Exams! (Again)

So, again we're studying for exams, but this time around, it is a LOT less stressful. Most obviously, it clearly helps knowing what a law school exam is. Having already taken four, I feel like I have a much better handle on what to expect, and how much time I need to devote to reviewing each subject. Also, I have one less exam this semester, since my elective was graded based on ten short papers. Plus (thank god) none of my exams will involve property law, unlike last semester.

The fact that exams are less stressful is helping with getting my outlining done one time, since I tend to procrastinate things that I'm really worried about. Also, I've got about a bazillion things to do before I move down to DC this summer, and I don't want to do them. So, I'm procrastinating doing them by studying for exams. In fact, if I can give you one tip for studying, that's it. Find something else to procrastinate as a substitute for outlining procrastination. OK, that may only work in my bizzare psyche, but trust me, it really does. This semester, I've also taken advantages of the fact that my classmates are brilliant, and am trading outlines. Some people work in study groups, which I think works really well for them. For me, if I don't make my own outline, I'm never going to learn the material, but having someone else's outline to fill in gaps is really helpful after I'm done with my own.

Since I've been thinking so much about outlining recently, I'll expound on the subject a bit more. I forget where I read this - I think Volokh - but someone somewhere once observed that too many law students treat outlining as it were the exam, rather than merely a study aid for the exam. I think that it's true that each outline really does need to be tailored to the class. If your professor is going to ask you about squibs, cases in the footnotes, and things you spent three minutes of class time on, your outline needs to be about 32904578629 pages long, indexed, alphabetized, with little colored stickies and a detailed table of contents. (I had a professor like that.) If not, and probably that won't happen to you more than a couple times during law school, an outline that long will kill you during a 3 hour exam. Something a lot more svelte will be much more useful, since the professor expects you to actually think about the question, rather than dump your outline into the test. What I do is write an outline with everything in it, but then put it on a diet, as it were. That way I have the security blanket of the long outline, but then a pretty short outline that I actually use during the exam.

OK, I realized I should go back to studying. Lest you fear that I am planning on spending the next two weeks in Langdell Libray, fear not. I have plans to go see a very talented friend sing in a concert, drink mojitos while watching the Kentucky Derby on a friend's porch in Cambridge (don't ask, and it's not with Harvard folks), and go play a couple rounds of pool. I think I may not tell some of my classmates though. There's always one who will give you that look.