Dun Dun Dun! Checking for Grades

I know it seems premature to think about but before you know it grades will be posted.  Inevitably, one of your classmates on Facebook, via text, or via email will announce when a new grade has been posted.  If you don’t want to know your grades until they ALL have been posted be sure to steer clear of social media until January.  If you MUST know your grades immediately then you will get the announcement and check your grade straightaway. 

So, how do you check for grades?

1)      Log on to my.whittier

2)      Click on the “my info” tab

3)      Click on the link for “Academic Transcript”

4)      Hit Submit

Somewhere between Step 3 and Step 4 you will feel a slight hesitation or a nervous pang in the bottom of your stomach: This is it.  This is the moment you find out just how much your hard work has paid off.

This process is very similar to what you will go through when you get your bar results.  Bar results come out the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving at 6:00pm.  You are given a card during the bar exam with a number, a password, and a website where you can check whether or not you passed.  From 5:55pm until 5:59pm you will pace around, nervous with anticipation and raring to get it over with.  However, once 5:59 and thirty seconds rolls around you will sit down in front of your computer, hands shaking, refreshing the page to see if it’s time.  Once it’s time, you will plug in your numbers and just like Step 4 above, hit submit.  Then it feels like the entire world falls out from below you as you wait for your results to pop-up.  Then, the moment you realize you passed (which you will, I mean you’re tracking this blog so obviously you’re staying on top of you law school experience!) you will expect trumpets and bells and whistles and confetti to start falling—but it doesn’t.  Instead you’ll be so excited you won’t know what to do with yourself, call all of the people you know, and (if you’re anything like me) be so emotionally exhausted you fall asleep at 8:00pm.

Getting law school grades back is very similar but on a smaller scale.  So if you do well and get excited, imagine how passing the bar will be exponentially more exciting!  If you do not do as well as you had hoped DON’T PANIC.  There are several things to do:

·         Keep in mind these are soft grades, there is a lot of room for improvement

·         Ask your professors if you can go over your exam together to get a better idea of what he or she was looking for

·         Come to ASP—we are more than happy to work with you to figure out where and why you struggled

·         Reassess your study plan—what worked? What didn’t work?

·         Realize you have an entire semester to improve your GPA and with a little hard work significant improvement is possible

What should you be doing over Winter Break?

Congratulations! You have completed your first semester of law school. It is an accomplishment you should be proud of. Now take some time to relax and recharge before next semester. (sleep, clean your living space, catch up on your DVR programs, start some holiday shopping, etc.) Spend time reconnecting with family and friends and remembering there is a life outside of law school.

Do not feel the need to start pre-reading right away for next semester. However, take some time to reflect on your performance during your first semester. What worked well for you? What did not work as well? Was you study group effective for your learning? Were your study guides an aid or a crutch? Make new goals for yourself for the next semester; such as when to start outlining, when to start taking practice exams, when to see T.A.s, Prof. ASP etc.

If your professor gives you the option to review your final exam, take that opportunity even if you scored well in the class! Learning what your professor, and ultimately the bar, is looking for and how each grade an exam will help you self-assess and identify areas for you to improve.

Last but not least, have fun but get ready to gear up for next semester!

Waiting for your iPhone 4S? Once you get it download these apps:

We all love our smart phones, but did you know that your smart phone can help you succeed in law school?! Many traditional law school resources are now available for your phone or tablet in app form. Using apps to aid in law school study is a great way for law students to get use to the mobile efficiency they will experience as practicing attorneys. In the practice of law, lawyers are using apps for everything from tracking their MCLE credits and tracking billable hours to tracking their court dates.

Business Insider complied the must have i-phone apps for law students, below are some highlights:

1)     Black’s Law Dictionary - $54.99: Saves you from lugging around a 6 pound book! Also includes audio pronunciations of more than 7,000 terms and hyperlinks to Westlaw.

2)     Constitution – some free most .99₵: should be a staple in any 2L’s phone.

3)     iStudiez Pro - $2.99: Organization is key to doing well in law school and this app lets you organize your study schedule, assignments, study group dates and more.

4)     Lexis Nexis Get Cases & Shepardize – FREE: although it doesn’t have all the functions of the online version, the app version allows you to search cases, get summaries and shepardize all for free.

5)     Law in a Flash Apps: varies in price around $39.99 a subject: available for almost every subject each subject set includes over 300 flash cards and the app allows you to bookmark cards, add notes and shuffle the deck.

6)     Law Stack – FREE: includes all the Federal Rules and the Constitution in one app.

