How to Succeed in a Class When You Have a Terrible Professor

As we creep up on fall and get closer and closer to orientation season, I have decided to write a series of posts on law school to help all the soon to be newbie law students out there. As a rising 3L, I finally feel like I have finally gotten this whole law school thing figured out and if I can help others figure it out quicker than I did, I'm happy to help. 

There I was, sitting in one of my classes. Buying things on Amazon and messengering people on Facebook. I knew that it was a stupid idea to spend tens of thousands of dollars on tuition and then just play around on the internet but I couldn't seem to help myself.  This class was going to be a struggle no matter what, simply due to the fact that it was scheduled from 6pm to 9pm. You either had to eat dinner early and fight the post dinner yawn-fest or eat a snack and hope you didn't get so hungry later that you wanted to start gnawing on your arm.

It was a stupid time to have a class.

However, it could have been manageable with the right professor. We did not have the right professor. I had heard of his reputation back when I was a 1L but truly didn't grasp how bad it was going to be until after the first class. Half the class dropped the course and the only ones who stayed were the ones in the concentration who needed this class to graduate. (He's the only professor for this course.) He even joked about how he was a terrible professor. And bless his soul, he really was. We would get there at 6pm and he would start reading word for word from the book.  Mind you, it meant you didn't really have to read but really, I can read faster than anyone talks so it just felt like a total waste of time. After an hour and a half, he would apparently get bored of that and so he assigned everyone a day to teach the class on a topic. Only, the topic rarely had anything to do with what we had covered in the reading and didn't really help us on our assignments. We didn't have an exam in the class and so very few of us had any motivation to pay attention. One of my classmates did citation checking for her job and the lady next to me played video slot machines on her tablet. Another guy just slept through half of it.

Eventually I figured out that I was stuck with a crappy professor no matter what and I could totally waste my tuition dollars and coast or I could at least try to get something useful out of it. In the end, this was one of my higher grades for the semester even if I never did completely rein in my out of control internet habits.

Teach Yourself The Material - Sure, we all know that we should be doing the reading, and making flashcards and such but when your professor is an ineffective teacher, it is even more important. One of my 1L professors often contradicted herself in class because she simply did not know the material she was teaching. My classmates who focused on in-class learning did terrible on the exam, my essay was given as the model answer to the rest of the class. Reading the casebook is a good start but using supplements is even better. For most classes, I use 1-2 supplements. For this one, I used seven.

Join a Study Group - Personally, I hate study groups and find that they are usually ineffective for my learning style. However, when the entire class is struggling, it can be useful to find a group that is willing to help you teach yourself the material. You can share supplements, go over class notes to see if anyone actually understood it, and split up the work. Besides, it is always nice to know you aren't the only one struggling.

Use Class Time Wisely - And no, I don't mean pay attention. If the Professor is going to give you wrong information, confuse you, or read out of the same casebook you've already read from, paying attention is counterproductive.  Instead, use that class time to your benefit by working on your assignments, outline or an online supplement. My classmate's idea of bringing her work with her isn't bad either. She got paid per hour, while in class.
The only caveat to this is to not look disrespectful because even with blind grading, you don't want to tick off the professor. In the class with the confused professor, I sat in the front row, right next to the podium.  I always made sure to have my casebook out and would glance up every once in a while. Apparently I looked like I was paying attention because she later commented on how it was appreciated. In reality, after the first month, I rarely paid attention unless she said the words "exam" "important" "remember" or the like. Instead, I was reading ahead in the casebook and I had my outline finished long before the last class. Then I just filled the time with online supplements.

Know the Difference Between Shouldn't Pay Attention and Not Wanting To Pay Attention - We all have off days but if you routinely zone out in most of your classes or in classes you find boring, you are going to regret it. Besides, with most classes, you need to pay attention to the professor or you'll bomb the exam. These tips only work in classes where it's such torture that no one can follow along. Not even the gunners. There is a difference between a boring professor and a bad one. With a boring professor, I've found that my best bet is to take super extensive notes. I'm so busy taking notes, even of things I will later delete, that I don't zone out. Later, I review the notes and get rid of all the pointless fillers. Accidental finals review? If it's an extremely boring class, I've banned my computer all together. I hate taking notes by hand but it's really hard to get distracted by Facebook if you can't access Facebook.

Professor Evaluations - When you're so fed up with the entire class and you just want to throw your casebook at your professor's head, don't. That's battery. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that there is an Assistant Dean out there that will be required to read every word of your professor evaluation. On one of mine, I used up all the available space and attached another sheet so I could continue. That professor no longer teaches at our school. I personally don't go on a rant on evaluations because I don't imagine they get taken as seriously as a well thought out critique but if thinking up an epic rant gets you through the class, you do you.

