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Monday, September 17, 2007

Useless Things I Wish I Would Have Known

Like Butterflyfish and others I have apparently "passed the write on" and now I get to contribute all kinds of Useless things to the Wish I Would Have Known blog, so here it goes :) I'm usually blogging about useless things relating to law school and life in general over at Useless Dicta .

Ten Useless Things I Wish I Would Have Known before starting law school:

1. Law school can be a lot like high school, you should try your best not to get caught up in useless drama.

2. Non-Law school friends are the best lifesavers in the world, it's nice to be able to get away from the law school crowd even if it is only for an hour a week.

3. Going to some classes can be seriously overrated. If you always leave class having not learned anything new or having not taken any notes it's probably a sign that it's okay to skip once in a while to help lighten the load.

4. You will not learn anything from your legal writing professor or the legal writing class, what you will learn to do is going to happen on your own time outside of class on your own time.

5. 90% of the people in your class will not be in the top 10%, this may seem like simple stupid elementary school math, but the sooner you realize the reality of these odds the sooner you will learn to chill out and just do your best and not obsess over not being "good enough."

6. Law school is not as glamorous as Elle Woods made it seem in Legally Blonde .

7. Law school (and in particular Contracts) is not as bad as the movie The Paper Chase would have you believe.

8. Find a good place to study off campus, this could be at home or it could be somewhere else, but being in the law building when exams approach is the fastest way to stress yourself out. Law students, and 1Ls in particular feed on each others stress, don't be a part of it if you don't have to be.

9. Resist the urge to check your 1st semester grades until after Christmas and New Years. The holidays can be stressful enough, don't add first semester grades to that mix, it's a recipe for disaster.

10. No matter what happens first semester try your best to put it behind you once grades come out and start the second semester with a fresh slate. If you do great first semester you don't want to put a ton of pressure on yourself to do the same second semester because all of that stress can and does lead some people to disaster. And if you did not so great your first semester you don't have to settle for mediocrity, people can and do turn around second semester but dwelling on bad grades is not going to help with any endeavor of trying to improve.

Until next time, happy studying!

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