I am ALL DONE with my first semester of law school.

[eyesroll]

:bounce:

How'd I do? No idea. Probably didn't flunk out. Probably won't be winning any awards. Beyond that..:shrug: I'll find out next month.

Overall: It didn't suck. I'm glad to be moving on to other subjects and other instructors, though...I've had enough of Contracts for one lifetime.

What am I doing next? Not going to Disneyland. Not even drinking, really. We went for Vietnamese food and I will sleep a lot and then tomorrow...I get to wait for a mattress to be delivered. Fun times, I tell you.

:woohoo:

[ikojo]

1. Congratulations on surviving the

first semester of law school.

[eyesroll]

2. Thanks! Wasn't much to survive...it's no worse than a job, really.

I enjoyed most of it.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. Congratulations! 1L year is the best and worst year of law school.

It's the worst, because it's new. No matter how hard you work, you never know how you stand.

It's the best, because you work the hardest. The worst part of being a 2L and 3L is being mentally done with school. Work becomes more interesting and finding a job becomes more important than briefing Dukeminier or Farnsworth.

:bounce:

[eyesroll]

10. Heh...if law school's anything like undergrad for me, I'll be sad to leave.

I was in the workforce for 9 years before I left to go to law school...right now, I don't much care to go back.

[philosophie_en_rose]

15. There's always an LLM program.

And teaching.

If you plan it right, you may never get to leave law school. :)

[huskerlaw]

4. Yay!!

Just remember that 90-95% of your class won't be "winning any awards" (translation: making law review) either. And really, unless you want the 6-figure-right-outta-law-school job, your grades don't really matter anyway.

Take a deep breath. Sleep for 12 or more hours. Lay around the house and do NOTHING for a few days. And then take the time to hang out with friends/family that you've been neglecting for the past few months.

Congrats on surviving! :woohoo:

[eyesroll]

8. Thanks...I haven't been all that neglectful, actually.

I'm a fast reader and an experienced writer. That helped TREMENDOUSLY. Aside from the last few weeks, it had been pretty much business as usual for me.

I'm not even gunning for a job at Giant, Soul-Sucking and Scary, so I will not be worrying too much about my grades. I need to stay in good standing to keep my scholarship, but if I'm not in good standing (and keep in mind this is a school with a B curve and no mandatory D's or F's), I've got more than $ to worry about.

[kiahzero]

5. Congratulations

I have three more exams to go: Contracts, Civ Pro, and Torts. Ugh.

[eyesroll]

9. Ah, a fellow 1L.

Good luck!

I had torts today, K's and Crim last week. I get Civ Pro next semester (along with property and con law).

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Did you have Kingsfield for contracts?

[eyesroll]

11. I had a Republican for Contracts.

He was actually my favorite prof this semester -- he made a subject I had and still have almost no interest in, fun. (Too bad he teaches business bankruptcy and similar...I'd love to take a class with him again but I'll probably take as few commercial law classes as possible.)

[Connonym]

7. Yay!

I'm sure you did very well. Enjoy your break.

[eyesroll]

12. Thanks! I know I did *objectively* decently on at least a couple of the exams...

Problem is, we're graded subjectively. Median's a B, no more than 30% can get above a B. And, of course, we have zero control over how everyone else did...if 30% of the class did better than I did, even if I did very very well, I get a B. B's are fine as far as I'm concerned.

:hi:

[crim son]

13. Vietnamese food sounds like fun times!

Seriously, congratulations. I'm impressed.

[eyesroll]

14. Thanks! The Vietnamese food was, indeed, fun times.

The mattress? Not so much. It's for the four-year-old. I do consider it an investment for my future, though -- now she can't use "I can't sleep in my bed because it's too hard" as an excuse. (Her old bed was, indeed, too hard -- it was a hand-me-down mattress from a twin-size futon that has outlived its usefulness.)

