I survived my first semester of 1L!

[Brankles]

Hardest semester of my life! Just got my grades in and I passed, doing much better than I thought. I was thinking I was going to be spending my spring semester at home working after failing out!

Such a relief. Just thought I'd share it with you guys at OS. Special thanks to Jackdog and TheMatrix31 for Celling me during the last month of the semester haha

[Pete1210]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Congrats!

[Koolie G]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Congrats! The hardest part is over now. You know you belong, you know what worked or what didn't in preparing for finals and most of all the "worry" of the unknown of the finals is over.

If I had any advice for you it would be to keep up with the concepts as you go along, maybe do a review of each class at the end of the week so you are not trying to learn everything right before finals. That is what I did and I managed to get by, but it would have been so much easier if I'd done a weekly review.

[MassNole]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

I don't know what FIU's curriculum is like, but for me the stress wasn't over until after the entire 1L year.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Congrats. welcome back bro!











For now.........







j/k.

[Pared]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Well if you ever need more time studying, you know who to ask for help.

[Warrior1214]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Congrats...I know the feeling since it was only a year ago for me.

The key is to just keep up with the reading each week so you know what the professor is talking about, and the weekly review sounds like a good idea too (even though I don't do it either).

[MassNole]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Seems at my LS most of the people in Study Groups just used that as an excuse to be **** Buddies.

Remember Brankles, this next semester is crucial for establishing a good class rank going into your 2L year which puts you in a better position to get better internships.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

College is a blur to me. It went so fast seriously. I graduated 8 years ago, good lord how fast time flies. Once you have your 1st finals, the rest is history. Smooth sailing from there because you will know what to expect and intimidation of the unknown is gone.

That is until you graduate and have to find a job in your major LOL. Kind of funny really, considering only 38% of people in the USA work at a job that they majored in college. And that was before the economy went bad, so I am sure that number is much lower now.

[Herbsinator]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Seems at my LS most of the people in Study Groups just used that as an excuse to be **** Buddies.

As a student who is going to enter law school this fall...I'm going to remember this, haha.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Yeah study groups always turns into another kind of group.

[Brankles]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

College is a blur to me. It went so fast seriously. I graduated 8 years ago, good lord how fast time flies. Once you have your 1st finals, the rest is history. Smooth sailing from there because you will know what to expect and intimidation of the unknown is gone.

That is until you graduate and have to find a job in your major LOL. Kind of funny really, considering only 38% of people in the USA work at a job that they majored in college. And that was before the economy went bad, so I am sure that number is much lower now.

lol I know what you mean. I graduated from UF in the Spring with a degree in Advertising and there were people who had been working 10-15 years in the industry competing with me for jobs. There was no way I was going to get a decent job, so I went to law school. Hopefully I can find a job after I finish (God willing) and my law degree not be another worthless piece of paper.

Congrats! The hardest part is over now. You know you belong, you know what worked or what didn't in preparing for finals and most of all the "worry" of the unknown of the finals is over.

If I had any advice for you it would be to keep up with the concepts as you go along, maybe do a review of each class at the end of the week so you are not trying to learn everything right before finals. That is what I did and I managed to get by, but it would have been so much easier if I'd done a weekly review.

I get the feeling that the hardest part is over as well. At the end of this last semester, I "broke through the wall" as they say. All of the sudden I started understanding how to read cases and find the most important information and translate it into something I can remember and clearly explain. Overall, just much more efficient and productive study habits. I'm hoping that carries over to my next semester.

Now that I have a grasp on the idea of how exams work and how important studying and reviewing is each week, I think it should be a little easier (but still just as stressful.) Public speaking should be interesting, as I did mock trial in HS. Hopefully my 3 years in that carries over to the law school classroom.

[EWRMETS]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

As a student who is going to enter law school this fall...I'm going to remember this, haha.

They can help...it depends on who's in the study group and whether you work better studying by yourself or a group.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

They can help...it depends on who's in the study group and whether you work better studying by yourself or a group.

They work as long as there aren't any leeches (somebody that doesn't know much and wants everyone to teach it to them) or too much counter productive stuff going on.

A good study group can help you with something you are stuck on or help you solidify what you already know.

They can also be a complete waste of time. Really just depends.

[Brankles]

Re: I survived my first semester of 1L!

Done with 1L! Hope I passed, had some tricky exams

Those of you who are alumnus or currently at law school... do they kick students out for having below a 2.0 at any point after their first year at your school? FIU does and even though I don't think I dropped below a 2.0, but the way the exams were it could be possible.

FIU has a ridiculous curve and it's on average 0.2 below the other schools in the state. Our average GPA is 2.7 and the 10th percentile has a 3.2. I hate curves for this reason. The average student at UM or FSU has a 2.9 and at FIU ours is 2.7, even though they are essentially the same grades except on a different scale. Hurts our employment rate and makes that 2.0 thing a little bit harder to avoid.