If you are thinking about law school...don’t read this.

Just kidding...don’t let this scare you. By the time you reach finals, hypothetically, the semester has truly prepared you for this week. (or at least that’s what the professors tell you!)

I know I’ve talked about the logistics of finals before, but now that I’ve actually been through one. I thought I would explain again.

First: you’ve got this outline.

Yep, that’s the size of that thing. The outline is a summary of all the rules of law you’ve found in the cases. So yes, it is actually a condensed version of all your notes

Second: You’ve got to study.

They more you’ve studied throughout the semester the better. You better study well too, because let me remind you that (A) your ENTIRE grade is riding on the finals and (B) you are graded based on how EVERYONE ELSE does in the class. If they are doing better than you, you are doing worse.

My outline of my outline. The goal was to hopefully be able to rewrite this beauty in the first 10 minutes of the test.

However- that failed. Go from whatcha know and hopefully it sorta just flows spews our into coherent stream of consciousness

Third: The test.

In general, all of my finals are 3.5 hours long (or if you prefer, 210 minutes). Each final is comprised of around 2 cases which you’ve never seen before (because they are all made up!) which touch on just about every element you’ve talked about in class.

Read the cases: write all the legal issues you see, and the defenses for those issues.

Basically throw in everything but and the kitchen sink

Oh and there is no right answer. Yeah, you heard me. NO RIGHT ANSWER. None of the stories are like what you’ve read. The idea is that throughout the semester you’ve been given the tools to figure it out on your own.

Fourth: You get out feeling so emotionally and physically drained. Now...get ready to do it all over again for the next final! Since they are so strenuous, finals last for 2 weeks and are spaced out so no student has more than 1 final every other day.

Ta-Dah! And that is what I will be doing until December 15^th at promptly 4:30pm!