How to Gain Legal Experience While in Law School

As we creep up on fall and get closer and closer to orientation season, I have decided to write a series of posts on law school to help all the soon to be newbie law students out there. As a rising 3L, I finally feel like I have finally gotten this whole law school thing figured out and if I can help others figure it out quicker than I did, I'm happy to help. 

When I started law school, I had absolutely zero legal experience. Plenty of experience in the medical field but that no longer seemed relevant. Because of this, one of my main goals going into my 1L year was to gain as much experience as I could. Two years later, I think I have done a pretty decent job. I have interned with a judge, interned with a governmental agency, clerked for a law firm and had both an office job and a RA job on campus. Both of which related to the field I want to practice in after graduation.

I think it helps when you have a strong idea of what field you want to practice in but it's not necessary. If you don't know what you want to do after graduation, try to get a wide variety of experience instead of focusing as narrowly as I did. Heck, it'll probably be even easier to find ways to gain experience.

1L Year -

Many people think that during your first year of law school, it is impossible to gain legal experience because you are forbidden (usually) from working. However, most law schools have a pro bono requirement for graduation and the best time to fulfill those hours is during your 1L year. During later years, you may have an internship or law clerk job and a full class load and you may not have the time to add pro bono to that. Plus, when it comes time to apply for a summer job or internship, you really want something legal already on your resume because many of your classmates will have nothing but part-time retail or restaurant work during college.

By the end of my first year, I had almost 70 pro bono hours completed and half of them were legal. I volunteered for legal research at the clerks office where I researched statutes that defined their duties and requirements. I interviewed a client and wrote a will which you can read about HERE and HERE. Oh and I also volunteered with a program and prepared peoples taxes. All of those programs were offered or publicized through my school but very few 1L's took advantage of them. With the will event, I was the only 1L to participate. And yes, I was asked about it in every interview I have had since then. Every one. I am about to start my 3L year and many of my classmates have just started to think about getting their pro bono hours. At this point, I have almost 300 pro bono hours and all of those hours have paid off by giving me contacts within the legal field. It's even better than networking events except you don't get the free booze.

1L Summer -

Finding a legal job for the summer following my 1L year was one of the things I was most stressed about. All 1L students were advised to get something legal on their resume, no matter what. I knew that I needed to be paid to pay my rent but I really wanted to intern with a judge, which doesn't pay you. So I managed to split those requirements into two part time jobs. Two to three days a week, I worked at my school's elder law office and the other two days, I interned with a guardianship magistrate.  I got two items on my resume in one summer. Score!

I started off my job search by visiting my Career Services department and following the advice they gave me. They looked over my resume and pretty much covered it in red ink but I changed everything they said to change and sent it back. Three times. Then I had to decide whether to pursue a judicial internship through the school or privately. If I went through the school, they found them for me and I just had to apply. However, it also meant I had to pay tuition for the privilege and had specific hour requirements. If I tried to get one privately, I would have to do all the work to find one on my own but had more control on hours. Because my scholarship does not cover the summer semester, it made much more sense to look for one privately. I didn't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of working for free and I could limit it to two days a week so I could work for pay the other days. Of course, the idea of trying to find one by myself, also filled me with terror but I pulled on my girl pants and got to work.

I first researched all the court systems within a comfortable drive and wrote down all the departments I was interested in working in. For me, that was mostly within the probate courts. Then I researched each of those departments/judges for the different counties near me and found the email addresses for their legal assistants. Yes, those email addresses were all found thanks to Google. Yay Google. I then emailed the various legal assistants with a cover letter asking about their policies for applying to be a summer internship (making sure to use the research I did so it was apparent it was not a mass email). Then I waited. Within a week, I had received a request for a resume from one county and from another, I was sent an application. Then I waited again. Eventually, I was given the news that I had been placed with a guardianship magistrate and I was good to go! And just in case you are under the mistaken impression that I am some perfect person that never does dumb things, read THIS. I managed to get a judicial internship after answering the phone with "wuugaaaackkk!" and giving the legal assistant an incorrect email address. How awkward can I be? (Don't answer that.)

Talking to my classmates, many had a similar approach to finding a summer job with a law firm. If they didn't have a local resource to tap, they researched local firms they were interested in and started calling or emailing. Some worked for free while others got paid but most who put in the work, found a place.

I found the paid job at the elder law office at my school on accident but I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried. Since I knew exactly what field I wanted to go into, I made sure to introduce myself to the employees and professors at the beginning of the year. I would often go to the events they put on for students and I made it clear that I was interested in what they do. Shortly after the Will event I volunteered for, the coordinator offered me a job in the office. It was a combination of receptionist work and legal research for the professors and it PAID. I was sold.

