ASP Spring 2012 Office Hours

Prof. Homer
jhomer@law.whittier.edu
MONDAY: 9:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-5:00p
TUESDAY: 9:00am-12:00pm
THURSDAY: 9:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-5:00pm

Prof. Dombrow
kdombrow@law.whittier.edu
MONDAY: 10:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-6:00pm (in the library)
TUESDAY: 9:00am-12:00pm
THURSDAY: 9:00am-11:00pm & 2:00pm-5:00pm

Prof. Gutterud
hgutterud@law.whittier.edu
MONDAY: 8:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-4:00pm
TUESDAY: 9:00am-12:00pm
THURSDAY: 10:00am-11:00am & 2:00pm-6:00pm (in library)

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.

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!