My property professor said to our class, after hearing that none of us possessed, much less read, the syllabus for this semester, “When you all began last semester, you had the syllabus memorized. Oh how quickly you become jaded!”

The first day of school, first semester, I showed up around an hour early, and went to my class nearly 30 minutes early. The class was already mostly full of anxious 1Ls.

The first day of school, second semester, I barely made it. I rolled in at 3 minutes ’till, and I was far from the last to enter the room. Several people skipped the first day entirely.

First semester, I would skip class before going without full briefs of every single word in the required reading for that class. This semester, I have briefed three cases total, out of approximately 15 read so far.

I am not necessarily proud of the fact that I’m not working as hard. I’m working hard in other, more efficient ways though, and I’m happy to know more about what I’m doing. I know what things to spend time on, and which things are less important.

I was on call today in Torts. I hadn’t really read the material like I should have, and I hadn’t briefed it at all. I had (still have, at the moment) a fever and a cold, and had really considered skipping the class entirely. And I did fine. I didn’t even get nervous like I have in the past. I’m getting the hang of this stuff.

I am sitting here at 2:45 in the morning, just mere days prior to my first final in my first semester of law school, and I’m strung out on caffeine and pretty exhausted. I find that this was a choice though, to be up this late and coffee-happy, because I definitely don’t think this late night studying was required in order for me to be successful on my exams.

I just completed my flash cards (this is my preferred method of studying) for my Torts exam, which happens on Thursday. My Torts outline is 21 pages, which I feel like is ridiculous and ample, but which is nearly 20 pages shorter than my professor suggested the outline SHOULD be. I’m trying not to let this stress me out.

My first exam is Contracts, and I think I’m going to be prepared. I worked with a study group today, and felt pleased with how much more of the info I knew than I thought I did.

An interesting thing about studying for law finals is the fact that I actually want to LEARN it and retain the information. Every single thing I learn will benefit me when I have clients. This isn’t like studying German in undergrad- I knew I wouldn’t use that ever again. So my studying was very basic, and included a lot of memorization, rather than learning. This is different, and I find myself *wanting* to stay up late and learn as much as I possibly can. And not so much because of the exam (although obviously that’s a motivating factor), but more because I *want* the knowledge, and I can see a purpose for having it.

I do find that I’m planning a lot of things during my 4 or so weeks between classes. I may sleep for a whole day, too. And read a fiction book. Or not ever read a single word, given how many words I’ve read this semester.