So close to the finish line...

Tomorrow I sit what might well be my last ever law school exam. I have not allowed myself to think about graduation. What if I pass everything (if I was to tell you this is person I would have a death-grip on something wooden)? If I do, it will mean the end of this leg of the journey. It feels as if it has taken forever and sped by at the same time. 

I remember the moment I decided upon law. I was living in country town with Mr Ovum, for some reason lawyers came up and he said 'I would make a better lawyer than you', it was pretty much game-on from that point. Shorty after I called my mother and suggested I would study law, her reply was "law is awfully hard and has lots of reading..." she was not trying to dissuade but understandingly sceptical about my commitment. 

To be fair, I never completely allowed myself to believe I would finish it due to my poor track record of sticking at things. I guess the slow plodding nature of small goals, such a assignments, semesters and exams all moving at a glacial pace towards the finish line contributed to my continued enrolment. 

In the past five years I have studied; 44 subjects, sat 8 exam blocks, been on four competitive moot teams, mentored students, been elected to the LLS, made a significant number of friends and called the Dean Darth Vader in a comedy debate. I have squeezed every experience I could out of my time here. 

It is looking like I might have until the end of 2014 planned out until I have to answer then dreaded 'what next' question.. 

Umm...Friking WOW!!

In the try outs for the different moots (outside of the just the uni comps) I only ticked the box for one HUGE moot beacuase 'hey, can't hurt'. I honestly believed there was 0, Zero, Nill, Null, None, Zip chance of being considered for that particular moot. I can't believe it. I have been nominated to represent my Uni in the Jessup Moot. The Ganddaddy of international moots.

I am so excited right this second, however I am well aware I have some seriously crappy times ahead with this moot...

Exams:

Property Law A
I think I did OK. Only time will tell.

Equity
Loved the subject, the exam was pretty good. again only time will tell

Other Subject
This subject was multipule choice, need I say more?

Can't sit still, what an amazing opportunity - Obiter

Exam time stress

I am up to my ass in exam prep.

So I am just going to repost one of my articles from Survivelaw.com, beucase I am just that lazy and there are a few people who read the blog but not the site (odd that). This post cracked 1,750 'likes'. THANKS GUYS!!!!

Here’s some handy advice for those unfortunate enough to live with a law student during exam time. Admit it, we’re not the friendliest when assessment crunch time is bearing down on us!
Coffee
Always ensure there is coffee in the house, particularly at this time of the semester. Be warned if at 4am in the morning Your Law Student (YLS) goes to make a coffee and there is none left, they may decide to carry out multiple acts of battery (law student for ‘mess you up’) on you while you’re asleep. Drink the last tiny bit of milk at your own risk.

Silence
As you would have witnessed, we like quiet while we study. If you have come from the other side of the house, opened the door and said, ‘don’t mean to bother you’, then clearly you did mean to bother us. Get lost. Now expect to be assaulted with colourful verbal abuse. Oh, and our textbooks are weapons of mass bludgeoning.

Tears
YLS is under immense pressure. Yes Ps get degrees, but if you want YLS to be a highly paid lawyer (as they no doubt do) only the best marks will suffice. So naturally they will be cramming 3 months of legal content into their tired and overworked brain. At this point if YLS makes a comment about anything, just agree. YLS is facing serious doubts about their intelligence and their reasons for going to law school.

Don’t make it worse for them by arguing, because ‘damn it they are law students and know what they are talking about’ (even if they have no idea). Usually YLS will rise to your challenge; during exam time anything that may be taken as an attack on their intelligence may very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. You don’t really want to have to clean that mess up, do you?

Was this advice a little too late? Have you upset YLS?
Don’t stress, one quick way to make them happy is to buy them some stationery! Ever noticed how YLS’s desk looks like a rainbow had a hard night then threw up all over the desk? There are highlighters, post-it notes and sticky tabs of every size and colour. This is because stationery makes us happy. As an aside, a birthday party thrown at Office Works would be awesome, like a law student equivalent of a child’s McDonald’s party. Toss some fluoro stationery in their direction and you are likely to be forgiven.

A Massive thanks to my editor who turns my ramble in somthing worth reading (mostly). Also click here to read more of my stuff. I try to write once a week, explaining why I am posting so little lately

Scotch and Coke STAT!!

I survived 1L law. There were tears, tantrums, hissy fits, bouts of depression and massive highs. My last exam was a few days ago but I had to go straight to work afterwards and then for the next two days more hellish work (this time of year sucks as a chef).

After the last exam there were no fire works, no streamers came down at the end of the exam, no wild wooting and 'yee haaas' we all just filed out somber and a little dazed. So here is how it went.

