Mid-term
We’re just about half-way through the school term. Professors are starting to suggest trying some of the old posted exams to get an idea of what to expect for the final and they are mentioning pretty regularly that if one has not yet started to outline, well, one had better hop to it!
I’ve got my outlines started and I have been keeping up with them, mostly. Over the weekend I did some Contracts flashcards and got most of them right. I haven’t done any official practice exams yet, but I think that will be on the agenda for this weekend. And I’ve stayed up-to-date or better on all my reading.
None of this is that hard to do. It is time-intensive, of course, but not really hard. Mostly it’s fascinating and sometimes it’s even fun. But it does take time. Still, I’m also regularly blogging for the business and just got my new book out, so it is clearly possible to get the work done. It just takes the doing of it.
What amazes me is that there are clearly students who are not doing the “easy” stuff–the reading. That is the basic step to succeeding in law school! What the hell are they thinking? For example, yesterday, in Property, the prof called on someone to present the case we were to have read (and, frankly, many of us had read the case well over a week ago). The guy selected clearly had not read it (it was an easy case, too) and was trying to BS his way through it. It was painful. And it pissed me off a bit because it wasted my time. Our Property prof is a very kind man who would never humiliate a student (many of us think he’s a bit like George McFly–in a good way) but yesterday I think that lazy student could have used at least a “Well, obviously you are not prepared!” or something.
I should say that I’m still not really happy with my work/not-work balance. I don’t feel like I am being as efficient as I would like and I know that sometimes I put off doing what I need to do (like writing this now is more engaging than doing some reading I could be doing this morning). I feel like I need a better schedule, but I also think that a lot of that has to do with the dynamics of being married and going to school. It’s difficult to find the right balance. Still, I am getting my work (mostly) done and so I’m not really complaining.
At the very least, you won’t find me BSing my way through a case if I get called on. 