You Better Stop!... and Look Around... Here It Comes!
I am now firmly ensconced in outlining/studying mode1. Now is the time of the semester were we must wrestle ourselves from the minutiae of each particular case2 and focus on the "Big Picture." As all my law school brethren and sistren (?) know, this is fucking hard!
After reading anywhere from 300-500 pages per class (for a grand total of 1000-2000 pages for the semester), with each page dripping with minor, and in many cases insignificant, points of law, we must now distill all this... law... into a coherent 20-50 pages which not only help us understand the law of a particular subject, but will actually be useful during the final. Once again, this is fucking hard.
Right now, I feel I have successfully navigated the sea of Criminal Law (my first exam) to create an outline3. I am now working on the fascination that is Personal Jurisdiction, Subject Matter Jurisdiction, Venue, and other utterly wonderful topics of Civil Procedure, and if there is time I will tackle the lovely Property (Con Law will not get outlined, because it is too huge and it's a 2 day take home exam anyway, so if need be I can look stuff up).
The end is in sight, and it is frightening. To quote Haley Joel Osment "I see law, people."
1Well, obviously not firmly, as I am taking off time to write this post... in fact, I have found that I have been posting more, instead of less, as finals approach. Will my lack of urgency come back to bite me in the ass come finals time? (Probably yes) Or, is it a sign that I have a healthy and well-adjusted attitude about school? (Probably Not)
2With our professors kicking and screaming the whole way.
3Which will still have to be reviewed and cut down, as it is an unwieldy and wordy 50 pages.
posted by Unreasonable Man @ 10:02 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Wow. You're trying to become something where you actually have to study and prepare for finals. Chalk up another plus for the English Major.
Hey I'm outlining civpro too! Isn't jurisdiction great?
Unluckily for us, our Conlaw prof is making us memorize the case names. He will have 10 quotes and we have to identify the case and the issue being quoted on...
Here are my guesses:
1. Dred Scott - blacks aren't people
2. Roe v. Wade - you can abort that fetus, but only in the first 2 trimesters (unless there is a health risk)
3. Marbury v. Madison - screw you Congress, we (the Supremes) get to interpret the Constitution
4. McCulloch v. Maryland - Neccessary and proper doesn't really mean necessary and proper... so the U.S. gets a bank.
5. Texas v. Johnson - you wanna burn the American flag? Why here are some matches my good friend.
6. Um... Screw this, you're probably much better off just failing the class and retaking it next year in the hopes that you will get a less mean professor.
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