At least our delivery window is 10-1; I don't want to get up early.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. The best thing about law school is

that it feels so good when it's over.

[philosophie_en_rose]

19. Until BARBRI starts, of course.

Then you get to relive all the glorious moments of your law school career in just a few weeks.

And then take the bar exam. :)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Oh, yeah, the bar exam. **shudder**

I've pretty much repressed THAT memory. Eeeeek.

[eyesroll]

26. Two words: Diploma. Privilege.

No bar exam for Wisconsin law grads if they stay in Wisconsin. :thumbsup:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. I think I hate you. In Minnesota you gotta take the exam, and it's

sort of like having a root canal done on your brain. For two days. I moped around for weeks afterwaards, convinced I'd flunked, and nearly dropped over dead when I found out I hadn't. You are SO lucky.

[eyesroll]

32. Oh, believe me, I know I'm lucky.

Of course, that means I'm tethered here (not that I'm intending to leave, but you never know)...some states offer reciprocity eventually. Others won't take Wisconsin lawyers without an exam no matter how long they've been practicing, because Wisconsin lawyers who graduated from Wisconsin law schools never take a bar exam.

[mike_c]

17. I gave my last exam today....

Now I have a butt load of grading to do. :puke:

[philosophie_en_rose]

22. One of my professors gave an entirely multiple choice test first semester.

No grading at all. Just pure numbers from the scantron.

[mike_c]

24. heh heh-- that's the coward's way out....

Although at this point I sure wish I had stacks of scantron sheets instead of stacks of written pages. I think I'm going to open a bottle of wine.

[philosophie_en_rose]

36. truly.

but you wouldn't even need the scantrons. Those are scored automatically.

My favorite professor sets really low word limits to fairly complicated fact patterns. It forced us to be concise, saving him a lot of unnecessary pain. :)

[eyesroll]

25. Contracts was 80 multiple choice, most of which had "2 of the above" as options.

That's why I seriously have no idea how I did. Blegh.

We might actually get those results early, though, so there is a tradeoff.

[mike_c]

38. congrats on making it through the first semester....

The first semsester of most grad programs is when the culture shock is worst.

[SeattleGirl]

18. Congratulations!!

My daughter's sister is in her last year of law school. It's pretty grueling, for sure.

[eyesroll]

30. So far, it's not been too bad.

I know a lot of my classmates have had trouble, but I suspect some of the problem stems from this:

22-year-old classmate: "How many times a week do you go out?"
31-year-old me: "Well, my SO and I go to dinner or a movie occasionally, and I host Drinking Liberally from 7 to about 10 two Wednesdays a month, plus some political stuff, plus my stepdaughter's here on weekends...probably the same as before."
Classmate: "No, I mean GO OUT go out."
Me: Blank stare.
Classmate: "Y'know, like Bar Review? And to clubs on Friday and Saturday? I've had to really cut back to once a week, because I lose the whole evening, and then the next day recovering from my hangover, if I go out."
Me: "Oh. I think I did that in March. Of 2005. But no hangover. Just sleep deprivation."
Classmate: "Wow, I don't know how you do it."

Just allocate your time properly and it's no worse than a job, and often better. I rarely worked more than 40-45 hours a week at law school.

[SeattleGirl]

37. Ah yes, I remember being older than lots of other students

when I was in college. They were majoring in party, I was taking a full load of classes, working 40-60 hours a week, and active in several honor societies, as well as driving to Oregon every weekend to see my daughter, who was very young at the time. Party? What's THAT?

[Rhythm]

42. I go through that a lot as well...

I'm a 40 y/o sophomore in PoliSci, and i am old enough to be the mom of at least 3/4ths of my classmates.

I take this a lot more seriously than they do, obviously. And it never fails that the hardest partiers are the ones who want to hit me up for copies of my ridiculously-extensive notes, and always right before exams.

One more final to go (tomorrow, but it's a low-level COMM class, so i'm not sweating it), and then out 'til the 8th!