2L Year -

The same professors who worked in the elder law office, got me my government agency internship for my 2L year. Because they knew I was interested in elder law, when an opportunity came up for an elder abuse internship, they passed on my name. I was actually contacted by the agency and invited to intern for them. I didn't need to apply or compete with other students for the job because it wasn't even open to the public. Sweet deal.

If you have an interest in a field, even before you can take classes on that subject (thanks mandatory 1L classes) GO TALK TO THOSE PROFESSORS and let them know you are interested in that field of law. Not only do they know enough about a topic to teach it, they know all the people who practice in that area. Seriously, if I had known how beneficial it was, I would have done it on purpose. I know dozens of people who have gotten job interviews thanks to a professor reaching out for them.

Later on, I was contacted by a professor I was taking a class with and asked to be their RA. Since I was dead broke, I accepted so fast it made my head spin. By chance, my professor was literally writing the textbook for our class as we went along so I basically got paid to prep for finals as I researched for and edited her casebook. It was awesome.

2L Summer -

My first approach to my 2L summer was OCR but in the end, that didn't work out for me. Since I'm so focused on elder law, and those are basically all small firms, there were very few OCR firms I wanted to apply for. I did get a few interviews from it but I did not get any offers. You win some and you lose some. In this case, I lost. As we got closer and closer to summer, I started to freak out a bit. I let everyone I knew know that I was looking for a summer job and ideally, I would love something to do with elder law. I ended up getting two leads on elder law attorneys looking for a clerk so I emailed them. One ended up going to a friend but the other was exactly what I was looking for and it paid really well. I interviewed with them and I got hired right before finals and I couldn't be more pleased with it. The only downside is that there is no chance of a permanent offer because they are not planning on expanding anytime soon. The pitfalls of small firms. Sigh

Once summer hit, I started getting emails from people looking for a student interested in elder law. Once again, by making my interests clear, people passed on my name when a job offer was mentioned. Of course, I already had a job lined up but it really made me calm down knowing it wasn't as last minute as I thought it was.

3L Year -

Although my 3L year hasn't technically started yet, I already know what legal experience I am doing for the fall semester. I applied for the local elder law clinic  and thanks to all my previous work, I ended up getting accepted. Since it is during the fall, my scholarship isn't effected and I get credits for doing it. That means I can take less classes. Sweet! The way clinics work in Florida is that the Florida Bar certifies that I have cleared the character and fitness test and I will actually get to legally practice law (under an attorney's supervision). How is that not the best legal experience possible?


Final Thoughts -

If you look over all the various ways I gained legal experience, they all involved putting myself out there. I'm a classic introvert so I know how very un-fun it can be but 90 percent of my experience came from taking opportunities others weren't. By choosing to take part in pro bono activities in a field I was interested in, I not only got legal experience but I was able to interact with the people who work in that field. Those interactions later led to job offers. I got my judicial internship by taking the time to use Google and contacting perfect strangers to ask for a job. None of this is in my normal comfort level but I made it work.

Barrister's Ball

After my long absence, I looked at my draft folder and saw that I had started a post on the Barrister's Ball. Even though it's been MONTHS since this happened, I decided to finish it up anyway. Here it is. . .


So at the beginning of February, we all got a save the date email for Barrister's Ball. That was happening IN February. Wait, what? Where were the details? The place? The extras? No one knew. And when we asked the people in charge, they could only say "we aren't allowed to say more until we finish signing the contract." Wait, It's in a few weeks, the contract isn't signed yet? Yikes! We all pretty much agreed that this Ball was going to suck and I know many people who decided not to go because of this. Fiancé and I still wanted to go but we really didn't have high expectations. The year before, the Barrister's Ball was so much fun and it was so well organized that the tickets went on sale months before the actual ball. We couldn't see how they could top it, even with the best organization.

We were wrong. We were so, so, so, wrong. It was a Casino Royale theme and it was an absolute blast. We all got to play all the gambling games we wanted and with our "winnings" we got to enter into a raffle depending on how much we made. The drinks were incredible and there were multiple bars all around so there were no lines. Plus the food was actually VERY good this year. Last years was boring and I wasn't very impressed. There were multiple photo opportunities and a live band and dancing. All in all, it was very well done.

However, I did learn for the first time how much the Barrister's Ball actually costs the student body and I am pretty horrified about it. It costs over 50,000 dollars each year! Now maybe I'm crazy but that seems ridiculous for a bunch of students who continuously complain about the high cost of tuition. I mean, sure, some of that is paid by our 50 dollar tickets but not that much of it. The rest comes out of the Student Body budget which comes from our tuition dollars. Yikes!