Foundations B:

Yup, this subject is shit. What I mean by that is, a computer biased course does not lend it's self well to a paper exam. If I thought that printing 'print screens' of all the legal databases was going to help I would have. Stupid freaking exam. I think I did OK though. It is beyond me why they don't just give you 2 hours in a computer lab with social media restrictions enabled. Grrr.

Contracts B:

Meh, I think I did alright. My exam prep was a little off, I planned for 3 questions not 2, big difference in exam preparation method.

I get my marks on the 29th, this time I think I will try and withhold from obsessively checking the blackboard until then (yeah, as if).

So, on Tuesday I start at the firm for three days a week unpaid work experience, from henceforth it will be known as 'Lucifer's Corner Office'. I am not overly thrilled about starting, has allot to do with the no payment bit, hopefully it will put me in a better position for a paid placement next year.

Somethings I plan to post about over the holidays:

- A prayer for law students pre exam (don't freak out, it will be tongue in cheek)
- All about Lucifer's Corner Office
- No doubt I will need to vent about the stupidity that is the Cackle Berry over Christmas.

I have some serious drinking to do - Obiter

Exam time, but I have Sea Monkeys!

My first exam is in 6 days. Followed by another, then a 5 day (three of which I am working) break before the last 2.

So here is my head space for the subjects.

Crim B:
The last few days have been entirely devoted to outlining and doing Q&A book questions, I stand a fair chance of passing. Beyond that, I have no idea where I stand. If nothing else my outline and the text book have lots of pretty tabs. The more pretty tabs the better the chance of survival right? Does anybody else compare themselves to others against the style, amount and aesthetics of their tabbed out text books?

Foundations B:
NOT a substantive law subject. Legal research and writing class. I think some marks were lost in this subject because I only attended 60% of the classes. In my defense it was an hour and half of being walked though databases. In the computer labs there is a massive mix of computer literacy, some people fall behind and others sit there board out of their skull (aka ME). This should be a competency based class, set the tasks, when you reach the tasks get them signed off and go. On the flip side, the skills developed are very useful. I have an interest in employment law, more specifically how sexual orientation in a church biased institution will impact on employment if the orientation were to become public. With the skills developed in Foundations B, I can now to some point research and find an answer (from what I am finding, she/he could very well lose their job, irregardless of discrimination statute). Applying what we were learning to something outside the tute work has resulted in a deeper understanding of the principals/skills I think I will do O.K.

Torts B:
I love torts. Even when there are no clear cut rules (see, novel DOC) arguing by analogy makes it fun to try. I guess we will see.

Contracts B:
So this semester contracts did not have me weeping like a school girl who was just told she is fat by her BFF like it did last semester. The tutor for this class is AMAZING. I am not over confident about this subject, but I am not terrified of it either.

Overall I am not as far behind as I thought I was, thank goodness.

Sea-Monkeys, I have a very long history with them. They make me very, very happy. My close friend gave me some. As I said in the last post, get them where you find them.

The finish line is in sight! (for this year anyway) - Obiter

A case of the exam crazies

The last few weeks have been intense.

Mr. Ovum and I had a fight over rice... RICE! That is how stressed out I am.

I remeber reading all these law student blogs before uni started, I was actually excited about going through this... if I could just slap Obiter of 5 months ago, I probably would..



so this has been the experance so far:

Torts

Holy shit that was crazy, the day before was spent going though every piece of legislation and case law. I think I performed OK on the day of the exam. Many people I spoke to did not finnish the questions. I managed to get most of what I wanted to say on the paper, this leads me to the conclusion that I must have missed something, pretty sure I know what it was. We shall have to wait and see. The massive hand cramps get a mention too. My hand at one point looked like it belonged to a thousand year old man with arthrits, even tried to write holding the pen differenly to subdue the pain - fail.

Contracts

After spending large amounts of the Q&A book all the semesters work kind of fell into place for me. the Q&A book had some total nuggets of gold for particular issues. At the very least I think I would have passed.

Foundations

THANK GOD for past exam papers and aswer guides. Over the last 7 years the questions asked had not differed in the content required. I still think some of the answer was a little 'shot gun' but I think I showed an ability to work through the majority of the question in a structured manner. However, the essay question was a freaking nighmare, 'judges have the power to make law though their decisions, should judges have the power to do this? why?' sigh. I think my answer should have started with 'I forefit any marks available though this answer due to a demonstated abililty to dribble incoherent verbage on paper'.

Crim

Last one, still to sit it. The pre exam freak out will commence shortly.

I have a date with the criminal code - Obiter