Weekly MILS Roundup #8

This week's Moms in Law School Roundup is at PT-LawMom. Next week it will be at A Little Fish in Law School, and the following week it will be back here.

Answering Questions

So this week I spoke in class a few times. The first time I volunteered. I had an answer to the professor's question that I thought was a good one. The person sitting next to me thought so too. The next day I got called on. I knew the answer that the person at the end of my row was struggling with, so I thought I did well. Then the professor asked a follow up and I completely flubbed it. I said "I don't think so" when a better answer would have been "Yes." The professor moved on quickly because someone else volunteered with the right answer (I know there are often no right answers in law school, but in this case there was). Anyway, then I felt kind of stupid and when the professor kept going back to the other people that he had asked questions of on that case and didn't come back to me I felt like I needed to prove that I did know what was going on and did have intelligent things to say, so I volunteered and spoke a couple more times that day.

I've noticed that Prof Legal methods seems to have a few favorites in class -- people that he can always count on to have an opinion -- and he calls on them frequently, even when they don't volunteer. But he also is trying to call on everyone in class twice. He finished up the last few people in the first iteration on Friday, so I guess Monday we will all be up for grabs again. He doesn't seem to have a discernible system -- I think it is just random. Anyway, I don't mind it. Even though I froze up that one time, I generally feel like I could give an intelligent answer to most of the questions he asks.

Anyway, I also wanted to answer PT-LawMom's question about the age breakdown of my class. I don't know exactly what the breakdown is for my class but I got the statistics for last year's class off of the admission's website. In that class 78% were 24 or younger, 18% were 25-28 and 4% were 29 or older. This seems to be about what my class is. Well over half are within a year or two of college. There seems to be a significant minority of people around 5 years out of college. Then a few older. I know at least two other people who graduated from undergrad the same year as me who are in my legal methods section. I have also met two other mothers in my class. One has a toddler who is unfortunately living with his grandmother far away for now because she couldn't find daycare, and the other has two kids in college.

Notes from the First Week of Law School

I have now completed five days of law school classes. So far I am really enjoying it. Last week was hard because we didn't get our assignment for the first day until two days before classes started and it was a long assignment so I didn't complete it until the night before and then each night I was reading for the next day's class which made me feel like I was kind of behind because I wasn't ahead. But over the weekend I was able to get ahead a little bit and now I am reading two days ahead, which makes me feel more relaxed. It is amazing but we are actually going to get through an 800+ page textbook in less than three weeks.

Oh, and my professor is super-nice. He actually said that if anybody feels that the prospect of being called in causes them such anxiety that they feel it actually interferes with their ability to learn he will take them out of the rotation. He calls on a lot of people each class and people also volunteer. I haven't been called on yet, but the prospect doesn't really scare me, I have felt prepared enough to answer the questions he has been asking so far.

My routine is working out pretty well. I usually have two or three hours to study during the day and then do another two or three hours at home after the little guy goes to bed. Hubby watched the little guy on one weekend day so I could go to the library and study and the other weekend day was my day off from law school.

I have been spending three or four hours a day with the little guy, which seems like still a good amount of time, but I noticed when I spent that day with him on the weekend that he looked different to me, like he had grown over the week, and because I was spending less time with him I now had the perspective to see the changes.

I also changed over the week... I lost two pounds. I guess the mile walk to and from law school each day is doing me good. I also checked out the University's gym this week and plan on going there twice a week starting tomorrow. I am also thinking of signing up for a yoga class in the fall.

Weekly MILS Roundup #7

Time for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup! Here are the best posts from this week:

• Spending time with mom (Peanut Butter Burrito and Lag Liv)


• Not spending time with mom (Diary of a Law School Mom)


• Adding it up (A little fish in law school)


• Getting out (Frequent Citations)


• Greeting New Faces (Knocked Up (and in Law School))


• Taking a Break (PT-LawMom)


• Supply and Demand (Magic Cookie)


• Practice makes perfect (2Lwannabe )

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis here, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at PT-LawMom.

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

I'm Oriented

Orientation is over and class starts tomorrow morning. I've read over 100 pages in preparation for this first class and I'm pretty tired, but I got it all done so I feel good about that. I didn't sleep that well the last couple nights and stayed up late (for me) last night reading, so I need to go to bed now so I will be coherent for class tomorrow.