I will of course go next year because 1) it'll be my last year and 2) my refusal to go wouldn't lower the amount paid in any way. I just think it's a bit excessive.

As to the after-party . . . well the least said the better. It did involve walking barefoot, a strip club and an uber so obviously ... we had a great time. The next day wasn't quite as fun but we survived.

Proof I am too old for this

One night. I only pulled one all nighter. I stayed up all Thursday night, turned in my work on Friday morning and took a two hour nap. Then I got back to work and caught up on my reading. YAY! I'm caught up! Whooo. Now to move onto next week right?

No. I went to bed on Friday night, woke up for two hours and then went back to sleep. I slept until 6pm on Saturday.

Well surely I would stay up all night and get some work in right? Nope. I fell back asleep with my laptop on my lap around 11pm and slept until noon on Sunday. Now I'm behind again.

This is so not fair. It's not like I was chronically sleep deprived before I pulled the all-nighter!

I'm too old for this

I'm pulling an all-nighter and it's making me cranky. In the last two weeks, I've had four (thankfully short) papers due as well as an engagement letter, sample agreement contract, an ad, pro bono and fee policies. Add an internship project due at 8 am and there was no other way to get this all done.

Thank god the will and memo that was due in the morning was pushed off until next week!

Casebook rainbow

I still follow the multicolor highlighting method. If it works, why fix it?

Besides, it's pretty. :)

Just in case you're curious:

Green are the facts

Pink is law and reasoning

Blue is the question or issue in the case 

Yellow is the holding or conclusion

Purple is concurrance or policy 

Orange is dissent

I also write in the margins a lot. Especially on confusing cases or those with antiquated language. 

Highlighting helps keep me from passively reading and the different colors keeps me from just highlighting everything (another way to read passively.) A nice side benefit, if I get called on, I can usually find the answer faster than the people frantically trying to search their case brief. My first semester, I still typed it all up in my class notes outline but now I try to keep each case under 3-4 sentences. At this point, that's all I need for finals but that sure wasn't the case when I first started. 

SaveSave

HEART ATTACK

Generally, I have no problem with my computer's battery dying while I'm at school so I never bring my charger with me. Yesterday, I really should have brought my charger. About seven minutes before my last class let out, I got the notification that I should shut my computer or it would go into sleep mode soon. Okay, no problem. I shut it and finished my notes by hand. I went home and charged my laptop. Only instead of turning on like normal, it wouldn't let me sign on! I googled (on my phone) the problem and was told to force a shutoff and try again. So I did. Nope. Wouldn't work. Finally had to do a repair start and it let me in but even then, it wasn't working right. I couldn't access any of my documents or even safari. I thought it was due to how I had to start up so shut down correctly this time and tried again. That didn't work either. Finally, after numerous google searches and one or two tears, it just randomly corrected itself and got back to acting properly. I checked my files and other than losing some of today's notes and such, I'm good to go.

I have no idea what the problem was but I was/am freaking out! This computer holds my life in it's hands. Even though it is only the third week of classes, I have pages and pages of notes. I also have my internship work on there which is irreplaceable. I do back up regularly but for me, that is about once a week. A weeks worth of work would still be TERRIBLE.

It's been hours and I'm still shaking.

If You Wear Pants, You Will Die

So yesterday I was doing the client interview for the wills event I'm a part of. This meant I had to wear a suit. I've finally gotten so used to it that I don't even notice. However, yesterday when I woke up, it was in the high 30's or low 40's. Do you think I wanted to wear a skirt in that kind of weather?? No Way!

I know I've written about how the school occasionally sends emails that explain the proper dress code for interviews or networking events. This email is always very careful to explain proper dress for both men and women but there is always a section that explains that some people do not approve of women in pants. If a women were to wear pants, they may not get a job and terrible things could happen.

I find this ridiculous. I have always thought it was ridiculous but I want a job. Hence, I wear skirt suits. Yesterday though, there was no way I was going to wear a skirt. Blue and shaking is not a good look on me. So as I was getting dressed in pants, I told Fiancé that I felt like such a rebel.

He asked me what the school really thought was the worst thing that could happen if I wore pants. My response was death. He thought I was joking so I walked him through it.

If you wear pants, someone might not hire you. If you don't get a job after graduation, you won't have any money. If you don't have any money, you won't be able to afford a place to live. If you're jobless and homeless you'll have to hide under a bridge. If you're living under a bridge, you might die.

Hence, pants = death.

