my reading notes (and book notes) and either added to what my class notes missed out on or plugged in information that we didn't get to in class

(4) My final way of checking/ condensing what I have is by looking at the supplemental outlines I have. DO NOT RELY ON THESE FOR YOUR SOLE OUTLINE. These are merely used as a supplement to your class notes and book notes. I found this to be extremely helpful to condense cases down to only the important facts and as a way to check to be sure I was getting the rule correct. There also a great way to clarify any concepts that are not completely clear. 

(5) Other tips - I am big on making sure that I can go through a document and follow what in the world is going on within it so formatting to me is a major pet peeve. One thing that I did at the beginning is obviously use headings and subheadings with roman numerals for each new topic and then letters and numbers for the sub topics within it. But I also use a color coding and font style system - red and italics is for Cases, blue and italics is for the MPC/ Common Law/ State Law. I find that by doing this its easier for me to know learn the material within each section and have them stand out instead of it all just blurring together. 

Hopefully this post will help in some way shape or form! If you have any comments, questions or suggestions don't hesitate to reach out!

The Summer Job Search

February is coming to a quick end which means that spring is coming soon and so is summer. (It can't come soon enough). With that comes the common question of 

"What should I do for my first summer as a law student?"

Long gone are my days of only working part time jobs to save up money to spend during the undergrad year. While you are limited to what you can do during your 1L summer, you should try to keep it law oriented. 

Where to look?

Well first and foremost, it really doesn't matter what you do during your 1L summer so long as it is law related. I am still completely undecided about what area of law I want to pursue so I've decided not to limit myself this summer especially with my DC externship coming up this fall( more on this later). I've made a list of areas of interest to keep in mind for summer internships:

1. Criminal Law
2. Real Property / Estate Planning
3. Corporate Law

If you know exactly what you want to do in terms of law, then go for it. The only way you will ever find out if you like something is by trying it but don't limit yourself. You may pass up on an opportunity in an area you really like. 

Do Summer Internship's Pay?

It really depends, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. You may get lucky and land a summer internship that pays. I know one classmate who recently accepted a summer internship with a major air line which is a paid position, and he gets free flights.. lucky duck. But I also know another classmate who went to interview for a summer position that is 45 minutes away and unpaid for a minimum of 8 weeks. It really depends on for who, what and where you are looking. It's something to keep in mind, especially if you do need a source of income for the summer and might have to take on a second job part time job. 

This is actually something I am considering while looking for summer internships. I don't mind working two jobs, I actually enjoy keeping busy so I've considered either bartending or serving over the summer just because I know that the location I am in is pretty limited to paid summer internships for 1L's and I do need to save up money for the fall. From what I have been told, summer employers understand this when you are job searching so don't be afford to inquire about payment and setting hours that will work with a second employment if necessary.

Does GPA matter?

Potentially. If you are attempting to get a paid internship or its a competitive placement, GPA/ Class Rank is something that may be taken into consideration. Though from what I've been told, GPA isn't the end of the world and is not weighed as heavily against you for the 1L summer placements versus 2L (2L summer is the time when post-grad employment opportunities start to fall into place so GPA is weighed against you heavier than before). 

What do you need?

Typically the documents you need are:

1. Cover Letter
2. Resume
3. Writing Sample
4. Transcript

Last Minute Tips

Resume:

• Keep it to one page. 
• Be accurate
• Focus on skills such as research and writing, negotiating, analyzing data, decision-making, communicating and supervising
• Action verbs, such as “directed,” “managed,” and “negotiated,” create the image of an achiever 

Cover Letter:

• Research the employer and demonstrate that you have done so by referring to something you learned about the employer 
• Tailor your letter to the place of employment/ ad. There may be an indication as to what past experience is preferred, what skills are necessary, or what the job responsibilities are.
• Apply the skills you have used in legal writing and analysis to “interweave” or match your experience, skills, etc. to those desired by the employer.

Writing Sample:

• Meet with Professor that graded your piece and review it
• Make the suggested changes
• Review for any grammatical / mechanical errors
• Review citations

Final Tip

• Have someone else look over all the documents you are going to submit. It can only help. 

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