Case Western Class of 2013 Forum

(housing, friendships, future exams, all things 2013)
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thexfactor

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Re: Case Western Class of 2013

Post by thexfactor » Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:18 pm

The crim law exam is very similar to the questions in the book that he wrote. He will assign questions for hw and will then go over then im class. During the semester, he will also give 2-3 chances for some feedback on writing out a question. The exam is short answer with 6-8 questions. He will have a strict page limit so you must be very concise with your answers. Learning to IRAC your answers is crucial. The one thing you have to remember is that there is rarely a black and white answer for each question. You must think and make arguments both ways. His exam is pretty similar except to standard essays exams.

I guess a lot of it was my personal opinion. For torts, the professor didnt even cover all the material. He tried to cram the last 40% of the course in 2 class periods...
Contracts, I just didnt like his style of teaching and being a hardass. Some people might love his style.
Crim Law- I enjoyed crim law. I didnt really have any problems with that class.

Generally everyone makes their own study groups. They arent necessary. Everyone studies differently. However, it is good to know that if you miss something, someone that you can trust can pick up on the mistake. I hung out with 6-8 friends. I studied with a group of 2-4 students. We all ended up doing very well. Everyone in my group was top 20%.

I had a 1L internship already lined up. So i am not really sure about the 1L internship search. Almost everyone in the class got something unpaid. There are plenty of judicial internships available.

I feel that 1st semester was a lot tougher than 2nd semester. 2nd semester I learned where I could cut corners. I stopped briefing cases 2nd semester..... Generally my days were set up where I would take a nap between my morning class and crim law in the afternoon. This would keep me refreshed for crim law. After class, I generally spent about 2-3 hrs per night going over either outlines/hornbooks/E+E. I spent very little time reading the cases. I would generally skim through the casebook and look for a canned brief online. I sounded like an idiot when I got cold called on. However, i ended up doing pretty well. A lot of the advice that Ken provided seemed to be right on the spot for me.

I generally spent 4-6 hrs on sat and sun reviewing stuff and working on papers for core. You will realize that CORE is only a 2 credit class but it takes up 3x as much time as other classes.

There was one instance of someone hiding a book. However, it doesnt actually do anything because most books are online nowadays lol.... Most people want to do well and are competitive. However, that being said, the majority of people at school are very amicable.



Soelrdg wrote:Thank you for answering my questions so promptly. If you don't mind I would like to ask a few more of them.

1. How does the criminal law exam look like? I am asking this because I wondered how the first one-third part of the course(theory on punishment, the process and staturatory interpretation of crminal law, etc.) could be tested on a traditional issue-spotting exam. Is his exam any different from the usual essay exams one might expect to see on the finals?

2. By the "optional practice questions", are you referring to the problems included in the casebook? If so, how did you go through them? I once heard the biggest problem of the notes and questions in casebooks is that they have no answers(which is why the E&E series are so popular).

3. This may sound overly blunt, but are the professors of section B really the "worst" among the three sections as have been pointed out?

4. What about study groups? How many students join them? Are they really necessary or just optional?

5. As for networking, what would you recommend for 1L students?(particularly for 1L internship)
Are there any organizations or extracurricular activities you think worth participating in?

6. Finally, is there any truth in typical law school horror stories?(having to study 24/7 with little time to spare, cutthroat competition with pages torn out from books on library reserves and so on)

Soelrdg

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Re: Case Western Class of 2013

Post by Soelrdg » Mon Aug 16, 2010 6:27 pm

Again, thanks for your informative answer. Your advice was of great help to me, especially with regards to the idiosyncracies of each professor. It is heartening to have a upper student who is so willing to share his experience with others. I hope I will likewise in a position to help incoming students at this time next year.

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creamedcats

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Re: Case Western Class of 2013

Post by creamedcats » Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:14 pm

So, how have the first few weeks treated everyone?

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2LsAPlenty

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Re: Case Western Class of 2013

Post by 2LsAPlenty » Wed May 23, 2012 1:44 pm

So how have the 2L summer jobs treated everyone?

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