Finals Week

It's the most wonderful time....of the year! (NOT) I have my first final this Friday in Land Use Control, followed by an Administrative Law final on Monday and a Professional Responsibility on Tuesday. The past few days have consisted of the following: sleep (a little), wake up with questions about Land Use Control, Admin Law, and/or Professional Responsibility, eat breakfast/start outlining, outline, outline, outline outline, eat while outlining, outline. Then, in the afternoon I try to take Mosley for a jog or at least make it to the gym for a break and a change of scenery. Then I eat dinner with the girls and outline the night away until I can't stay awake anymore. As soon as I try to sleep, however, my mind starts racing with questions about the material I outlined and I start getting anxious about being behind, etc. These are the questions and feelings that I wake up with.

For each class I have taken roughly 60 pages of lecture notes throughout this semester. I condense these notes into an outline that is half the length. This takes forever -- probably 3 pages of notes per hour! But, in doing so, I essentially learn the material (and usually retain it). Once I complete the initial outline, I print it, get a legal pad, and rewrite it in shorthand. This repetition really drills the material home. If I have any questions, I e-mail my professors. Lastly, I try to take at least one full practice exam per class. It is amazing how helpful (and painful) this approach is, but it has always worked for me.

This is my the last semester ever of graded law school finals! The law school allows each student to declare one class pass/fail. I have saved mine for Trusts & Estates next semester. My other classes consist of final papers, which, while painful in their own right, are nowhere near as painful as outlining and preparing for a graded final. Hooray for no more graded exams!

The good news is I have a break from school from 12/15-1/11. Of course I will be working full-time to make some $$ and working on law journal issues, but it will be nice to be away from school. Then its my final semester and hopefully a job offer somewhere :)