Orientation week...
Well, this is my first week of law school. It's orientation week and they sure are trying their best to keep us busy. Orientation and Legal Research and Writing runs from 2:00-6:15pm and introduces us to briefing cases, legal reasoning, and other fun stuff, most of which I learned in Law Preview. They have us briefing cases already and reading chapters out of our LRW books. Full classes don't start till next week and then things get really interesting.
Now for a gripe. The mass transit system for Detroit completely sucks. I use SMART to travel to school because gas prices are so damn high and with no income to speak of, things are not going to be easy. I save money wherever I can now and transportation is a biggie. Yesterday I tried to catch the 510 Van Dyke bus at Michigan and Griswold and the driver refused to stop, leaving me stranded at the corner for another 1.5 hours before another 510 came along. The driver was apparently a bastard.
Today was smoother, but I still don't like the way the bus schedules work. They're all pretty much hacked together with no connection to when buses arrive and leave at transfer points. Consequently, this leaves me standing there with my hands in my pockets for 30 minutes at times while I wait for another bus. What's worse is that the bus that runs down 14 mile shuts down at 7:00 pretty much, so I have to walk home 1.5 miles every day. What a perfectly good way to piss someone off.
In any case, I've gotten my reading assignments for my classes. They're a bit long, but not too daunting. The dean of the law school gave a speech on how we should reread our cases 3 times and if we think we understand what's going on in the cases, something's wrong with us. He says we shouldn't understand them. Well, the cases I've briefed so far I feel I understand quite well. They are quite well articulated and aren't difficult to understand in my opinion. I'm sure it will get more difficult and frustrating, but that's what law's all about. My problem is that if I still feel I understand what's going on that means something's wrong with me? That doesn't make any sense to me.
He's also encouraging study groups, but the thing is, I've never done well in study groups. Invariably I'm the one who works his ass off with one other person usually, while the other two slack off and screw me over. Needless to say, that's one piece of advice I'm probably not going to take. I know of tons of other people who have worked their way through first year alone and did just fine. Granted, this will make outlining a long and arduous process, but that's law school. It's supposed to be long and arduous. I'd be upset if it were easy because one of the reasons I went was for a challenge, and a challenge is what I expect.
Now for a gripe. The mass transit system for Detroit completely sucks. I use SMART to travel to school because gas prices are so damn high and with no income to speak of, things are not going to be easy. I save money wherever I can now and transportation is a biggie. Yesterday I tried to catch the 510 Van Dyke bus at Michigan and Griswold and the driver refused to stop, leaving me stranded at the corner for another 1.5 hours before another 510 came along. The driver was apparently a bastard.
Today was smoother, but I still don't like the way the bus schedules work. They're all pretty much hacked together with no connection to when buses arrive and leave at transfer points. Consequently, this leaves me standing there with my hands in my pockets for 30 minutes at times while I wait for another bus. What's worse is that the bus that runs down 14 mile shuts down at 7:00 pretty much, so I have to walk home 1.5 miles every day. What a perfectly good way to piss someone off.
In any case, I've gotten my reading assignments for my classes. They're a bit long, but not too daunting. The dean of the law school gave a speech on how we should reread our cases 3 times and if we think we understand what's going on in the cases, something's wrong with us. He says we shouldn't understand them. Well, the cases I've briefed so far I feel I understand quite well. They are quite well articulated and aren't difficult to understand in my opinion. I'm sure it will get more difficult and frustrating, but that's what law's all about. My problem is that if I still feel I understand what's going on that means something's wrong with me? That doesn't make any sense to me.
He's also encouraging study groups, but the thing is, I've never done well in study groups. Invariably I'm the one who works his ass off with one other person usually, while the other two slack off and screw me over. Needless to say, that's one piece of advice I'm probably not going to take. I know of tons of other people who have worked their way through first year alone and did just fine. Granted, this will make outlining a long and arduous process, but that's law school. It's supposed to be long and arduous. I'd be upset if it were easy because one of the reasons I went was for a challenge, and a challenge is what I expect.
posted by VSAvatar at 11:58 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Ken,
Do you think Law Preview is worth its weight in gold since there is an orientation week?
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