Exhaustion

I knew there would be a lot of reading in law school. I really did, but holy crap, I'm exhausted. I feel like my brain is waking up from a very long hibernation, in which analytical thought was not necessary at all. It's like this intense pleasure-pain; I practically elated in class because we're learning so much and it's (mostly) really interesting, but my head hurts from all the thinking.

I think I'm going to have to rethink my study schedule. I'm going to need to do more reading on the weekends to get ahead for the rest of the week so that Tuesday and Wednesday nights in particular are not this brutal -- especially since I have to function for all three classes on Thursdays. I can't imagine having all this reading to do, plus writing the memo that we have coming up in a few weeks, unless I make some kind of change.

That said, I seem to be understanding the readings pretty well; with the exception of Civil Procedure and one dreadful case this morning on personal jurisdiction, I seem to be grasping the concepts. I also think I have a good method for organizing my notes from the readings and my notes from class, and how to combine them to make them useful for studying later on. Microsoft OneNote is my savior.

I think I'm also going to try to go to a writing workshop on legal writing on Friday morning. I don't really need an extra thing to do, but if I learned one thing in undergrad, it's how important writing is. Legal writing is a drastically different kind of writing, so I want to get whatever help I can. It's been a long time since I've had any real writing to do (since I put such little effort in my library school papers).

Okay, this blog has gotten much too serious, but I'm too tired to even try to bring any wit to the table, so I'm just going to sign off and go to bed.

Study Schedule

I should just admit it: I'm a planner. Now some people might thing that this isn't a bad thing. With me, however, it's not just a general plan for what my days will look like. In undergrad, I used to take my syllabi and map out my reading for each night for the entire semester before classes even started. Then, each night I would have to do the reading before going to bed.

I had thought I'd mellowed in the three years since then. Getting my MLS turned me into a lazy learner; I rarely read. And why would I, when the readings were then reiterated to us in class and the professors provided 70+ slides for each class that also repeated the material? I'd only do what I needed to get the assignments in.

Ever since I got my IL Fall Schedule, I've been trying to figure out what my days will look like. On average, how many hours a day will be required of studying, or how many hours per class session? Obviously, this differs for everyone, but is it really about 3 hours per class session, as suggested by Law School Confidential? How much time does Legal Research and Writing take up?

These are just some things I've been thinking about lately. I cannot wait for school to start so this blog can be more about mocking law students (none of whom are any stranger than I am, I'm sure) and the law school experience.

For the time being, I'm chugging away at my two jobs and looking forward to 5:00pm on July 31st, my last day. Packing is taking up the majority of the rest of my time...2.5 out of 5 bookshelves packed. I ran out of small enough boxes for books -- they get heavy so fast, so I've moved on to cleaning out the rolltop desk for the time being.

Til next time.