I survived 1L exams - sorta #1LHell

So I survived my first pass at law school exams. Sorta. Or, said precisely, I survived exams but not without incident. In fact, the incident was a major, end-of-the-world mental breakdown. And I hope sharing my experience may help someone else. So, here we go:

Like a lot of law schools Profs, my Torts Prof stressed again and again that our take home exam could NOT be late under any circumstances. In fact, I believe the syllabus said we would be counted off 10% for every MINUTE the exam was late.

Now the concept of this late pentalty didn’t phase me, at first, because my Torts Prof also said that we would have 6 hours to complete an exam that should only take us 3 hours. So, why stress about a deadline that I’m sure to beat?

Then the exam rolled around. I studied with my study group for anywhere from 20-30 hours in the weeks before the exam. I felt ready. I wasn’t nervous, per say, more like excited.

I popped open the take home exam starting the 6 hour time clock and got to work.

I worked my little heart out. The exam was two questions. The first was your typical, crazy Torts fact pattern where everything that could go wrong would go wrong. The second question was a policy question (not uncommon in a Torts exam).

Now, you’re probably thinking, “two flipping questions? You lost your f’ing mind over two stinking questions?”

Yes. I did.

And here’s why:

I spent all six hours on the first question. It wasn't intentional. I simply didn’t manage my time well because I thought I’d finish in three hours (like the Prof said) and I wouldn’t even need to manage my time.

BIG MISTAKE

The first question completely kicked my ass. It was two and a half pages single spaced. There were a boat load of legal issues and a ton of potential litigants.

This question was at least twice as long as the hypos we ran during our study session (btw, E&E's are fab). Not only was the question longer, but it was more dense. It was just packed with crap.

I spent at least one of the six hours OUTLINING my answer!!! Now, for those experienced in the way of law school exams you're thinking, "okay, an hour to outline? That's amateur hour. You must have chased issues that weren't actual issues." And you'd be correct. I'm owning that 100%.This was my first attempt at a law school exam. I prepared but I didn't really know what to anticipate.

But none of that worried me. I was calm and steady and went about my business detailing the issues and rules affiliated with intentional torts, negligence, and products liability. I raised defenses and tried to argue the points of law from both sides.

When I was nearly done with my first question I looked down at the clock and realized I had THREE MINUTES LEFT TO FINISH THE TEST AND UPLOAD IT TO THE SITE.

Cue major freak out!

My hands started shaking. My heart erupted into a thunderstorm of flutters and palpitations. I felt dizzy.

How did I let this happen? Where did the time go? What could I do?
I typed with trembling fingers a few bullets under question 2 (policy question) and hit save. Then I tried to log back into the electronic blue book site (aka the devil’s website) and that’s when the real panic set in.

I couldn’t log in.

I had 60 seconds to upload my exam or it would be late and I COULDN’T GET IN!

I started hyperventilating. My ears were ringing and my eyes swamped with tears.

This wasn’t happening, I thought. This must be a nightmare.

I took a deep breath and tried again. Still couldn’t get in. I tried again and again….nothin.

I was locked out of the site.

At this point the clock said I was thirteen minutes late. THIRTEEN!

That would mean I would get 130% deducted from my exam for being late (remember when the class stressed a 10% reduction in grade for every MINUTE it was late.)

I literally screamed. I wailed. I howled. I was devastated.

I had just flunked out of law school because of a stupid mistake!!!

Cue vomit. Literally.

That’s right. I threw up. I started crying hysterically and basically lost my mind. I tried again and again to get into the web site with no luck.

I remembered that if we had IT problems we were supposed to email the registrar….but I didn’t have their email address. So I set out on the web to find their email info.

Now you may be wondering why I didn’t just email the prof and explain my situation to him. In law school all grading of exams is anonymous. We aren’t allowed to discuss our exam tragedies with our profs.

I found the registrars email address and phone number and began calling. My calls went to voice mail. I left 4 hysterical voice mails (not intentionally, mind you, I was just that flipped out) and pleaded my case. I explained the mistake and the situation and that I wasn’t trying to pull one over on anyone. I cried.

Inbetween phone calls I sent emails. Broken, choppy, typo-filled emails with trembling fingers pleading my case. Nothing. No response.

I calmed down a bit – the horrible reality and crushing embarrassment settled over me (OMG I FLUNKED OUT OF LAW SCHOOL!) . I called the registrar again. This time, calm. And started repeating my case. Calmly.

But by the end of the message I was hysterically crying again.

I was a disaster.

Finally, about an hour and a half AFTER the exam was due I received an email from the registrar.

