Week 5? You mean more like week 5… hundred? Seems like I’ve been a law student for FO-EVAH already.

Let me ‘splain it to ya.

On the one hand, I am certainly still more confused than not regarding the big picture. I think this is why some people suggest waiting to start outlining until later in the semester. Also, my body and my mind still haven’t accepted the new schedule for the most part. On Saturdays and Sundays, however, my brain seems to get a kick out of waking me up at an unreasonably early hour. It mocks me, my brain.

On the other hand, when you consider where we started just five weeks ago, we have really come quite a long way, baby. For example, remember reading that very first case they gave us for orientation? And it took like more than an hour just to read and understand that one case about the guy who killed his grandpa before he could change his will? Remember how scary that was? That was only five weeks ago, and now look! I can read through cases, pick out the important parts, highlight them (color-coded, of course!), and even discuss them in a somewhat informed manner. This is progress!

Okay, self-congratulation phase over.

Now on to the lessons of the week (last week, that is).

But first, are you guys tired of my breaking down each week by subject? I’m kinda tired of it. I feel like for some classes I don’t really have much to say. Take Torts, for example. I mean, from here on out it’s gonna be negligence, negligence, and more negligence. Surely you don’t want to read about that for eleven more weeks, right? Right. So I think I’m just going to hit the high spots from here on out. Okay, good.

With that out of the way, there’s really only one event last week that I want to talk about.

Last week will go down in history as The Notorious CivPro Blood Bath of 2009. Also known as The Great 1L Gut Check. Also known as The Day When At Least 85% of Section 2 Seriously Contemplated A Different Career Path. It was horrible. Prof. CP felt like some people were un(der)prepared for class and made an example out of them.

Now, the truth is this: At orientation, we were treated to a lengthy lecture on time management, study skills, etc. In that session, we were told of this Magical Device, which, if used properly, would guarantee that we’d never be caught unprepared in class. And everybody knows that if you want to get a 1L’s attention, tell them how to avoid embarrassment at the hand of the Dreaded Socratic Method. The name of said Wondrous Weapon is The 2-Day-Ahead Reading Schedule.

Ooooh. Aaaah.

Did you learn about this at your orientation? Basically, you do Monday’s reading on Saturday, Tuesday’s reading on Sunday, etc. That way, you start out the week two days ahead, and if you get bogged down in something and fall behind, it’s easier to play catch-up later in the week. Or so the theory goes.

I have friends who are using this method still, five weeks into the semester, and they like it. I think I’d like it if I could make it work for me, but the truth is that I don’t get much reading done at home because of the distractions. So, by all means, if you think this sounds like a good idea and you want to give it a try, or you’re already successfully Wielding the Wondrous Weapon, that’s awesome. I’m actually kinda jealous.

For the rest of you, let this be your cautionary tale. You see, Prof. CivPro told us early into the semester that she’s not a fan of the Wondrous Weapon because students have a tendency to forget the details of a case (which Prof. CP absolutely loves to ask about) in two days. She told us very early that we should not follow the advice of the Study Gurus and should only do our reading the day before. (For the record, I’ve upped the ante and started doing the CivPro reading between Contracts and CivPro. Such a daredevil.)

So, the truth of the matter is that the people who were called upon on The Day The CivPro Class Stood Still had actually read the material, but it had been a couple of days since they read it, and they forgot to refresh the ol’ memory bank before class. So, when called upon, these people appeared to be unprepared.

So the moral of the story is this: If you read ahead, make sure you take a look at the cases just before class to refresh your memory.

Or, you can be a ninja and just stay current.