Busy Week

So in the upcoming week I have to:

1. Write a two page paper for my Cuba class.
2. Write a discussion post for my Advanced Legal Research class. 
3. Conduct a fake interview with a friend for my Estate Planning class.
4. Write a Finding of Fact and Engagement letter for Estate Planning.
5. Conduct a real interview with a veteran to write his will. (Program though the elder law program at my school to give us real world experience.)
6. Actually write his will. 
7. Meet with my interviewing and counseling group to divvy up our group assignment (due the first week of February.)
8. Put in 10 to 20 hours on a research project for my internship.
9. All my reading and other materials for all six of my classes. 
10. Appointment with Career Development to figure out what the heck I am doing this summer. 

They say that your 2L year they work you to death and I'm starting to see their point.  

This is not helping my motivation problem

So I have a schedule of when I'm supposed to do what for which class. Yesterday I failed at finishing the reading for evidence so I need to do that today plus my other class preparation. 

Someone doesn't think I need to read for evidence today. I know she's wrong but I don't really want to argue with her either. 

I may have made a terrible mistake

So I knew this semester was going to be time intensive but I didn't realize it was going to be this time intensive. I thought my estate planning class was more a traditional law course and because the professor did not send out the syllabus until yesterday, I had no way of learning otherwise. Well, once I looked at the assignments, I immediately started to hyperventilate. We have two memo's due, numerous letters, wills, advance directives etc and a 20 minute presentation!

This is on top of my other classes where I have weekly writing assignments, presentations and projects. I am seriously considering dropping a class in order to make this work but the classes I would be able to drop are all mandatory classes for the elder law concentration. So . . . I feel stuck. Take them now or take them my last semester. Either way is going to suck.

I guess the only good thing about this is that I'll only have two exams but . . . I think I'd rather have an exam.

Please help a law student. Send redbull.

First Day Of My Second Half Of Law School

Wow! I'm finally on the downward slope of my law school experience. It has both taken forever and gone by in a snap of my fingers. Time is funny that way.

Even with all my house guests in the last few days, I still managed to get the majority of my reading and class work for the week done. The only reason I managed it is because my brain has developed a glitch where I can only sleep six hours. This would be great if I only needed six hours but I definitely need more. But it did give me more time to get my work done so I won't complain too much. This is why we buy coffee after all.

This semester is going to seem more like undergrad than ever before. I have three classes that require weekly assignments. My Cuba class requires a writing assignment every week except this one. My advanced legal research class is the same except this week does count. However, I deserve a pat on the back because I already finished it last night. YAY me! Four days early. Then my interviewing and counseling class has many weekly assignments. Mock interviews, "firm" projects, meeting etc. Ay Ay Ay.

Add my job and my internship and I'm am going to be busy busy busy!

The only class I could not prepare for is Estate Planning and that is because he hasn't sent us a syllabus or reading assignment yet! ARG!!! My school has the least efficient procedure for giving first assignments ever. We have four platforms that professors can use to give them to us: An online assignment board that is only used for the first class assignments, blackboard, Twen through Westlaw, or by email. And every new semester, we have to keep checking each one to find out which professor uses what. But this time, I've checked them all everyday and nada for estate planning. It is the first day of classes professor! I know we don't have class until Thursday but come on!

The next best thing to a visit home

So I've now been in Florida for a year and a half now and haven't even made one trip back home. This week, I don't feel so far away. We had two friends from our undergrad visit only a couple days apart. One came directly from Washington but the other moved to Miami long before we ever considered moving here.

We had a ton of fun showing our never-been-to-Florida friend around town. I'm pretty sure he took over a thousand pictures and he just couldn't get over the warmth (it was the coldest temp we've had all year but he thought it was warm. I was freezing!) and the palm trees and the beaches. It really reminded me how lucky I am to live in paradise! While he was here, I think we managed maybe 4 hours of sleep over three days. Maybe 5. Maybe. We'd sleep a couple hours and then he'd drag us back out to the beach.

Our Miami friend was great to see too! We didn't do the touristy stuff with him for obvious reasons so we just hung out and talked all weekend long. It was awesome. He couldn't get over how cheap drinks were compared to Miami so we went to more than a couple bars. I really should have been preparing for classes on Monday but I managed to get a day or so done before he got here and I'm going to work on it all day today. So it could have been worse and it was so so so worth it.

Now I'm off to watch a video for my Cuba class. I need to find a Florida/Cuban connection that I want to discuss with the class. Hmmm.  Any ideas?

It's that time again - UGH

But at the end of the semester, I get this beautiful masterpiece. Yay?

Unlike many law students, I don't start my outline at the end of the semester as an exam review. Instead, I start the semester with the table of contents in outline form and add to it each week with my in class and reading notes. I also color code it as I go. Black is from the book, blue is from the professor's lecture, red is anything regarding the exam and brown is anything I added from a supplement. Yes, it sounds over-attentive and nitpicky but it works for me. Plus, if only I had a dollar for every time a classmate asked me, "So I have "this" in my notes (from class) but the book is saying "that." What do you have?" It's very helpful to know when the professor disagrees with the book!