7)     BARBRI – FREE: whether you are studying for your 1L finals or the bar exam, BARBRI’s outlines, lectures and practice questions can be right at your finger tips

Other suggestions

1)     ABA Journal App – FREE: brings you breaking legal news of the day as well as their in depth magazine articles.

2)     Lawyer QuickQuotes - .99₵: allows you to search over 690 quotes by topic from famous lawyers or shake you phone to get a random quote.

::ASP is in no way endorsing the iPhone or any Apple products::

Quick Tips!

Ala yelp, I thought it'd be good to give quick tips regarding exam writing:

DO... Do pay attention to the call of the question.  Do pre-write outline your answer using about 15% of the time provided.  Do use your  pre-write outline to identify "hot issues" in the facts Do focus on the analysis of issues.  Do mention every issue or element of an issue even if you conclude it's not likely to be met--just explain WHY it's not. Do use every key fact in your analysis. Do explain why the key facts matter or apply to the buzz words of the rule. Do leave your biases at home sometimes you will be forced to side for the "bad guy" Do issue spot and jot down the rule for every issue you spot on the exam if you run out of time to write-out the last few issues DON'T... Don't restate the facts of the problem. Don't answer questions the professor doesn't ask about. Don't waste time on your outline making it look pretty. You don't get credit for an outline. Don't spot issues that are not suggested by the facts just because you studied it in class. Don't analyze elements already established in the facts--ex: if the facts state the contract was valid, don't analyze whether the contract was valid.

Midterms

So it's finally the time you've (probably) been dreading: midterms.  This is probably the most anxious you have felt since law school started and for good reason--midterms are your first opportunity to prove you know what you're doing.  Most One-Ls walk around with a big question mark hovering over their heads for the first six weeks of school because nothing is clear.  The first six weeks are full of questions. Questions like:

• "Am I getting this, or do I just think I get it?"
• "How do I even go about studying?"
• "Am I following what's happening in class?"
• "You mean my professor expects me to memorize ALL of these rules?" and
• "How do I even go about applying these rules?"

 These are all questions that students anxiously dwell on.  However, midterms are a good way to gauge how well you actually DO understand the material.  Midterms provide answers to all of the questions above and more.  Midterms force you to study, to outline, to go over your class notes, and hopefully take some practice tests.  By the time your midterm comes you should know, or at least have a good idea, about how much of each subject you "get" and what you need to work on.

By now, you should have an outline ready (or almost) to start taking practice exams.  The ASP office has practice exams (with answers!) on file for you.  All you have to do is email or come in to office hours and ask for them.  Also, the ASP office is more than willing to look over your outlines, practice exam answers, or just field any question you may have about midterms.

You can email any of us to ask for practice exams and our office hours are as follows:

	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Prof. Homer jhomer@law.whittier.edu	12:00pm-2:30pm  4:00pm-5:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm
Prof. Dombrow kdombrow@law.whittier.edu	9:00am-12:00pm 2:00pm-4:30pm	9:00am-12:00pm 2:00pm-4:30pm	9:00am-12:00pm in library
Prof. Gutterud hgutterud@law.whittier.edu	12:00pm-2:30pm in library 4:00pm-7:`00pm in library	8:00am-12:00pm 1:00pm-2:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm

GOOD LUCK!

Are They Speaking In Code?

For better understanding of what your professor is writing on the board and for speedier note taking, here is a list of useful symbols and their meanings.  Trust us, these will come in very handy over the course of law school:

·      § = Section

·      ∆ or D = Defendant

·      ∏ or P = Plaintiff

·      ¶ = Paragraph

·      Aff’d = Affirmed

·      B = Beneficiary

·      BFP = Bona Fide Purchaser

·      BOP = Burden of Proof

·         COA=Cause of Action

·      Corp = Corporation

·      FRCP = Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

·      FRE = Federal Rules of Evidence

·      Gov or Gov’t = Government

·      JNOV = Judgment notwithstanding the verdict

·      Jx or Jxn = Jurisdiction

·      K = Contract

·      OE = Offeree

·      OR = Offeror

·      PJ = Personal Jurisdiction

·      RAP = Rule against Perpetuities

·      Rev’d = Reversed

·      SL = Strict Liability

·      SMJ = Subject Matter Jurisdiction

·      SOL = Statute of Limitations

·      TRO = Temporary Restraining order

·      UCC = Uniform Commercial Code

·      v. = Versus

·      w/ = With

·      w/o or w/out = Without

In addition to these symbols, which are perfect for condensing notes and outlines, some common law school accessories a student should not be without are a Black’s Law Dictionary and perhaps a supplement or two. 

