Advanced Torts and Speed-Writing

The Advanced Torts exam was a bruiser. It consisted of a four-page story with a cast of (by my count) sixteen characters, culminating in a mandate to discuss all causes of action, defenses, and remedies available to everyone involved. I don't think it was possible to write an A answer in the time allotted, so it's anyone's guess what the grades will look like.

I say it wasn't possible to cover everything in the three hours allotted, yet a few students turned in their tests and walked out with twenty minutes or more still on the clock. There are a few of these early birds at every exam, and it unnerves me every time. Do these people type 100 WPM? Are they regurgitating all-purpose essays that they memorized for the occasion? Do they just think faster than the rest of us? Don't they check their work? Most importantly, do they get good grades for those instant essays? The possibility that anyone is that much better at law school than I am is simply too horrible to contemplate.

Almost Ready for Finals

Over the last few days I've managed to boil a semester's worth of notes down to seven legal size sheets of paper. If I can learn everything you see here in the next thirty-six hours, exams should be a piece of cake.

Farewell, My Ink-Filled Companion

O red ink cartridge, you gave me three semesters of loyal service, but now you are as empty as an unenforceable promise. I will think of you every time my attention is drawn to an underlined section of a case brief. You came in a multicolor two-pack, so I guess next year's notes will be in green.

For the New Law Student

Since a link to this blog appeared on the school website, I know I've been getting some traffic from new and prospective students. Those readers have probably been disappointed to find that I write mostly to keep my friends and family up to date on what I'm doing, not to explain the ins and outs of law school.
I hate to disappoint, so this post is for you, incoming 1L. I have taken all the long-form, informative posts I never wrote and put them in one big pdf document for you to download and read at your leisure: Unsolicited Advice for New Bowen Students. If people find it useful, I figure I'll write an updated version next summer. Comments are welcome.

Summer Ends in Mid-July

I just wrapped up the last night of Criminal Procedure class. Advanced Torts will meet twice next week, then it's on to exams. Looking at the state of my notes, I think I handled the brutal pace of summer session much better this year than I did last year (which is good, because my grades last summer were weak). Even so, I'll need to spend a good chunk of this weekend on school work if I want to go into dead week with confidence. Guess I won't have time to mow the lawn. Pity.

Summer Session is Nearly Over

I'm trying to use the holiday weekend to belatedly start organizing my notes for summer exams. Have we really covered this much material in six weeks? This accelerated summer schedule is murder. I'm not sure I can get my act together in the three weeks between now and test time.

Stress and Relief

Today I was called on in the first thirty minutes of a three-hour class, which is about as good as it gets. After answering some questions about Echols v. State passably well (yes, that Echols: this was Criminal Procedure, and his case features pretty much every procedural move there is), I had two and a half hours to rest easy in the knowledge that the professor was done with me.
You would think that after two years I wouldn't mind talking in class, but the fear of public failure is evergreen.