stirring up trouble until the very end
So, in just about every open-book exam I've taken in law school, I've taken along my iPod...mostly because no professor has ever explicitly said, "You can't use that." So I happily bring along my iPod so that I can rock out to Appetite for Destruction during the exam. (Seriously.)
So I go to take my Contracts II final, and I'm starting up the iPod while the proctor is reading the instructions. All of a sudden, I hear, "iPods are not allowed." So I look up and start packing up the iPod, and the proctor is giving me the death stare, as if I had just kicked a puppy or something. She looks at me and tells me that iPods are not 'secure', and therefore they can't be used. I, being a 3L who is hours from being done with that hole forever, reply that, since the exam is open-book anyway, it's not like the iPod is giving me information that I couldn't have typed up and brought in anyway. Proctor just rolls her eyes and tells me that those are the rules, and too bad.
At that point, the professor comes up to the professor and tells her that it's okay if I use my iPod, since it involves headphones and all. The proctor tells her that iPods are not secure, and therefore not allowed, and the professor says that she doesn't care if we use them. (So, I completely take back that part about hating her for her passive-aggressive stance on nametags...)
I start unwinding the earphones when some douchenozzle in the row behind me loudly declares that sometimes the music doesn't stay in the headphones, and it's too distracting to other people if I listen to my headphones. At that point, I mouth the word "douchebag" to my friend across the room, who is chuckling at this whole exchange. The professor simply tells Douchenozzle that she would deal with the noise problem if anyone played their music too loud.
After that, I put my headphones in, turned the music on, and started rocking out as I read through the problem.
(And oddly enough, that was the first essay exam I had finished early in over a year. And I'm fairly certain that I didn't fail, so...looks like I'll be graduating on Friday after all.)
Labels: contracts, finals
sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live
Today, I finished the last final of my 2L year. (And honestly, that's about all I can say about that final. Seriously - sitting there talking about policy and "what I would do if I were a shareholder" makes me feel like my exam suddenly turned into an appointment with my shrink where we talk about feelings for an hour. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration...but I don't like the "that's it???" feeling I got from my Business Organizations II final today. And this is a really long parenthetical.)So to celebrate the end of finals, I hopped in Flying Elvis and drove down to Chicago to go see The Killers in concert. Which means that I can now say "I saw Brandon Flowers faceplant on stage during a song." Aside from the slight prop malfunction, and aside from the fact the instruments (a) completely overpowered the vocals, and (b) were giving a lot of feedback during the latter portion of the show, it was a pretty good time.This week has been a week of endings. First, on Tuesday night, I cried as I watched Rory graduate from Yale on "Gilmore Girls". Because, you know, it's been a rocky four years - from the class she got a "D" in, to the part where she dropped out and joined the DAR for a semester...makes my own sad little law school existence seem quite a bit less dramatic in comparison. But the bigger ending this week will occur about...34 hours from now, when my sister graduates from Lynchburg College in Virginia.Which is where I'm headed tomorrow morning. Graduation will be followed by a drive from Lynchburg to Austin with my family, resulting in me spending more time in Tennessee than I ever wanted to, or will ever want to at any point in the future. (Tennessee is right up there with Alabama and Mississippi on my list of states that maybe, you know, the Union should've just let secede without a fight.) But at least I now know that there's a store in Austin that sells cheese curds - something to look forward to while I'm on vacation. Labels: austin, finals, gilmore girls, muzak
this may seriously cut into my sitting-around time
There's a lot on the agenda, now that the "Eating Mexican Food Cooked by Real Mexicans that Came Over the Border Illegally Last Week" countdown is at 4 days, 15 hours, and about 10 minutes.-Take Biz Orgs final (hopefully I'll get more than 2.5 hours' sleep before this one)-Buy birthday card for grandmother-Write out Christmas Cards-Mail birthday and Christmas Cards-Kill Germans any way I can (by shooting Nazis in Call of Duty 2. Come to think of it, the fact that I find this game ridiculously therapeutic is probably a problem requiring serious psychiatric help.) -Put away laundry that I did last Monday while studying for Con Law final-Buy cheese curds to take to Texas-Do dishes that have been sitting in sink since...well, let's just say that carbon dating may be involved to answer that one.-Clean out moldy food in fridge-Pay as many January bills as possible-Watch entire first seasons of "Heroes" and "Friday Night Lights" that I have TiVoed-Study for International Law final-Take (and probably fail) International Law final (why, oh why, did I take this class?!?!)-Shred the dozen piles of mail lying around my living room so they don't catch fire while I'm away-Turn off TiVo season passes for "General Hospital" and "Angel" so that my TiVo doesn't fill up while I'm gone-Pack for month-long vacation-Clean bathroom so that I don't return to find a sink full of spiders this year.-Find flip flops to wear (1) to the airport in defiance of stupid "take shoes off" regulations that people seem to think really stop terrorism, and (2) for the first three weeks of vacation, until I make it to Richmond...and even then, I can't promise that I'll wear shoes.*-Pick out DVDs to watch on the plane - preferably ones that will lead to the most disapproving stares from fellow passengers.But before I get to all that...I think I'm gonna go take a nap.*Now that I think about it...does anyone know if those airline liquid restrictions are still in place? I'd like to know if I need to somehow become a camel between now and Thursday morning, since I consume about 70oz of liquid during any one flight in order to avoid airsickness.Labels: finals, mexican food, vacation
you give me fever
I'm trying to figure out why I've been nauseous and been running a fever since last night.I really hope that the fact that I've been averaging 4 hours of sleep a night because of exams has nothing to do with that. Because if that's the case, then having that strong of an allergic reaction to studying probably isn't a good thing, considering I have 2 more exams and all.Labels: finals, insomnia, my neverending medical issues
how exactly does this benefit students?