The only downside of my note taking? It has to start before class begins and even before you crack open the book. My first semester, I typed it all by hand and Holy Batman did that take a long time. Finally, I figured out that many publishers post the table of contents online so I could just copy and paste and then put it into outline form. Even with my new and approved method, it still takes me a few hours for each class.

So that is what I have been doing ALL night long. It's currently 5 am and I have one and a half outlines started. Since I have six classes, this should scare me but I think only three need an outline. I'm taking Evidence (needs an outline), Advanced legal research, Estate Planning (needs an outline), Remedies (needs an outline), Interviewing and Counseling, and Cuban Legal System. I only have three traditional law school exams because Advanced legal research has a end of the semester project, interviewing and counseling has an in person exam and the Cuba class has a paper at the end of the semester after our Cuba trip.

As soon as this is done, I can start reading for next week.

Oh joy.

Guess where I'm going?

No really. Guess!

No. Not there.

Not there either.



CUBA! I'm going to Cuba!

I've personally wanted to go to Cuba ever since I first learned about it. But one, American's weren't supposed to and two, I lived in the Pacific Northwest. Talk about an expensive trip. Yikes.

But then I moved to Florida and then I found out that I happen to go to a law school that has a Cuban legal system class that includes a trip to Cuba. Hello, I was all over that. I went to all the info sessions last year even though 1L's can't take the class. Finally the application cycle opened and too many people applied that there were room for so we had to go through interviews. Finally I got the email that I was accepted and BOOM. I'm going to Cuba.

I'm so EXCITED!!!

The class is all semester long but the trip is only over Spring Break. I think it's 8 days and 7 nights. Not bad at all. Plus, although it's a little easier for American's to go to Cuba now, it's still pretty limited. So I get to go before Cuba changes too much. YAY.

Intro to Elder Law

I'm hoping that no one is surprised that this is the first class I signed up for last spring. After a year of basic 1L classes, I was so ready to start the classes that I was actually interested in. I've had more than a few people tell me that since I came to law school for elder law, I would definitely not be interested in it once I graduate. I don't know about that since I haven't graduated yet but I can tell you how the class went.

First of all, let me explain my survive class method. I sit in the very front row on the side because I'm basically invisible to the professor when he/she feels like cold calling. I'll talk up a storm before or after class but during? No. I never volunteer and I've probably been cold called 4 or 5 times (not counting this class that I'll explain in a bit) in the entire year and a half I've been in law school. My friends who sit in the back get called on 4 or 5 times in a month.

This class . . . I sometimes volunteered 4 or 5 times in a DAY. I turned into "that person." To used the dreaded word, I was a gunner. UGH. But I just couldn't help it. For one thing, they kept teaching about nursing homes, assisted living homes and in home care. I've worked in all three! And I came to the field with oh so many questions about Medicare and Medicaid, it wasn't even funny. It was a tiny class of about ten so even when I tried to not speak up, I got called on anyway! I was so ashamed but also, I had so much fun in that class. What a conundrum.

To make matters worse, my professor was writing our textbook as the class was going on and she hired me as her research assistant about halfway through the semester. It was awesome because I literally got paid to read the same material we were going to cover in class, and sometimes she would assign the cases I found for her. What wasn't awesome was that she apparently decided that since she knew I had read the materials, she was going to call on me ALL THE TIME.

I'm pretty sure the class hates me.

Out of all my classes, this was the one exam I wasn't too worried about. And I walked out of there feeling the same way. Then as soon as I got home I started panicking because imagine the horror if I had bombed the test in Elder Law. I would never be able to show my face again!

Luckily, she's the only Professor who turned in grades before Christmas so I now know I didn't bomb it. (I didn't 4.0 it but I didn't embarrass myself either) But it really showed me that just because I'm a jaded 2L, I still have the potential to spaz out like a terrified 1L. I didn't sleep for two days after that exam. Good grief.

Now I just have to wait for my other grades to come out. One thing I've noticed is that Fall semester of last year, the professors really hustled to get our grades out before Christmas. It didn't seem like it at the time but looking back, I can tell that they at least tried to hurry. This year, my first exam was on the 3rd of December. It's now the 28th and still no grade. UGH. And half of the questions were multiple choice!  

Come on already!

Digging us out of a hole

I bet you thought that if I hid from the blogging world for months, I'd come back and blog about law school. (The blog is called Taking On Law School after all) But you would think wrong.

