Thursday, October 8, 2009

Criminal Law Final - coming up!

Criminal law midterm is in the next two hours...

While I know the material, I am worried about my organization of the information in an essay.

Can't write more now, but wanted to chart the event and my level of anxiety 0-10 scale, anxiety level is 7.5 - Gotta calm it down...

Reviewing notes... gotta go!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Lawyering Process (Legal Writing) Midterm - Coming up in Three Hours...

Then its all about contracts - 8:45AM Tomorrow... Feeling good... got plenty of energy and ready to take it on.


I admit a low level of anxiety about my level of preparation so far, but the more I'm able to do tonight, the better I know I'll feel.

Time to get to it!

-Cody

Thursday, October 1, 2009

10/1/09 - Week prior to Midterms

Well, its been several weeks (6 total) since law school started. I've learned quite a bit so far, and midterms are just around the corner.

Working on finishing up criminal law and torts for class this morning and getting together a good study plan for next week.

I haven't continued the tradition of being to school by 6:30 AM, but I'm going to get back on that track after midterms. One more tweak is that I will define a study plan (I should have had a formal plan from the beginning) after midterms to keep up with the reading and form a complete outline moving forward.

Enough for today, gotta go...

PS - I bought an espresso machine, coffee grinder, Brita water filter, and coffee beans for the third floor student lounge (tower) last week and put a sign on it notifying the community that they are free to use it. Sweet!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

6:25 AM, I never would have said I was a morning person (before law school). I'm not sure I am now but one thing I know for sure is that anxiety is the best alarm clock I've found.

Class begins at 8:45AM, I'll be reading torts and criminal procedure until then and once classes are through for the day 12:00PM I have reading to do for "Lawyering Process", which is a writing class. Once the day is complete its on to Contracts and Civil Procedure for tomorrow's classes.

This weekend I'm going to catch up on personal chores. Time management is proving to be a challenge this week.

more soon,

-Cody Hayes

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Law School Week 2

Disclaimer: This blog is my own journal of sorts and I'm going to make an effort to stay current at least once per week. My thoughts here may be disjointed. I may speak in fragments... I like it that way~

I was notified last week that I won a "Kaplan 1l Student Success Kit" from a drawing I entered at orientation last saturday 8/15/09. I'm in the library now to meet with a representative and pick it up.

So, in retro-spect the first week of law school was exciting and very new. Different from anything I've done before in terms of academic work. It felt so disorienting at times. People say that law school is about learning a "language" and to some extent I agree, but the part I have found most challenging so far is simply getting through the assigned material and extracting the pieces, "rules" that are most important. It seems that when I read passively I do a better job of understanding cases and the rules associated. When I think critically during the reading I find that I lose track and become confused.

Practice, Practice, Practice.... like with anything, practice is what it takes to make sense of this new challenge. The best way to digest all of this material is to simply keep reading.

Oh yeah, another purpose of this blog is for me to have writing practice. I completed a grammar assessment over the weekend (required for the writing class) and scored 68%. I am not surprised. I have never learned the formal rules of writing. That's over now! Get ready to work!

Jennifer just got here with my "success kit" Pretty cool - MP3 versions of civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, property, and torts; Plus, a book - like I really need another book to read... we'll see.

Okay, got to head to class now. its 8:11am.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Law School Day 1

It's 6:53 AM and I'm sitting at school outside of my first class (torts) to finish up the assigned reading. When I woke up this morning and started cooking breakfast I had a slew of "law terms" running through my head (probably from all the reading I did yesterday evening).

The slew of "law terms" is a good sign though; to me it means that the information is swimming around in my head and trying to pry its way into my memory... good deal!

Anyway, time to finish the reading - I'll update more later today (if I have the chance).

Friday, August 14, 2009

Law School Begins August 18, 2009

This is going to be quick.

Just to let you know, I'm starting Law School August 18, 2009