Last spring, the law school decided to get with the times and allow students to take exams on laptops. In addition to allowing students to turn in legible exams, you could run a quick spellcheck before turning in the exam, since it was done through Word.They tell us this year that we *have* to download new exam software to take the exam. And - bonus - this version of the exam software doesn't include the option to spellcheck work before turning it in. So just like the handwritten exams, you have to sit there and go through line-by-line to make sure that everything is spelled correctly. Anyone that has ever tried to edit anything while it's still on a laptop screen knows that it's enough to drive you insane.I'm trying to think of the rationale for this, and the only thing I can come up with is that it's not fair to the three kids in the entire law school who don't want to type their exams. The administration can't even use the "just like the real world" justification that seems to be used for everything we do, because even *real* lawyers at least get their secretaries to hit the spellcheck button before printing out their briefs.Labels: finals, questions
a holly jolly exam time
Thanks to the girl sitting next to me in Con Law, I just learned that our exam is at 1:30 in the afternoon, rather than the standard 8:30 in the morning. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about that.I know most people who read this blog would guess that I would be psyched for such a late start time - that means that I can sleep until 11:00am and not be late for my exam (unlike the time I did that in undergrad and was awakened by a phone call from my professor asking me if I intended to take the exam that was currently being proctored). But the more I think about it, that extra 5 hours gives me 5 more hours to panic, stress-eat, vomit, panic some more, and get hit by a bicyclist on the way to school. What do you think - is the 1:30 exam a good thing that allows you to be rested, well-fed and sufficiently caffeinated, thus allowing you to perform at your peak? Or is waiting around to take a 1:30 exam just another form of torture sanctioned by the (clears throat) lovely folks in charge of the law school?Labels: con law, finals, questions
dangerous mind the greek?
So the grades for my three main classes will be released tomorrow (not including LR&W, apparently, because it takes ten weeks for people who aren't qualified to teach us writing to tell us that we aren't qualified to write either). Since I've already had the mild heart attack that comes with the "These grades will be posted" e-mail, I decided to curb my panicking by setting some odds for where I'll end up - you know, so that I'll be prepared when the inevitable happens. It makes sense, trust me.If the grades all get curved around a 3.0... and taking into account the fact that:--I took less than 20 total pages of notes over the course of the semester in each class.--I spent most (okay, all) of Bernie's and Professor Death Eater's classes on the internet.--I studied less than 10 hours for each exam.--Two of those hours were spent tabbing the textbooks and outlines for each class.--I only finished one exam (the Civ Pro exam that no one else finished).--Three of the ten questions on the Death Eater's exam were answered with stream-of-consciousness outlines.--I had bird flu for two months.I'm going to say that my semester GPA will be a 2.3, +/- 0.3 points. You're more than welcome to wager, but the house always wins - and this house will use your wagers to pay for the credits for her summer internship.UPDATE: It's outside of the 0.3 range, but not by much. It's enough to make me say "I'm barely in the top 75% of my class...I should just quit while I'm only 80 grand in the hole instead of wasting money on an education that I'm never going to be qualified to use."Labels: finals, job search blues
the tale of how i bombed my property final
6000 words.5 hours.Yeah. You do the math. (That actually only breaks down 20 words per minute...but if you factor in the actual "thinking about the exam" and "trying to formulate a coherent answer"...)Okay. Maybe I didn't finish because I just work slowly. But still. An exam consisting of four essays and four long short-answer questions isn't exactly fun - particularly when all of the practice exams for Professor Death Eater are only three essays long. Thanks for the big fat fake-out, man. Labels: finals, property class
mmm...chattel...
Right now, I'm torn between just going into my Property final with my 10-page outline, and actually working on making a checklist to accompany that outline tonight.I'm leaning towards not making the checklist. It depends on how much time I'll have to devote to "mentally preparing for 'Gilmore Girls' season finale" and "recovering from 'Gilmore Girls' season finale" tonight.Plus, if all else fails, I figure that I can answer every question for which I don't know the answer by writing "Denny Crane". And I don't think that I need a checklist for that.Labels: finals, gilmore girls
old habits
Like my disastrous Crim Pro final, my Civ Pro final is open-everything, and has a 3 hour time limit.Unlike my Crim Pro final, I know about this time limit beforehand (thanks to C). I've got the basic structure of my outline done, but I still need to go back and fill in with class notes, reading notes, and Lexis details. And I need to put together something on class actions. And then actually sit here and study stuff so that I can actually finish this exam and not sit here for two days afterwards going "Jesus Christ, I didn't even answer that question, did I?"I'll get started on all that right....after I finish watching "General Hospital". (You didn't think I'd actually reform my ways, did you?) Labels: civ pro, finals, general hospital
