Otherwise Occupied - classes

"Dergosits outline"

gregh — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:29:08 -0500

Someone came by here via the above Google search. Twice, in fact. It probably took a while to figure out why, because the page it serves up from me is not very useful.

Let me just say this, though. I definitely recommend an outline, even though it was, for us, a 7-day take home.

Why? Well, I didn't make an outline. I figured with all of my notes (marked up versions of the class notes he gave us for each class), my casebook, and my Schechter mini-treatise (which was a lifesaver) that the exam wouldn't be a problem. Oh, was I wrong. With each of the 25 multiple choice questions averaging around 30 minutes to "confidently" answer, I was already way beyond the 7-hour estimate he gave in class. But I still had three essay questions to respond to.

I still did alright, if not great, but man... An ounce of prevention would have been great.

Bar electives and bar passage

gregh — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:45:45 -0500

Law Blog - WSJ.com : Law-School Curricula & Passing the Bar:

Do the classes law students take have any correlation to bar passage rates?

No, according to a new study highlighted on the NYT Freakonomics blog, run by ersthwhile lawyer and Opinionistas blogger Melissa Lafsky (who has quite the Wikipedia entry).

Douglas Rush, assistant dean at St. Louis Law, has co-written the paper scheduled for publication in the upcoming Journal of Legal Education and entitled “Does Law School Curriculum Affect Bar Examination Passage?” The authors documented every student’s courseload for five different graduating classes at St. Louis Law, analyzing the number of bar topic courses taken against bar passage rates for first-time takers. There was virtually no correlation between law school courseloads and the bar passage rates.

It's always a hot topic. People are fanatical about it, and there's often little middle ground. One camp believes bar electives are near mandatory; the other -- where I have been -- believes they're a waste of time given the breadth of the bar exam coverage and the time we will all be spending in BarBri. Right now, I'm considering only one bar elective, and I occasionally even have second thoughts about it.

People can return to this post and laugh if I don't pass.

Registration? Check.

gregh — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:33:09 -0500

Well, that was easy. On Tuesday, I logged in for my priority appointment as a 4th year evening student. Today, I logged in for my priority appointment as a 4th year student, which was also the same appointment for 3rd year students.

It was fun to see the class count, to know which of my classes were popular. Answer: some more than others.

I got everything I currently think I want. I'm still playing with ideas.

Thumbs up for online registration.