Don't Make these Three Mistakes During Final Exams

Look at the students in this stock photo. They’re just happily collaborating, getting so much accomplished…I bet they really understand the parol evidence rule so much better now. This. is. not. reality.

Spending too much time studying at the law school is going to stress you out. Is your outline color coded and perfectly tabbed? Have you finished every practice problem in the E & E yet? I didn’t think so. The law school during the exam period is basically a mental hospital in which students voluntarily commit themselves so they can brag about how prepared they are for the exam, which the perfect atmosphere to send you spiraling into a panic attack. Also, while studying in  groups can sometimes be productive, time that should be spent working through legal issues is often spent complaining about professors and taking pictures of each other pretending to study to put on Instagram. Find your own quiet place to study and head to the law school to have lunch with your classmates or when you feel the need to be around other students studying. Remember, hanging out and having fun in the library isn’t going to help you beat the curve, you’re going to need to actually study to do that.   

Obviously, you should quit smoking. Your boyfriend who is getting on your last freaking nerve, yes, break up with him. Just wait to make any major life changes until finals are over. Don’t add unnecessary stress to your life when you are already under the soul crushing weight of exams. Celebrate finishing your last exam by inhaling the sweet, noxious fumes of that final cigarette, throwing the rest in the trash and dumping that loser.  

There are three months worth of notes on your computer and outlining takes HOURS. Don’t lose all of that hard work because your computer crashes for some ungodly unknown reason, you spill coffee on the keyboard or you get mugged when walking home late at night. Dropbox is free, email yourself everything, I’m sure you have a zip drive at the bottom of a drawer somewhere. If you haven’t backed up at all this semester, do it now, do it EVERY day. This is the ultimate better safe than sorry situation. 

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