I got the following e-mail yesterday . . .

Do not respond to this message

August 31, 2005

Message to students from SMU President R. Gerald Turner and Provost Robert Blocker:

With the increasing reports of devastation from Hurricane Katrina, President Turner has determined that SMU will enroll Tulane University students from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for this fall semester on a space-available basis.  In this time of tragedy, we ask your cooperation and compassion as SMU opens its doors to these students.  The Office of Enrollment Management will receive inquiries regarding enrollment at 768-2058 after 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 1, and students must make contact with SMU by Tuesday, September 6. These requests will be evaluated, and the students will be counseled regarding their options. President Turner is continuing his efforts to reach President Scott Cowan of Tulane to personally extend the offer of SMU facilities to Tulane faculty should they be assigned to teach Tulane students in Dallas this fall and to work out other details of assistance.
*************************************************************************8
 

Going to professors to review old exams is helpful only if you have that professor again, I have found. Study aids are helpful, but see if you can find someone who had the same classes as you in the previous year to see what study aids they recommend. There's a constitutional law supplement by Erwin Chemerinsky that was immensely helpful for Constitutional Law. 2Ls and 3Ls at my school have said that flashcards are helpful for evidence.  I don't really know about criminal procedure.

Also, don't believe the hype about not being able to study before classes start. I think this is basically true for entering 1L's, because you have no idea of what is going on in a law school classroom. But after sitting in law classes for a year, you know what's important and what isn't even if your exam scores don't reflect that. You might want to start listening to some tapes or CDs for your courses to get familiar with the terminology and the black letter law.  That way when school starts you can focus more on what's important in the cases rather than trying to learn the black letter law and the cases at the same time. This might take some of the pressure off, too.

I can't really give you advice for the long term, but I can tell you that you are not alone.  I felt much the same way.  I did better my second semester, but not as well as I had hoped.

Probably the best thing you can do right now, in my opinion, is to actually take a break from the law.  Take a break from law books, law people, anything related to law school, and then see if you miss it.  I did this and I missed law terribly.  The fact that I missed it so much has made me want to recommit myself to law school, no matter what my grades are.  I am in law to really help people, not to be a prestigious person who makes partner in a law firm or something like that. If you are in law for the right reasons, I think that taking a break will leave you being refreshed and will give you a new perspective.

My two cents.

By the way, keep your head up. You are not dumb, and you probably have not done much wrong, if you are still enrolled in law school (meaning you didn't flunk out).  Lots of my so called friends implied that I was  "dumb" because I didn't do well, and for awhile, I started to believe it (stupid, foolish,I know, but I did). If there are people around you that are doing this, get them out of your life. It will do you a world of good. Also remember that no matter how hard everyone works in law school, there will be some people who are in the bottom half of the class--its just simple math.

If you are in law school for the right reasons, I think you will be fine if you just remember why you committed to this. Improvement is relative. Have you improved as a person? Your law school GPA is not the story of your life. Things can, and will, get better if you want to practice law. 

Good luck. Hope this helps.

got two grades . . .so far, no C's.

The hardest thing for me to get used to was to acknowledge the fact that I couldn't predict jack sh!t. Classes that I understood the best & knew I did the best on the final - turned out to be my worst grade. And vice versa.

I co sign on this. You can't predict anything. When you are in undergrad, you know that if you work hard, you will get good grades, because there are some people who aren't working hard. But in law school, everyone is working hard, but everyone is not necessarily working hard the right way. Don't let other people intimidate you and figure out what works for you. That was the hardest part for me. I knew what worked for me in undergrad, and instead of doing that, I bought into all of this stuff that books were saying, that other students were saying, etc.  It was not helpful at all. I'm not saying at all that law school is like undergrad.  It isn't.  But I was always active in my learning process in undergrad, I never listened to other students and other people and their experiences, and I always developed my own study plans, etc. according to what worked for me. So, figure out what works for you, and hold on for dear life. If you do decide to listen to other people's advice, take it with a grain of salt.  There is really no way to prepare. Good luck!!