If you keep up with my blog, then you’ll have probably realized that I took a couple of weeks off from blogging. I usually blog every Sunday, but part of my de-stressing was to just relax for a couple of weeks because school threw me a huge curve ball. I had four midterms within 2 weeks, a trial brief motion and practicing my motion to suppress oral argument. Law school can be challenging, some days more than others depending on the week. So, what do I do to de-stress?
Law School Blogs
Essay Writing in Law School
I am almost 100% sure that most people who are reading this will know what IRAC is. If you don’t, then you will soon. IRAC/TREAT is a way to organize an essay when taking an exam. There are multiple ways you could do this but they all get at the same thing. Professors will give you set facts, and they want you to be able to identify the issue(s), give the rule/standard that governs that issue, be able to apply the rule to the present set of facts, and say a likely conclusion.
Study Habits in Law School
How I study in law school is a complete change than how I studied in undergrad. It is time-consuming. I study about 80% of my days. One thing I had to learn was to “study smarter” and not “study harder”. I had to come up with methods that worked for me, and if they didn’t work, then I tried to correct it as early as I could. When you first get to law school, you have to re-adjust. Some stuff I did in August I don’t do anymore because it was wasting my time.
Note-Taking in Law School
Taking notes in law school is very fast pace. When I first started law school it was hard to keep up with long PowerPoint slides, while still trying to write everything that the professor says. I take all my notes with pen and paper. For all my classes, I type my class notes at the end of the day when I get home. I do this so when I am in class I can get everything down, but when I get home I can organize my thoughts.
Case Briefing in Law School
Case briefing can be a difficult process because there is so much that goes into case briefing. My first semester I am pretty sure I was not briefing my cases correctly until the middle of the semester. I finally found a method to my madness, and it has worked for me. I use different color highlighters for different things that I look for in cases. I will discuss the 4 colors that I use to case brief in my textbook.
Legally Complicated 