Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Making the Team

I have been accepted onto the Moot Court Board. This means that next year I'll be able to travel to at least one out-of-state moot court competition on the school's dime. Based on my experience last semester, moot court competitions aren't much fun, but I'm willing to put up with it for the travel and the resume item.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Awful News

One of the first-year students I mentored last semester has died. He didn't attend many of the mentor meetings, so I didn't know him all that well, but certainly better than I know ninety-five percent of the 1Ls. I even met his parents back in August.
There were a couple of school-wide meetings to offer explanations and counseling, but I was unable to attend, so I don't know what happened. Whatever it was, it was unexpected and very bad. The guy was young, newly married, and had a baby on the way. His obituary indicates that a college fund has been set up for the baby.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Halfway There

The semester is over. Assuming I passed all my exams, I am now halfway to a juris doctorate.

The Constitutional Law exam was pretty nasty. It was my longest exam at four hours, and was a mix of multiple choice and essay questions. I think I wrote reasonably cogent essays, but the multiple choice questions were rough. Most of them were based on the kinds of hypothetical cases that are usually the stuff of essay questions. The distinctions drawn by the offered answers were so subtle in some cases that I don't see how the professor can claim that one was more right than the others. I'll just have to hope that I got lucky.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Two Exams are In the Bag

The Evidence and Family Law exams were every bit the nightmare I was anticipating. Thank goodness the Family Law exam was open book. I referred to my textbook and cheat sheets enough that I almost ran out of time. I wrote longer essays than I usually do, but they still looked very sketchy and incomplete to me. The Evidence test, by contrast, was closed book and 100% multiple choice: the bad, "choose the best available answer" kind of multiple choice. I am not confident about either test, but I'll try not to speculate about my grades because I have a long wait ahead of me.

I do have one piece of good news: MPRE scores are out. Mine were nothing to write home about, but well within the passing range. Here's an interesting side note about the MPRE: It's a national test, but different states require different scores to pass their bar. About a third of states require 75 out of a possible 150. Another third or so require 80. Another third (including Arkansas) require 85. There are a few odd numbers in there - some 77s and some 79s. California and Utah require 86. Why do you have to be such jerks, California and Utah?

Sunday, December 6, 2009

It Must Be Finals Week

I came to school on a Sunday afternoon--definitely not my habit. The parking lot is full and every wastebasket in the library is overflowing with soda cans and Starbucks cups. It's actually kind of a fun atmosphere with everybody freaking out and acting giddy. It's not quite the cram week portrayed in The Paper Chase, but it's close.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Nothing Left But Final Exams

After a flurry of writing over Thanksgiving break, plus a 24-hour extension on the deadline, I turned in the first draft of my law review paper yesterday. Even after considerable last-minute padding, the draft is two pages short of the minimum length (40 pages, triple spaced). Hopefully my editor will have some suggestions on how to beef it up.

Yesterday was also the last day of classes. My first exam is one week from today. Between law review and moot court, I more or less ignored my other classes all semester. I am so dead.