For help with note taking, outlining, and determining what, if any, supplement is right for you come to ASP office hours where you can check out a supplement or ask for advice regarding them.  Our office hours are:

	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Prof. Homer	12:00pm-2:30pm 4:00pm-5:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm
Prof. Dombrow	9:00am-12:00pm 2:00pm-4:30pm	9:00am-12:00pm 2:00pm-4:30pm	9:00am-12:00pm in library
Prof. Gutterud	12:00pm-2:30pm in library  4:00pm-7:00pm in library	8:00am-12:00pm 1:00pm-2:00pm	9:00am-12:00pm

"Everybody's Working For the Weekend..."

Congratulations! You survived the first week of law school. What should you be spending your first weekend doing? Celebrating? Studying? Trying to see if you can still transfer to an M.B.A. program . . .? First and foremost, take a moment to take a deep breath and realize that you made it through the first week, only 16 more to go until Winter Break! Law school is about pacing yourself, so take pride in the fact you have one full week under your belt.

In ASP we recommend that you spend part of the weekend evaluating your performance during your first week of law school. Ask yourself the following questions: How did your reading go? Reading briefs will get easier the more you read, but are you having a hard time finding the rule of law in the brief? Are you confused by the procedural history? Ask yourself, how did your briefs work? If you had been called would you have been able to answer the professors questions using the briefs you prepared? What area of your brief do you need to work on? Make sure to attend the ASP Workshop #1 next week to fine tune your briefing skills. Identifying the areas you need improvement this weekend will help you pinpoint what to focus on during the workshop.  Law school is all about self-assessment and identifying how you can best learn, comprehend, and analyze the law.

We also recommend that you make a study plan or review your current study plan. Make a calendar that breaks up the week, day by day, hour by hour. Include your classes, your commute time, any jobs, family or religious commitments, workout time, etc. This should leave you with a clear view of the hours you have to devote towards reading, briefing, outlining, etc. As you probably are already realizing, you will spend more time reading some subjects than others. Pencil into your calendar when you plan to do reading and briefing for each subject. Realize that your study plan is not set in stone and needs to be constantly evaluated during the first semester. You will need to add in time for outlining, research projects, legal research papers, etc. in the near future. Start to think about where you may be able to plug these tasks into your current study plan.

So, in addition to any studying your new study plan includes this weekend, remember that it’s important to RELAX and maybe even catch up on the sleep you missed over the week.  

Getting Past Orientation Anxiety

I vividly remember my first year orientation. I got there five minutes late and it seemed like everyone already knew each other and had it all together.  I was convinced that for them, law school was going to be fine.  Meanwhile, I thought I was destined to have a failed law school experience and make no friends.  All because I was five minutes late.

By the first day of classes I had made a few friends, however, as luck would have it, they were transferred from Section A to Section C.  I walked into Professor Cohen’s contracts class, chose a spot toward the back and sat by myself.  Literally, there was no one on either side of me. I was the smelly kid.  I was so intimidated by law school and the other students who I thought had it so much more together than I did.  I was a loser. 

For Halloween, our section threw a party celebrating one last hurrah before we locked ourselves away to outline before finals.  (As ASP fellows we recommend you start outlining before Halloween—we learned this the hard way).  At the party we were reminiscing about the beginning of the year and how nervous we had all felt but were too prideful to admit.  A friend shared that he was completely intimidated by me because I had the nerve to sit by myself.  A few more people chimed in—they thought I was tough!  In my head I had been a loser, everyone else, being in the anxious state that starting first year creates thought I was the intimidating one.

My point in sharing this story is that everyone is anxious about starting first year.  The important thing is to get through it as best you can.

Law School can be very time-consuming, but taking the time to getting involved and engaged in the law school community will help you with a sense of belonging on campus. By attending events at the law school you will have the opportunity to meet and get to know your fellow classmates outside of the classroom. Your fellow students can be a great system of support. They understand what you are currently going through and may even have some helpful tips and hints to share with you. Furthermore, your fellow students are your future colleagues in the legal community, so start developing these important relationships now.

 In addition, getting involved in student organizations gives you the opportunity to develop skills, enhance your academic program, explore different areas of the law, and contribute to the community all in a fun and social setting. Ultimately, as with most things in life, what you put into your law school experience will directly correlate with how much you get out of your law school experience. So dive right in and get involved!

 Opportunities to get out of the classroom and get involved:

August 26, 2011: Welcome Back Bar Review

Location: Blue Beat, check law school website for updated information on time of event.

August 31, 2011: Welcome Back BBQ and Student Organization Fair

                           Location: Quad, 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.