I assumed my career in law was over. Done. Just like that. In a blink of an eye. In a moment. All the possibilities were burned to the ground. All because of a dumb mistake.

My muscles hurt. My throat hurt. My face hurt from throwing up. I was shaking like a leaf and I sprawled out on the bathroom floor because it was cool on my flaming hot skin.

It was over.

I imagined telling my family that I failed. I pictured the disappointment on their face when I explained how and why I failed. The stupidity of everything.

And then I pictured telling my coworkers at my Day Job. And my friends.

Tears streamed down my face but I wasn’t shuddering with sobs anymore. I ached all over and lacked the strength to sob.
I literally thought my dream was dead.

But then my phone dinged. It was an email from the registrar. She said not to worry. That they have a handful of kids every year who can’t upload to the site and just to email her my exam.

I did.

But I also explained that it was now almost two hours late and I was going to fail because of the deductions for being late.

She responded saying not to worry, that they don’t count off for lateness if the exam is late due to technical difficulties.

And just like that, in a two sentence email, all my crying and hysterics were wiped clean.

I wasn’t going to fail (necessarily). I wasn’t going to get penalties for being late. I wasn’t technically late.

I worried and lost my shit for nothing. NOTHING.

Sure, I spent all my time on the first answer and didn’t actually answer the second question. But that didn’t mean I would fail. Even with that major blunder I could still ride the curve to success.

In the course of eight little hours I had: poured my brain into an exam answer, lost my mind, imaged the worst, cried until I threw up, and then was told not to worry – that it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

It was like the clouds parted and a beam of light shone right on my face. I was going to be okay. I frantically researched the minimum passing grade in order to not have to repeat the class (D, btw). And then I searched for the curve distribution from the previous years. Only 3 people get D’s. No F’s.

That means even if I get the lowest grade in the class I will get a D. That’s not failing. And as unpleasant as receiving a D would be it’s not all bad because: I will not have to repeat the class!!! (God I love the curve)!

And when grades came out I was pleasantly surprised to receive a grade much higher than a D.

So, why share my humiliation an pain?

Because so much of law school is about competition and being the best. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because you aren’t on top you must be failing and the world is ending. It’s simply not true.

You can get low grades and still pass. You can think you did poorly on an exam and still do well.

Law school isn’t easy. It’s meant to be hard.
Embrace the hard --Embrace the journey--and don’t lose it over the little stuff.

Tips for tackling your first semester of law school #1Lhell

When my study group and I were wrapping up our first semester of law school we reflected back on what we wish we would have done to make the semester a little less stressful.

School is hard enough without making it harder by missing opportunities. Effective and efficient management of school work is the name of the game.

So, for those of you crazy enough to attempt the JD degree, here are the 5 tips from my study group on how to effectively prepare for exams:

1. Do your reading. This should go without saying but I said it so I’m going to talk about it. Being prepared is a big deal in law school. It’s considered unprofessional to show up without having done the reading. Read your cases. Brief your cases. Some upperclassmen may tell you not to ‘waste’ time with briefing but to them I say “back off you crazy, lazy, gunning b*stards.” Briefing is a substantial study tool and a helpful skill to develop. Don’t sell yourself short. You got here – now do the work.

2. Start outlining earlier! If your school is anything like mine, then they will have this super nice Academic Success Program. The program involves students presenting on tips and tricks for succeeding in law school. One of the tips they offered was to wait to outline until November (about a month before exams). The theory was that you, as a new law student, wouldn't really understand how the rules fit together so your outline wouldn't make sense. But, I'm telling you, start as soon as possible. And when I say start, I mean, grab the table of contents for your case book and compare it to your syllabus. Write up a rough outline of subjects using those two resources as a guide. Do it before classes start if you can. And then, each week, type your class notes under the applicable section heading. This will help you tremendously when exams are looming over you.

3. Type your notes each week. Some of my professors didn't allow laptops in class which meant taking notes by hand. This didn't bother me because the act of writing something down always seemed to cement it in my mind. However, outlines are typed. And outlining is easier and faster if your notes are typed. Just don't do what most of my study group did - don't let your notes pile up. It's overwhelming and you don't need anything else overwhelming on your plate.

4. Run hypos sooner. When you get close to exams you'll likely want to run hypos. This means finding a study aid (like E&E's) and reading their hypothetical questions and noodling out your best guess of an answer. We did this for hours and hours on end before exams. But we all agreed it would have helped us tremendously if we had tackled hypos each week. Learn something new in Contracts? Run a corresponding hypo to make sure you understand the material. The exercises help you recall the concepts and keep the materials fresh.