[eyesroll]

44. Good luck to you!

The age difference between me and my classmates is smaller, but it's amazing what those 9 years do. My SO is a 31-year-old sophomore in history, and he gets a lot of the same stuff. (He also gets asked, by his profs, what he remembers about certain 1970s/1980s historical events that his classmates just don't remember at all.)

[Rhythm]

48. i got that from my JRL 101 prof last semester...

Dr. H is maybe 5 years older than me, and he'd make obscure pop-cultural references in his lectures (the one that comes to mind had to do with the Dead Kennedy's "Frankenchrist" trial), and i'd be the only one responding.

There were other non-traditional students in the class, but i was the only one in that age group... i guess the elders missed those things when they happened the first time around, too.

[SPKrazy]

20. One Down, Five To Go

Did you get some shrimp with the shells still on them that you are supposed to eat

Or did you eat some Pho?

I love Vietnamese food and there are plenty of places to get it here.

when the Vietnamese who came here after the fall of Saigon they were processed at Fort Chaffee outside of Fort Smith Arkansas

So we have like more Vietnamese and Laotian restaurants per square mile than we need, but some are EXCELLENT

:pals:

[eyesroll]

27. I got some egg noodles with pork and shrimp.

Most excellent.

We've got a super-cheap Vietnamese place (along with some other Laotian, Hmong, etc. places) nearby.

[SPKrazy]

28. Sounds good

Vietnamese and Laotian food is really good, and we have a couple of Pho (noodle soup) places that are very popular now. A friend of mind who is Laotian took me and a friend to one of them and showed us the "proper way" to doctor up Pho.

All kinds of sauces on the table to add to the soup. The only thing I didn't like about it was the tendon, and the texture of the "meatballs" (which I have no idea what kind of meat they were)

[eyesroll]

35. I love pho.

I usually get it with meatballs...but NOT tendon or tripe.

I learned how to doctor up pho in a small noodle shop on Argyle St. in Chicago, when I went down there with my dad when I was 19 or so. I remember the two of us had pho, some sort of appetizer, and drinks for $12.

[undeterred]

21. congratulations!

:woohoo: :applause: :toast: :party: :toast: :applause: :woohoo:

[eyesroll]

31. Thanks!

One down, five to go. :bounce:

[Lex]

33. Contracts -- yikes --

made me want to pull my hair out. I could so sympathize with the students in "The Paper Chase."

The first semester was hardest of all, just getting adjusted to everything was a chore in and of itself.

After that, it was still hard work but I was ready for it.

[eyesroll]

34. I was fortunate in that, although I had to adjust to classroom life, I didn't have to adjust

to new living arrangements in a new city. Many of my classmates had never been to Wisconsin before coming to school here, and they're not used to winter, and they don't know anyone here, and rely heavily on other law students for their social life and everything else. They had roommates they didn't know, or were living alone for the first time in their life, and suddenly they had to cook or buy every single meal for themselves...

[Lex]

39. Good luck! Sounds like

you have things under control and aren't letting the pressure or the work freak you out. That's good.

I thought some of the challenge of law school was not getting caught up in other people's problems/dramas/OCD-ness.

:hi:

[Left Is Write]

40. Congratulations! You deserve a rest.

:)

[eyesroll]

45. So why am I not asleep?

Because I'm overtired. That's why.

Thanks!

[Kat45]

41. I know what you should do next--

Play with Olive and give her some nice scritches. :hi:

Congratulations on getting that first semester behind you.

[eyesroll]

46. Thanks. That's definitely on my list.

Her cage needs a good cleaning, too.

:hi:

[swag]

43. What is the firmness of the mattress to be delivered?

[eyesroll]

47. No clue. I didn't shop for it...but kiddo liked it in the store.

Of course, she jumped on all the beds until the mattress salesman finally told her not to -- J would have stopped her but nobody was helping them, so he figured the jumping would get the salesman's attention.