I've discovered the key to law school test taking anxiety.
Study hard. (;-)>
Throughout law school I studied enough of each subject to get a B. That habit was acquired in high school and I can't seem to shake it. I can get A's when I try but I seem to be satisfied with B's (along with the occasional unplanned for A and C). And as a result of this lazy habit I've carried with me this nagging feeling that Mr. Murphy (and that pesky Law of his) was going to bite me in the ass someday. Fortunately I've been able to stay a step ahead of him. As a result, my GPA in law school is right around 3.0. I don't know what that says about me but it's too late to worry about it now (knock on my wooden head).
As I was saying, the key to law school test taking anxiety is to study like you're taking the Bar Exam.
I've mentioned before that my school runs on the four year program. All of the subjects that are tested on the bar exam are covered in the first three years. During the the fourth year, you can either go with the standard program and review all of the subjects in six week increments, or take electives. I ended up taking a couple of electives (Immigration law, Family law), but mostly followed the default program. My last class happens to be a combo Con Law/Evidence review and the final exam is tomorrow. My "final", Final.
I know most of you have already taken your last test and I have read your posts with envy as you talked about being done with school. Well, my last test is tomorrow and I've noticed that by preparing for the Bar I've exceeded the amount of studying that I would have otherwise done for a regular class such as this. And as a result I have almost no anxiety about this exam. Hey, it's only two subjects! How hard can that be?
File this in the "If I only knew then what I know now." folder.
8 comments:
Think of that final as a dress rehearsal. You'll ace it for sure!!
Good luck!
What class rank is a 3.0 at your school? It's hard to believe you're not a great student given how dedicated you are to bar prep. But then again I know a lot of normally great students who are inexplicably blowing off the bar.
Good luck on your finals.
Thanks for the good vibes!
I hovered around the top 10-15% of the class the whole time. You have to take into account that most of the people at my school were juggling full time jobs and family responsibilities, while doing this for four straight years, with no time off. That's the bitch about the four year program. Zero time off. No Summer vacation. No Spring Break. No nothing. Of course, the load isn't as heavy as the traditional program, but the burden is constant.
Speaking as someone who did a four year night program, I have to say the load is heavier, when you take into account working full time. We took 10 units per sememester, day students took 5. For 5 units they had 40 extra hours. Not to mention that after first year, there were many day students in the night classes. So we were directly competing with people that had *way* more time on their hands.
That would be 15 for the days students. Oops.
Yep. It would have been so much easier to do this when I was young.
Congrats on being (almost) done!!!!!! I hope you take a break to celebrate. You deserve it.
I agree about studying for law school exams--at least at my school where we had a strict curve, the only way I ever got good grades was to go crazy studying for exams.
Thanks xkx! I'm going to take a break by tearing down the carbs on my bike because it's running a little ratty. I've neglected the maintenance on my vehicles lately and it will be nice to feel like I've accomplished something in a couple hours of work.
After that, it's back to the grind.
First thing tomorrow!
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