Three weeks down
The third week of law school has passed and I feel like I’m on a roll and getting a study pattern down. I think my classmates are feeling similarly. Of course we’ve been dealing with pretty much the same topics for three weeks in each class so perhaps we’ll lose that comfortable feeling when we move on, but for now we’re all nodding our heads and smiling. 
I’ve been listening in the car to the LEEWS (Legal Essay Exam Writing System) tapes and the author really break things down in an easy-to-understand fashion. I am hopeful that between LEEWS and Getting to Maybe, I will have some chance of doing well. I’ve heard from several current students that you should just “Do your best and try not to stress.” Ha. These people have never worked in law firms and seen the down and dirty side of recruiting discussions. I don’t necessarily want to work in BigLaw but I do know that, in order to be competitive, you need to at least be in the top 25% (top 15, really). So there is pressure to learn the skills quickly and to keep up.
I have a classmate who disagrees. She says she wants to be a solo so she’s not going to even attempt to write on to law review or do moot court. My theory is, “Why close doors?” You don’t want to spend four years on this educational path and then find out that your grades aren’t good enough and you should have participated more. If you have the grades and you have the activities then you will probably have more job options to choose from.
June 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Agree. LEEWS was helpful but you have to actually DO the system he describes for it to be any good. IE: start with practice exams early, outline early. The classes I did this in, I never scored below a B+ (actually, only one was a B+, the rest were A/A-). The classes where I didn’t use the system were lower. Causal relationship? Who knows. But there is one testimonal for ya.
GTM not so much — I found it of limited value.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:20 am
Thanks! Makes sense that starting early and staying on track would lead to success. Hopefully I can make that happen. So far the sample exams I have are broader than what we’ve covered, but hopefully I can start working on some soon