Ohhhhhhhh Back To School

Ohhhhhhhhh

Back to school

Back to school

To prove to dad that I'm not a fool,

I've got my lunch packed up,

My boots tied tight

I hope I don't get in a fight,

Ohhhhh

Back to school

Back to school

Back to school...

-The immortal wisdom of Adam Sandler's "Billy Madison"

Hopefully you don't judge ASP's taste in movies, however this song is particularly apt for the second semester "Back to School" time.  You've likely done more relaxing and sleeping in than you ever have during a vacation for sheer need to catch up on the rest you lost during first semester.  The hope was that you'd be reinvigorated and ready to take on second semester.  The reality, honestly, is you're probably not even close to reinvigorated.  You're anxious because not all of your grades are in, you're tired because you procrastinated on doing your winter reading and had to stay up late to catch up, and you're frustrated because no one (except your classmates) seems to understand the stress you're under.  THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL!  So how do you deal with this?  Just like we discussed in Workshop #3 last semester, now is the time to assess your study plan from last semester and make a new schedule for yourself:

• Go buy a 2012 calendar to create your study schedule
• Add your classes
• Add in "me" time
• when you work-out, sleep-in, hang out with friends, etc.
• When you get your syllabi add-in when major assignments are due, and continue adding reading assignments
• Add goals for when you want to start outlining

Preparing a schedule for yourself sounds like a tedious task, especially when you consider the above list of things to add to it.  However, keep perspective: YOU'VE ALREADY DONE THIS ONCE!  You have an entire semester under your belt already so this is old hat.  Now is the time to realize you've made it this far so you know you can do it! Were you a little tired sometimes?--Of course.  Were you stressed out a lot?--Yeah.  But at the end of the semester you sat for your exams and you came out of them alive and well in the end.  So now is the time to think about what you can do to make things a little more manageable, make life a little more enjoyable during second semester: did you take the semester off from working out and during break realize you really missed it? Did you not allow yourself to EVER sleep in and crash toward the end of the semester?  Did you miss occasionally hanging out with family or friends?  If so, it's time to include that in your "me" time because you're in law school for YOU.  That means you should understand that yes, law school is difficult, but not so difficult that all happiness and enjoyment in life should be sacrificed.

Make this semester an enjoyable one for you outside of school and you might enjoy law school that much more too.

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!

"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.