I'm going to talk about finances and confess how Fiancé and I dug ourselves into a hole this last year that we now have to find a way out of. Between Fiancé bouncing back and forth across the entire nation due to family issues, unexpected unemployment, one surgery (mine), one significant back injury (his) and the feast and famine aspect of living off my student loan check twice a year, well, we put more debt on credit cards than any one couple should ever have. This last month has been the worst in the seven years we've been together. Fiancé injured his back in November and couldn't work for two weeks. In the almost eight years I've known him, he's called in sick one time. ONCE. Since we were already living paycheck to paycheck to pay back everything from my surgery and me not being able to work for awhile, this knocked us out of the game. For the first time in my life, I had to borrow rent money. We immediately cut every bill we possibly could, stopped buying food and canceled Christmas. I also doubled my work hours two weeks before finals. I had to do what I had to do and I wanted to avoid living in my car more than I wanted good grades. We shall see how that panned out next week when grades are released.

The good news is that 1) Fiance is now back at work and 2) it made us realize that we stopped looking at our finances just because it scared us.

So here is our new plan for 2016 -

GOAL ONE: Stop Eating Out - Now, in a funny turn of events, grabbing Mcdonalds too much last semester kind of saved our butt this last month but not exactly in a good way. In September, I did my normal batch cooking for the semester but rarely had the motivation to actually cook out of it. So when it came time to stop buying things cold turkey, we had over ten casseroles in the freezer, 8 crockpot meals and numerous sides. Why didn't we eat them before? Because I was lazy. However, when I went back and looked at how much we spent on fast food, we easily could have managed to pay our rent last month. So POOF. No more eating out.

GOAL TWO: Batch Cook Easy Cheap Meals - I'm thinking lots and lots of dump chicken meals with enough ground beef meals to keep us sane. If I remember in the morning, I can dump it in the crockpot. If I don't, I can dump it in the oven. Either way, we need to stop treating ourselves with food just because we had a bad day.

GOAL THREE: Work More Hours - This is something we're both committed to. Fiancé just got a second job and will be working 6 days a week, over 60 hours a week. I'm still in school but I'm going to keep my hours higher for as long as my boss will let me. I'm volunteering for every extra assignment I can and it seems to be helping. By working more, we will hopefully be able to dig ourselves out of this debt mess and save for the next big emergency.

GOAL FOUR: Stop Being A Crutch For The Other - One reason we go in this mess is that when my surgery happened, Fiancé was working. So I relied on him to pay my half of the bills. Then when Fiancé lost his job, I had just gotten my financial aid money. We obviously have no problem covering each other (we are getting married after all) but we sort of stopped dividing bills. A big bill would come up and one would pay it without the other having any clue how much we were spending. We used to be pretty good with a budget but this last year has just been so crazy, there was no way to budget so we stopped trying. Now that things are slightly more stable, it's time to get back to it. So this week, we finally sat down and went through every bill we have and taped it to the living room wall. Our goal is to have both of us split all our bills so one, my loans aren't covering two people when it's meant to cover one, and two, my loan money doesn't run out like it did this semester.

GOAL FIVE: Keep Our Bills Low - When we crashed and burned, we went and stopped all the bills that are nice to have but not necessary. Netflix, kindle unlimited, knitting software and my wine club went out the window and I have no intention of getting them back until we pay off our credit cards. Those ten dollars or less a month bills are sneaky. Half of them, I didn't even remember we had! Good grief.

GOAL SIX: Pay Off Credit Cards - Now I'm not sure how long this one will take us but I'd like to at least double our current payment plan. It would be awesome to pay them off in 2016 but with two people making less than 10 dollars an hour, that might not be possible. We will have to see.

Now this whole post is all about the things we did wrong. However, we did do some things right. Right before this latest catastrophe, I applied for a bunch more scholarships and I was just informed last week that I got an additional $5,000 a year scholarship. Added to my previous scholarships, this basically means I don't pay tuition anymore. YAY!! Another thing I did to help avoid this mess was when Fiancé was unemployed, I got a paying job. Yes, I still have my unpaid internship too so it's been a tricky balance but it was really the only thing that kept us going as long as we did. I'm so so glad that I didn't wait until we were broke to do this because by then it would have been much too late.

What do you guys do to cut spending?


EDITED TO ADD - I literally just hit publish and I get a text from Fiancé with the news that they're cutting his hours at work again. UGH. Sometimes we just can't win.


UPDATE: Click HERE to see how I did after six months (or so).

No, I'm not dead

At least, I don't think I am. Can law school be considered Hell?

I've been having a hard time being motivated this year. Not just to update my blog but with everything. I'm kind of doing the bare minimum right now to get by in class and I am spending way too much time just messing around on the internet.

Life as a 2L - How is it different than 1L year?

