Serious Responses Only Please

[T. Durden]

the second sem apathy has struck me like some sort of disease and i can't shake it. it's some what ironical as this semester i have infinitely more to do than i did last semester, and  yet i'm putting half the time, effort, and concern into the whole endeavor.

to the guy who said he had his ass handed to him in mock trial - what exactly does this mean? For whatever inexplicable reason I signed up for mock trial as a 1L and the competition is in 2 or so weeks. Can you please shine some light on what it is that I have gotten myself into? I thouhgt that I only had to give an opening statement, do direct and cross examinatin of witnesses, and that was it - how does one's ass get handed to him during this process? The other side was that good?

[Texas]

to the guy who said he had his ass handed to him in mock trial - what exactly does this mean? For whatever inexplicable reason I signed up for mock trial as a 1L and the competition is in 2 or so weeks. Can you please shine some light on what it is that I have gotten myself into? I thouhgt that I only had to give an opening statement, do direct and cross examinatin of witnesses, and that was it - how does one's ass get handed to him during this process? The other side was that good?

The 2 problems I had with the competition:
1) Either - our 1st round opponents had some kind of extra coaching going into the competition. When you start going over the Federal Rules of Evidence you will find simple definitions of "relevance" or "hearsay"...but not a ton of material discussing how those apply. They had specific objections to certain evidence that you would not be able to infer from the rules themselves...so I'm pretty sure that an upper level student had gone over the problem with them and helped them plan their objections - if not, then they were just Uber-prepared...
2) or our 1st night judge sustained every objection (right or wrong) if the other side didn't know how to respond to it properly...that is kind of frustrating when the other side is making bad objections...

I'm not sure which it was, but the other side made objections, that were sustained by the judge, and then that night I looked over the FRE again and found nothing that would explain why their objection worked...then in the next round we used the same objection and it was overruled...

You will find a lot of that though - each rounds judging varies as they are just 2 and 3L students who for the most part have had 1 course in evidence...so everyone's opinion on what is valid is different...

2nd and 3rd rounds were much more even and fun...but the inconsistancies were still there...

[AuburnChick]

I feel your pain.  I loved my classes last semester and the profs I had and I am pretty happy with my grades (a 3.5)....but this semester I am really having a hard time getting motivated. I think I busted my butt studying last semester because I was scared.  Now that fear has gone away and I just don't feel like doing anything.  I think I am burned out.  And it doesn't help that my dog just died.

aww im so sorry about your loss.  Two stray cats wondered up this year and I have given them homes..that has eased some of the stress I think.  Maybe you can adopt a new puppy and that would give you something new to be excited about! Im thinking about joining a new gym or  getting a hobby...law school is not cutting it.  I feel burned out and mad at myself at the same time---i feel like i only gave about 40 or 50% effort last semester, but at the same time I am so sick of the material and the professors that I'm feeling burned out...Maybe I'm just lazy

[AuburnChick]

In all seriousness, do you have any work/personal background that draws you to the law school experience?  This is something I wonder about a lot with my peers, who seem to struggle because they view law school as academic torture rather than a source of valuable information. 

no i really don't--i chose law because i enjoy research, especially when i am researching to make a good argument--i had the opportunity to do a lot of this in undergrad and i got sort of a  high from it---it was always just very satisfying..and i assumed law school would be more of the same.  maybe i should've taken time off b/t undergrad and law?

[jacy85]

Taking time off would have helped a lot, I think.

Many of my friends here who went straight from undergrad are having the same issues.  They barely do the reading this semester, they're having extreme difficulty motivating themselves.  I took 2 years off, and while I am feeling some sense of apathy, it's not nearly as bad.  I get the distinct impression that I've done more work on my appellate brief thus far than many, I'm the one of the few people in my section that hasn't had a hard time getting our reading done, and the only class I have to really try hard to focus in is Conlaw.

I'd say "maybe it's just me" but overall, it seems that in my section, the other people who aren't having a really tough time this semester also took some time off.

[Senior Belding]

I took two years off as well and I like law school so far. It sure beats working. It is satisfyign that I am bettering myself and that I know what I want to do with my law career.

95% of jobs really cant offer that for me.

AC- You say you like researching and making arguments? They aren't giving you enough of that? I think you should come help me with my closed memo then...

[AuburnChick]

haha no there is plenty of that...im just saying that I assumed that since i like that stuff i would like law school...doesn't seem like an unreasonable jump right?