How to spend November in 1L Forum

[Ryanjonn]

All you top law students out there,

It's November so as you know, it's go time. My final memo is due Nov 14th. My first exam is Torts on the 28th. Crim is Dec 4th. CivPro is Dec. 11.

What are your suggestions on how to spend this month?

[QContinuum]

Uh, spend it studying and outlining? Not sure what you're looking for. There isn't a secret shortcut.

Oh, I guess this is something not every 1L gets: If your family isn't local, don't go home for Thanksgiving if at all possible. You need that time to buckle down and study.

[basketofbread]

^ Don't go home for thanksgiving. Your parents won't understand, but tell them that some posters on TLS said it was okay.

Just utterly consume the E&E's for Torts and CivPro, and Dressler's understanding (and maybe the Crim E&E) cover to cover. Finish them so that you finish learning the doctrine earlier than your class. Take as many practice tests as you can stand, take at least some under full timed conditions. Go over E&E sections and questions multiple times. Compile rules from the E&E / casebooks / notes / other outlines into a framework for analyzing a particular issue. Eliminate all case briefs from your outline, if any. Instead, insert case names next to the relevant rule they represent. Also make a checklist / attack outline of a few pages that distills the framework.

You must have some kind of system to triage and actually take exams. Whether LEEWS or something else, you have to actually have a plan to systematically handle writing an exam. This is separate from the substantive knowledge you need to write it. If you don't know how to take an exam, it doesn't matter whether you know the material or not.

All of this is extremely truncated, and if you haven't already, you should inhale all of the guides in the sticky. Most of that advice is golden. Good luck!

[paradiselost9]

if you're at penn, i'd take a week off, maybe two. then spend lots of time with family. it'll help you on the exam. really buckle down early december.

[QContinuum]

if you're at penn, i'd take a week off, maybe two. then spend lots of time with family. it'll help you on the exam. really buckle down early december.

OP's final exams are on Nov. 28, Dec. 4, and Dec. 11. OP should absolutely not take Thanksgiving off.

[BulletTooth]

Finish up your outlines if you haven't already. Start taking practice exams.

[nixy]

if you're at penn, i'd take a week off, maybe two. then spend lots of time with family. it'll help you on the exam. really buckle down early december.

Very funny attempt to get a 1L in your class to slack off. Hilarious.

(I don't agree with the above comment about the E&E's - don't utterly consume them/use them to learn doctrine, just use them to supplement whatever you don't understand or what's lacking in your notes. The rest of that comment was very good though.)

[paradiselost9]

if you're at penn, i'd take a week off, maybe two. then spend lots of time with family. it'll help you on the exam. really buckle down early december.

Very funny attempt to get a 1L in your class to slack off. Hilarious.

you know it wouldn't work lol