5. Meet with your study group sooner. We all agreed we wish we would have started meeting sooner. Meet each week. Meet whenever. But meet sooner than you think you need to. Meet and discuss what was covered in class. Meet and talk through your questions. Meet and work on your collaborative outline. Do whatever. But meet. Meeting helped us stay accountable and kept us on track.

Hope these tips help. Have additional tips? Share them here.

9 Things to Do Before Starting Law School #1Lhell

I'm done with my first semester of 1Lhell. Which means I'm sleeping as much as humanly possible and trying to have fun (you know, that three letter word that was so familiar BEFORE school). So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect over the beginning of it all. If you are starting law school in the future maybe these things will come in handy.

Here are my top 9 things to do before starting law school:

1. Talk to everyone! Tell everyone who will listen that you are going to law school. I mean, don’t be a jerk about it but get the word out. Who knows, someone may know someone who is an attorney and *boom* instant network connection. Networking is a constant in the professional world. For those who haven’t worked in a career before this will come as a shock. For those of you (like me) who are pursuing law as a second (or third) career you know networking starts now. Heck, maybe it started yesterday. Just get to it and don’t worry about sounding silly. You’re a 1L – no one expects you to know everything.

2. Get a good, light weight, laptop. This cannot be understated. You will already have about a billion pounds worth of books to lug around. Who wants to lug around a 5 million pound 17 in’ laptop? No one. *insert aint no one got time for that meme* I use a Microsoft Surface (pro 2) and I love it. Some people will tell you to get a Mac – I’m not a super Mac fan but if that’s what floats your boat then, by all means, float your boat.

3. Get your job sitch figured out – you don’t need any extra stress. Set expectations early with your employer that you will need flexibility in order to make school work.

4. Get your home sitch figured out – home is essential. It’s where you unwind. It’s where you relax. It’s where you spend your time when you aren’t at work or at the library. So start talking to your SO’s or family now. Set expectations with them early and often. This is going to be a HUGE change and they need to be on board. They are your partners in this endeavor. You need their support.

5. Have as much fun as possible – this is your last moment of freedom before you commit to a grueling lifestyle of hard work. Take this moment to celebrate EVERYTHING and ANYTHING! Celebrate getting into school. Celebrate the fact that it’s Thursday. Just be sure you are enjoying life because when things get hard you’ll want happy memories to see you through.

6. Visit family – you may not be able to travel for every holiday anymore. Sure, you have Thanksgiving week off from class but it’s also the last week before finals. You’ll want that time to study. So maybe that means spending turkey day at home instead of with the fam. Plan now for how you will spend your holidays and set those expectations. You’ll feel a lot less stress if you take care of it now. Not to mention the total awesome feeling you’ll get from spending time with your loved ones.

7. Get your personal medical issues in order – I was getting headaches as I studied for the LSAT. I had Lasik about 10 yrs ago and knew it was guaranteed so I made time to visit with the eye doc and find out what was causing my headaches. The issue was nothing that could be corrected with a repeat procedure so it was determined that I needed glasses. Better that I got those glasses before school as opposed to suffering through and then getting them in the middle of first semester. This applies to mental health issues as well. I’m glad I didn’t wait until the semester started to discuss my mental health with my provider. This is serious stuff. You need to take it seriously.

8. Plan to protect your time – a lot of people will tell you that just because you’re in school doesn’t mean you need to give up on the things that you love. If you’re like me and you enjoy running and fitness then schedule time in your day to work out. It’s not enough to schedule the time. You need to protect that time like a momma bear protects her cubs. Luckily for me I’ve learned this skill because I love to write and writing is a task that can get easily run over by the rest of life. Now, this is easier said than done. For example, I regularly miss my workouts and have had to drop writing sessions completely for a while. But it’s not because I didn’t try. I did. I am. And I’m adapting my schedule to what will work.

9. Sleep. Sleeeeeeeeep. For the love of god sleep. You will likely run on less sleep than you thought possible once school gets underway. So make sure you aren’t going into it already operating at a deficit.


Hope these tips help you as you get ready to start your law school journey.

Have you been through 1Lhell? What did you wish you could have done before the semester started? Share here.

Here we go - first attempt at 1L exams #1lhell

wish me luck. This week marks the beginning of the end of my first semester of law school.

I'd like to think that I'm ready - that all my hours spent preparing will pay off - but who knows.

I'm hoping to ride the curve to success with the rest of the class. Because, in the end, that's how this works right? We are judged against our peers. If we all fail we all pass. Right?

