Archive for December, 2008

Networking Anywhere

Today was my first day back into the gym.  I had an awesome run on the treadmill, but the weight training got fragmented.  I ran into an older man that I occassionally chat with.  We usually talk about school, business, and politics for a few minutes.  Today we did the same except for he mentioned the possibility of going to dinner with his son and daughter who both happened to be established attorneys.  Of course I was all for the idea.  You can never have too many good ties in the legal field.  Plus, I’ll have another opportunity to look directly into the legal community.  One thing I always do when talking to lawyers is try to get a pulse on their respective fields and law in general.  Hopefully this tenative meeting will come to fruition.

Outside of the chat, I had a solid holiday workout.

Friday, December 12 7:15 am

30 minutes treadmill 3.34 miles

3×12 bench press 135 lbs

3×10 tricep pulldown plate 7

3×12 inside incline bench press 135 lbs

Christmas Break

Christmas break is always good.  I’ve let go of 95% of my angst about the exams and right now I’m just enjoying myself.  I am hanging onto a question I may have got wrong on my Insurance exam.  The question actually concerned an objective standard and I want to argue that my answer I was both subjectively and objectively right.  I could have been right, but who knows.  Oh, its the reasonable expectation test as far as courts reviewing an Insurance policy.

I was talking to a friend and I might have an opening to a position at the AG’s office.  The position is part-time and pays $9.50/hr.  That would be a great experience builder to supplement my spring semester.  I’m hopeful for follow-through on that, but I’m still starting a job search next week.

That’s it for today.  I’m off to workout.

Exams in Retrospect

All the exams are turned in, but the unrest doesn’t stop until grades are returned.  I’m not happy overall with how they went.  So now I have to wait until January 2nd before I can see any grades.  As you know the final test for me was Wills, Estates, and Trusts.  My class notes took me 11 hours just to diligently read through.  I knew the material well enough.  For example, if you ask me about any of the major doctrines or topics covered in class, I can give you a decent breakdown.  Unfortunately, most law school tests don’t work like that.

The exam was 25 mixed short answer.  If any part of the answer is wrong, its all wrong.  There is no partial credit on these and they’re worth 2 points apiece.  The second half is two essays worth 25 points each.  Depending on how he grades my multiple choice answers, I think I did ok.  If he is very stringent, that could drop steeply.  The first essay was a struggle for me.  The essays were issue spotters, but I never could get traction within the facts.  I ended up stating what I knew specifically about the facts and then inserting general knowledge about wills in hopes of adding points.  I think I did notably better on the trusts essay.  I actually feel somewhat better after writing it out.  I had forgot that the multiple choice were half of the test and the essays were bifurcated into half of the other half of the test.

We’ll see how it turns out.  I’ll remain hopeful, but also on “pins and needles” until I get my grades.

The workout portion of this blog was on hold for the last portion of the exams.  I could have made it to the gym before Monday, but for the last three days, all I’ve done is read and write.  If I made time for going to the gym, it would have actually cut into that time so the dropoff there was warranted.  However, the workout drought will end during the break.

More on how Insurance Law went and how I could have better used my study time is forthcoming.