The all encompassing aura of fear has dissipated. And not just for me but for everyone. The 1L gunners have mostly quieted down and most of us just want to get through this so we can move on. More people have stopped reading than ever before. Professors do not cold call as much and it almost feels more like an undergrad class. I personally still read for every class but I've basically stopped taking notes beforehand and just fill in my outline during class. Do I understand the material as well as I did last year? Well, no. But I have much more free time. Is it worth it? Undetermined.

The amount of out of class work has skyrocketed. Many of us are on an executive board of at least one club, sometimes more. (I'm on the Elder Law one of course!) We have internships or jobs or are looking for an internship or a job. And we are doing more pro bono work. All of this takes away from our classes and we just have to make it work and hope for the best.

The new baby 1L's look to us for advice. This is probably my favorite part of being a 2L. I tell them  not to freak out. Stop taking five pages of notes for every case and no, you do not need to highlight EVERYTHING. It's great.

We're no longer in sections so I am meeting so many other people. As a 1L, you have all your classes with the same 65 or so students. Now I have classes with other 2L's and 3L's. In my Wills class, I'm pretty much the only 2L.

Now that I'm officially in the Elder Law Concentration, I have certain events, office requirements and pro bono opportunities that I have to do. Some of them are a pain but for the most part, I love being surrounded by other students who are interested in the same area I am. Of course, next week when I am stuck in a suit every other day in order to volunteer at a conference, I may not feel the same. But we'll see.


Basically, 2L year is surprisingly different than my first year but all in all, I like it better.    

Life got in the way.

I can not believe it has been so long since I updated this blog. I suck and I am sorry.

Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to since I last wrote that kept me away from the blogging universe for so long.

Finals - 
I walked out of my con law final feeling like I flunked it 100%. I spent two (of the four) hours on the multiple choice and the first essay and then the final two hours on the last essay because I COULD NOT find out what the issue was with the hypo. Yeah, the law is a little vague but ... It could be a separation of powers issue but probably not ... oh is it?? No, it can't be that. For two hours. Gah. I think I had two pages for the first essay and 10 sentences for the second essay. Some how I pulled it off because this was my second highest grade (and in the end, my highest. See below).

I walked out of my property final thinking I had done okay. And I had!!! I 4.0'd it and my essay was emailed to the class as the model answer. They even gave us our ranking. And then a week later we all got an email saying that there had been an exam error and the class was being converted to pass/fail. My GPA and ranking tanked and I was so angry I couldn't even talk. Actually, I'm still so angry I can't even talk about it. GAH!

I seriously thought I NAILED torts . . . and it was my lowest grade. I don't understand it either. Eh. Such is law school.


Surgery - 
Directly after my last final and still during finals week, I had bladder surgery. It was supposed to be minor with a quick recovery period but once they cut into me, the doctor found that it would need more work than previously thought. I woke up three hours later than I was supposed to and went "What did you do to meeeeeee?" My fiancé and I had set it up so he could help me for a few days and then head back to Washington when I was up and about again. Due to the change in plans, I had to have a friend move her and her dogs into my house for three weeks after fiancé left. Two weeks out, I still couldn't dress myself. Yesterday (which is almost 2 months post surgery) I painted my toenails and then realized that all that curling over made my abs cry and I am still in pain from it today. Ridiculous.

Work -  So I was supposed to be cleared to start work at the Elder Law center on campus a little over a week after my surgery. Ha. Yeah. That didn't happen. And when I finally was cleared to go back to work, I made such a great impression that I was promptly sent home. I guess I looked like I was in significant amounts of pain. Which to be fair, I was.

Internship - Three weeks after my surgery, I started my internship with a General Magistrate. I like it but I spend 90% of my time feeling incompetent. From what I hear from former interns, everyone feels that way. Hmmm. But on the bright side, I AM LEARNING SO MUCH. I have definitely learned more from the one month of this internship that I have in my entire first year of law school.



The truth about summer break - It is not a break at all. I'm working part time, interning the rest of the week and there was the Law Review write on after finals. (I didn't finish as it was the same week as my surgery. I tried but I just couldn't.) OCR stuff is starting to heat up with cover letters and resume's due next week. I was invited to apply for the Honor's program but even that requires a ton of work. I really need to start working on the paper for that. I am applying for a DOJ internship for this fall and need to fill out all of that paperwork as well. Oh and all the try outs for moot court, trial team and ADR are this month. Don't remind me of this sentence later but I'm almost looking forward to school starting again so I can take a break. Good lord.

Anyway, I can't promise that I will keep this as updated as I would like but I will try to not let it be so long next time. I see that my traffic has increased so if there are any soon to be 1L's reading this, feel free to comment with any questions you have. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.