Anxiety of the unknown has dissipated among the 1L class, probably to be replaced shortly by anxiety over the exam. Law school classes each have one final exam, which is your whole grade.

However, they're all open-book and previous exams are posted online by the professors (as well as student answers) Being a curious character I checked them out this week, not because I am a exam-hounding loser but because being a sparse note-taker it gives me some guidance. The largest part of each exam involves a lengthy hypothetical case that you're asked to diassemble & put back together in stages. Seems reasonable.

The single exception is Legal Skills, which has several graded writing assignments through the semester and then a final exam & grade at the end of the year.

Otherwise, the students seem to be acclimated to their instructors (and vice versa) at this point. My favorite class so far is civil procedure. While I could quibble about a few habits of my professors I have to say overall the teaching quality is excellent. When I went to college, half my professors were bored by being there and the other half were barely functional in English. So the little things don't bother me.

03 Sep 04