I love the challenge of test taking so much, that I wasn’t even phased when I saw, next year, I have to take two finals in one day. I’m looking forward to it in fact. 9am-4pm. I mean, it’s basically like a really hard day of work right? Nothing too out of the ordinary. I’m sure most lawyers have had at least a couple days of especially challenging work that they went at for 7 hours with a 30 minute lunch break. So now I’m thinking I should actually take a real challenge…

Three Tests in One Day

I call it the Law School Marathon Triathlon. It would be 12 hours, with three hours of breaks, assuming none of the tests are of the 3 and a half hour variety. It really would be a test of endurance, to stare a computer screen for that long. I can envision myself taking 15 minute breaks to just stare off into space in the hallway by the middle of the third test.

I think the training would be great. I have the sort of half marathon in December with Evidence and International Business Transactions. If I falter hard during that, I could always change my schedule. I would need to study a lot harder than I normally do, because the tests need to be virtually effortless. I know it will be spring of 3L, but I don’t want to go in there and just type crap for 9 hours. I want to go in and get good grades too. And even if you aren’t looking for the A*, to even make it through the last exam you can’t slog through the first two. I expect I might even need to be in halfway decent physical condition.

The schedule really is the biggest issue. For one, I don’t know whether the law school will let me do this. Secondly, you are severely limited in course choices. There was only one day this exam period where three upper level courses had exams at the three different times. That means that I will probably have to take at least one class and one professor that I don’t like or who isn’t very good.

So who thinks I can do this? Am I just blowing something out of proportion? Do a lot of people have three test days during finals? Am I just crazy for even thinking about this? Let me know, especially any IU Law bloggers who would want to join me next spring, to add a little spice to what is supposed to be a boring, “just serving my time” semester.

(Thank you to Craig for the Triathlon reference.  Must better name.)

Next gen gaming really is a revelation for those of you still toiling on an Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, etc.  I highly suggest making the investment.  I pretty much have no problems with the 360 other than the jet engine fan, which in my small apartment with a tall ceiling can sound incredibly loud.  I considered the Elite, but I can upgrade the hard drive later, and I really don’t care if my gaming system is black, white, grey, purple, whatever.  Plus I’m not investing almost another $100 of already short funds into HDMI technology when I don’t have an HDTV and don’t plan to buy a 1080p HDTV where HDMI really makes a difference.  Plus these things are dying with regularity.

Saints Row wasn’t the first game I bought (that was Gears of War, which is fantastic) but being a huge GTA fan, I had to check out what is widely regarded as the best GTA clone.  Saints Row, 6% into the game, lives up to its billing so far.  It supplies a very similar experience, but with much better physics and graphics.  Hitting people with cars is probably the best example.  Pedestrians bounce and roll off and under the car much more realistically than in San Andreas, and don’t ever shoot up in the air.  The fighting and firing mechanisms are both more elaborate and more challenging, including allowing a long forgotten feature in GTA to fire while driving a car (not just drive-bys).  I haven’t tried the multiplayer mode, but I suspect it’s pretty good, although an MMO based on a gang story would be amazing.

However, the difference between GTA and every clone is the story.  Grand Theft Auto is not just some uber-violent shooter where you blow people’s heads off, have sex with hookers, destroy property, and create havoc.  All the games have an elaborate story.  The contrasts between Saints Row and San Andreas are stark.  In San Andreas, you’re given a very long cut scene to start with, which includes the news of Carl and Sweet Johnson’s mom being killed.  So it makes perfect sense that this is the impetus they need to take back the hood from the crack dealers who have overrun it.  You’re also introduced to CJ’s friends and family, all of whom add immensely to the story.  And Office Tenpenny is a great villein, especially when you realize your character is supposed to be the criminal.

Saints Row doesn’t go nearly as deep.  The first cut scene just shows how the Saints found you.  It doesn’t explain why you are the person you’re expected to be.  You aren’t told why you accept the invitation to join the gang.  Julius, the leader of the Saints, never really explains why the Saints have chosen now to expand their power and take down the other gangs in Stillwater.  The biggest let down is that your character doesn’t talk.  This drastically limits the ability to expand and explore the most important person in the game, and if GTA can make characters talk for about 5 years now, THQ and Volition could have done it on an Xbox 360 right away.

You can also debate whether Stillwater is a good setting or not, but I like it.  I prefer the massive scale of San Andreas, but for one city, Stillwater is incredibly detailed, and from my somewhat limited exploration, it seems a good effort was made to make the different neighborhoods distinct.  For GTA fans who need a good fix before October, I suggest getting your 360 (which you’ll need for GTA IV) and Saints Row.  The game has all the basics right, and if a sequel comes out, I have high hopes that with the gameplay and graphics of this version, more time can be spent on the story and characters, which should make it not just a great GTA clone, but a great game.

I’m really superstitious about test taking.

There, I said it, that feels better.  I have a fairly elaborate routine for finals.  Some stuff is more important than other things, but everything has its place.

It starts with the music which I listen to before the test.  The mix is dynamic, it changes from test to test even, and the length fluctuates between about 1:10 and 1:45.  Once it was up around 2 hours, but that was really an outlier, and I think it was in undergrad.  The music is a mix of cliche stadium anthems, hip-hop, and rock songs.  Fight songs have been known to make an appearance too.  I think about 10% of the songs has survived all the way into the 6th finals period that I’ve always listened to music before exams.

I generally wear the same outfit: jeans, the exact same adidas shirt, sneakers, the same jacket if it’s cool, the same hat if it’s cold (although I lost the hat and will have to replace it before next December), sunglass if it’s sunny.  I’m not one of those people who roll into exams in sweatpants or pajama pants.  I can’t do it, I feel like I should be in bed.  I need to get up, and actually get dressed.

