Well today is the official first day of classes and so far I have one class down. This weekend was spent obsessing over the law and my legal education. I spent each afternoon and evening studying diligently for the classes for this week. It seemed as if the questions never stopped coming and the words on the pages always seemed to go on and on. Looking back I am now finding it rather hard to distinguish what I read from what I dreamed and what I dreamed from what I wrote. It is going to be an interesting week, but I am thankful that I can by no means claim that I am an expert yet at studying. Nor am I an expert at the law.
As I sit here now in the commons of the law school I realize that everything I did this weekend prepared me to step into the classroom, unfortunately none of what I did actually prepared me to answer the questions my professor will pose. To do this I now realize it is going to take some actual thinking not just transcribing the facts and answering the simple questions. In fact, just completing the assignment is step one. Step two is thinking about what I read and actually making it make sense. Step three is taking those things that make sense and applying them to other things to solidify my understanding of the subject matter. I now realize I still have a long way to go with the material I studied this weekend.
As I sit here I also realize that most of my class members are incredibly obsessive with impressing everyone they possibly can. I am setting here typing up a blog post while my classmates are setting here discussing every little thing we read this weekend and attempting to make themselves sound intelligent by exemplifying their prior knowledge as well as what they think the law is for every topic under the sun. They also are obsessively using the vocabulary that we all only barely have a grasp of as it stands now.
So my advice to you this week is, do what you need to do to get the material down. Do not obsess over impressing your classmates, instead obsess over how well YOU think you learned the material. If you learned the material and you are able to demonstrate that in class then impressing your classmates will happen.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
I have arrived.
Well, today marked the second day of orientation and it has been quite a ride so far. I am not sure how most schools do orientation but for us we have the opportunity to attend a class (either Contracts or Torts) on a daily basis. In this class we get the chance to slowly wade into the world of legal education. Of course I have no delusions that after this week law school will be as slow as it is now, but I'm extremely glad we can take these baby steps before we sprint (albeit sprint for a marathon).
Most of the activities that I will participate in this week are centered around creating strategies that will hopefully make my endeavors in law school more successful. While I have my doubts that everything I will do this week will be beneficial (tomorrow for example we get the opportunity to practice being grilled in what our professor has termed an over aggressive socratic fashion) I am hoping that most of what I do this week will aid me down the road.
From the tone of this post it would seem that I am rather apprehensive about the coming months, and I suppose that is probably a little expected since everything I have done up to this point is pretty much just the work that got me here, the rules of the game have changed and the standard is much, much higher for success. Of course, I also look at this as an incredible opportunity and can't wait to get to work in all of my classes.
One last thing I have observed so far that I have to mention is the fact that it seems as if one step I took this summer has prepared me better than any other step so far. That was reading McClurg's "One L of a Ride". This book goes over what to expect and how to handle it all but it also goes over a simple method for assimilating all of the information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. So if you are out there and still a little uncertain of what you are doing or what to expect and you want to do a little more prep reading I would highly suggest this book, but if you don't I can definitely understand and I can't say you will truly be that far behind.
Most of the activities that I will participate in this week are centered around creating strategies that will hopefully make my endeavors in law school more successful. While I have my doubts that everything I will do this week will be beneficial (tomorrow for example we get the opportunity to practice being grilled in what our professor has termed an over aggressive socratic fashion) I am hoping that most of what I do this week will aid me down the road.
From the tone of this post it would seem that I am rather apprehensive about the coming months, and I suppose that is probably a little expected since everything I have done up to this point is pretty much just the work that got me here, the rules of the game have changed and the standard is much, much higher for success. Of course, I also look at this as an incredible opportunity and can't wait to get to work in all of my classes.
One last thing I have observed so far that I have to mention is the fact that it seems as if one step I took this summer has prepared me better than any other step so far. That was reading McClurg's "One L of a Ride". This book goes over what to expect and how to handle it all but it also goes over a simple method for assimilating all of the information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. So if you are out there and still a little uncertain of what you are doing or what to expect and you want to do a little more prep reading I would highly suggest this book, but if you don't I can definitely understand and I can't say you will truly be that far behind.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
As the Minutes Tick Away...
There are exactly 6875 minutes until I begin my journey towards my JD. I have finally finished all of my homework. All of the reading is done and all of the assignments filled out. I have also finished mentally preparing for one of the toughest challenges I will undoubtedly face thus far in my life. I have finally received my class assignments, I know what books I will need, I know when my tests will be and I know which professors I will have. I know which classrooms I will spend most of my time in and I know where I will spend all the rest of my time studying at home. Needless to say, the only thing I have yet to do is lay out my outfit, which is probably going a little far!
I know most of you will look at this and chuckle. I hope that in a years time I will be able to look back on this post and laugh at how worked up I was for this process to start. In all honesty though I would have it no other way. As I have said before, I have been waiting for this for a VERY long time and this much excitement on my part is expected.
Of course not everything I do is all serious business. It is also very important to schedule some time in my weeks to just hang out and enjoy the beautiful days in the sun. That leads me to my very first tip that I have come across since I have been preparing for school to start.
Read as much as you can on the topic and by that I don't mean read the textbooks out there. In fact I think I learned the most about what to expect from blogs I happened across on the web. I did read a few books that discussed law school, and I think for the most part I am a better person for them but in all honesty getting the information from the students as well as those who have taught the law for years is important. Each side has their own observations and their own tips and tricks. Thus, most everyone will tell you that you should read this summer but their advice will always vary on what you should read and in my opinion it could not hurt to get the advice of as many people as you possibly can.
Without that I would like to direct your attention to the right column of this blog where you will find a list of blogs that I read. All of these blogs I subscribe to and read daily. They all have great information and some of them deal exclusively with law school even. Hopefully, for those of you reading this you will take to heart my suggestion and check out of a few of these blogs and even better maybe you will even subscribe to a few of them.
I know most of you will look at this and chuckle. I hope that in a years time I will be able to look back on this post and laugh at how worked up I was for this process to start. In all honesty though I would have it no other way. As I have said before, I have been waiting for this for a VERY long time and this much excitement on my part is expected.
Of course not everything I do is all serious business. It is also very important to schedule some time in my weeks to just hang out and enjoy the beautiful days in the sun. That leads me to my very first tip that I have come across since I have been preparing for school to start.
Read as much as you can on the topic and by that I don't mean read the textbooks out there. In fact I think I learned the most about what to expect from blogs I happened across on the web. I did read a few books that discussed law school, and I think for the most part I am a better person for them but in all honesty getting the information from the students as well as those who have taught the law for years is important. Each side has their own observations and their own tips and tricks. Thus, most everyone will tell you that you should read this summer but their advice will always vary on what you should read and in my opinion it could not hurt to get the advice of as many people as you possibly can.
Without that I would like to direct your attention to the right column of this blog where you will find a list of blogs that I read. All of these blogs I subscribe to and read daily. They all have great information and some of them deal exclusively with law school even. Hopefully, for those of you reading this you will take to heart my suggestion and check out of a few of these blogs and even better maybe you will even subscribe to a few of them.