Because if I'm truly honest with myself, I'm feeling a lot like Michael Scott right about now:

Expectation v. Reality - The Curious Case of The Part-Time Law Student #1Lhell

There are certain things you expect when you start out on your law school journey. You expect to work hard. You expect to sacrifice. You even expect to go a little nutz-o when exams loom over you like the shadow of the Grim Reaper. And if you are considering going back to school (meaning law would be a second (or third, or fourth) career and not that k-JD + gap year crap) you probably expect things will be different for you.

And you're right. Things will be different for you. Very different.

Law school is hard and it will be hard for you. But there are a lot of little ways going 'part-time' isn't what I thought it would be.

1. Part-time is really Full-time minus 1 class - Not every school offers a part-time program. The ones that do offer part-time schedules aren't exactly what you might consider 'part-time' in the normal sense of the word. I'm not going to school two nights a week (or even three nights a week), no, I'm going to school four nights a week. First Semester, 1L year, my class load is identical to my full-time day student colleagues with the exception of one class. Now, that's not to diminish the work that day students do. I can't imagine tossing another class into the tornado that is my life a the moment. But it's just one class. Four days a week does not a true 'part-time' schedule make.

2. Constantly disappointing someone - If you are going to school, working, and have a life full of family and friends you will disappoint someone almost daily. That person might be you. Let's face it, you're here, in law school, because you are a go-getter, a do-er, an ambitious destroyer of goals. You get shit done. It's what you do. But now you're in a place where you can't possibly get it all done. You simply can't. I know what you're thinking as you read this, "no, not me. I can get it done. Just because you can't doesn't mean I can't." And maybe you're right. Maybe you're Superwoman/man or maybe you're just in denial. Who knows. Ultimately, there will come a time in your law school career where you will have to pass on spending time with family because of school. There will come a time when you will miss special events or forget birthdays because of school. There will come a time when you will chose to pass on a promotion because you can't manage a new role AND school. And promotions aside, you will likely run into difficulty with work because there just isn't enough time in the day to get work and school and family done at the previously held standards of excellence that got you here.

3. Not giving 100% to anything - Before law school, I would give 100% to my day job and when I was away from the office I would give 100% to my personal life, goals, and relationships. Not no more. No way, no how. I can't give 100% to everything ever day. I'd love to be back in my twenties and going to school full-time. But, alas, those days are behind me. Now I have a job, with clients who need me to solve their problems. And I have a husband, who needs me too. And I have school. There are days that I want to give 100% to work and that means school and relationships suffer. On days when I give 100% to school my other commitments potentially suffer. Which brings me to my next item;

4. Making sacrifices is harrrrrd! - When I got accepted to law school and started considering what sacrifices I would need to make I was riding high on the excitement. But now I'm in the throws of the semester and the reality of everything is hard. Just hard. And with difficult choices come guilt.

5. Limited opportunities - Even though my law school goes out of their way to provide opportunities for their part-timer's there are tons of events that I can't go to because they are offered during the day. Basically anything offered before 6pm is hit or miss. And anything offered at noon is a no-go. It's tough when you want to participate but can't.

6. Feeling left out - Feeling left out can happen everywhere. As number 5 above mentioned, it's easy for a part-time student to feel left out of law school life. But I also feel left out at work and home too. I miss things. People forget to tell me things. I'm just not plugged in like I was before. Some of that is by design. I work less hours for my job and they know I'm going to school so I miss out on work things. At home I'm not as plugged into family events so I miss out on things there too.

Which brings me back to Dory:

There are a lot of ways being an part-time 1L isn't what I thought it would be. But the best part of school so far is all the ways school has been better than I ever imagined. My classmates are awesome and supportive. I love the material. And when everything between work, home, and school gels it's an awesome feeling.

Are you a part-timer? How has your experience been so far?

Remember to Breathe Deep (while you can)

It is easy to get wrapped up in the incredibly busy day-to-day life of a 1L. To keep things in perspective I've been playing a game. When I'm stuck in traffic on my way to school (or to the office) I try to think of all the things I'm thankful for.

Because, frankly, I'm tired of stressing over exams.

Here's my list of things I'm thankful for today (in no particular order):

Sunrises
Coffee
Deep breaths
Warm showers
Vanilla Coke Zero
My mom and dad
My sister
My brothers
My hubby, Handsome Jack
Cool autumn mornings
Music
Mrs. Goff and Alan
Friends
Good stories and the people who write them
All my writer friends – who believe you can do anything!
This life
This body
Rachel – the best hair stylist in all the land
This mind
School (yes, law school)
Heated blankets
Work
Lilly


All in all, I have to admit, things are going well.

What are you thankful for?