I don’t eat the same thing, but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches show up a lot.  Soup is good too, before dinner.  I wish the law school had a slightly different exam schedule, since only the 9:00 am period sets itself up for a convenient meal, at a proper time before the exam.

There’s also a post-game mix of music, which includes a couple songs that only get played after the last exam.  I think this is all the result of the fact that I’m generally a competitive guy, and having not played sports in high school or college, I really never had a good outlet.  So I treat exams like games, get myself pumped up.

Anyone else have a little routine or superstition before exams?

But it’s someone else’s outline, and after ranting about the personal nature of education, I can’t very well say that it sucks and that this person should be ashamed of themselves.  How about this then: if this person allowed this illegible piece of crap to get added to this outline bank, or put it in there themselves, they out to be ashamed.  Once you put something in an outline bank, you’re no longer creating a personal education tool, you’re creating a community resource.  It doesn’t help the community to have confusing and difficult-to-read outlines floating around, and you shouldn’t feel good about adding in something that will help no one but yourself.

And I’m sorry, some will really think me foolish, but I don’t think dorms should be co-ed, so that crazed, jealous boyfriends can enter their girlfriends’ dorms and kill them and the innocent young men who come to their aid.  If it had been a single-sex dorm, the killer might not have been able to enter so readily.  There aren’t enough difficulties getting young people through college these days so that we have to deal with ”domestic disputes” in their dormitories as well?

And, sorry again, but thoughts also arise on the killer’s being an English major and on the spiritual emptiness of much education nowadays.

So to quote Cynical-C, “It’s the fault that colleges have co-ed dorms and/or students who major in English.”

Do not listen to anybody

This includes some (or all) of this advice.  What I mean is nothing can be taken as gospel.  Education is a highly individual and personal endeavor.  Aside from extremely general and generic statements like “study more” or “focus,” best practices do not exist in exam preparation.  While most of us can’t get away with studying two hours a day for finals, if you can, by all means give it a shot.  While I wouldn’t recommend that for a 1L who hasn’t quite mastered the game yet, if you have the proof (i.e. good grades) to back it up, why change what works?  I say this because a) I believe it and b) it seems half of the responses to any post about law school studying and exams are about how much the advice sucks and how listening to the advice will lead to Cs and working as a public defender in a town of 300 people.  So I’m not giving advice really, these are just suggestions of things that you might want to try, that have worked for me.

That phrase also has another meaning, specifically that what law students tend to spout off about during finals is much more likely to lead to stress than during the rest of the year.  If someone starts talking about their study habits, size of their outline, how many practice exams they’ve done, money spent on commercial study aids, etc., more often than not it will raise your stress level to listen.

Pace Yourself

A common saying among law students is that finals is like being asked to run a four minute mile after running a marathon.  I disagree.  It’s like running another marathon after running a marathon.  Finals periods are typically around two weeks (at least that’s what it is here).  You will likely have between 3 and 5 tests and/or papers due during that period.  To get really good grades, you must perform well on each test (or paper).  Thus, you need to be at the top of your game during the whole finals period.  If you start by studying 14-18 hours a day, by the end of the two weeks you’ll be burned out.  This can be especially bad if your finals schedule is backloaded, like mine is.  Now, like I said about, your results may vary.  Maybe you can wake up at 6 am, study for 6 hours, eat lunch, study for 6 hours, eat dinner, study for 4-5 hours, and go to sleep.  A lot of people can’t.  So don’t listen to people who can, and don’t feel guilty if you can’t.  If you can only put in 8 solid hours of work, then either find something mindless but productive to do for a few hours, or pack it in.  If you can put in 10 good hours of work every day for the entire finals period, you’ll probably be in better shape than the person who burned out on Day 3 and is “studying” but can barely concentrate anymore.

Work on Test-Taking Skills

I’m firmly of the belief that subject matter knowledge accounts for somewhere between 10% and 30% of exam success.  Attitude and test-taking skill make up a significant portion of deciding who does best on an exam.  To that end, it might pay off to make sure you’re not neglecting this aspect of test-taking.  If you walk in confident, with strategies to attack a test, you’re in much better shape if the test throws the room for a loop.  This goes for everything from closed book multiple choice tests to 48 hour take-home finals.  Hone your skills and strategies, and do whatever it is you need to do before the exam to make sure you’re performing at your best.

That’s pretty much it.  Anything else would be really specific things about how I structure my outlines or how I flag statutory supplements that wouldn’t help anyone.  Just remember that first bit of advice, it’s by far more important that the last two.

If you were flying over Indiana yesterday afternoon or evening and experienced some turbulence, that would have been the collective sign of relief from Indiana fans that Kentucky did not get Donovan.  I don’t have a single doubt that Donovan would have built that team into a dynasty.  He was almost certainly going to start by landing a top 20 recruit in Patrick Patterson, and Kentucky would have handed him a blank check for whatever he needed (and no, not to pay players).

As I said last year during the Sampson hiring, hiring a coach at this level is a risk.  The Big Six (UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Duke, and UNC) are different atmospheres.  You are expected to compete almost every year, and the “almost” isn’t even a given.  You are given a rebuilding year at a time, not a rebuilding period.  These schools don’t have tournament droughts, or even Sweet Sixteen droughts, they have Final Four and conference championship droughts.  All of this makes them pressure-packed jobs that you simply cannot guess how a coach will do in.  Especially when hiring mid-major or “up and coming” coaches.

I think this is a good hire for Kentucky.  They lost out on Donovan, but responded quickly to offer two guys who have won wherever they’ve been.  Barnes, who has completely built a program at Texas, said no, so UK turned to Gillispie, who was in the process at A&M.  Gillispie might bring in a good recruiting class right away and has a great shot at winning in Lexington.

But it’s not a slam dunk.  Donovan would have been close to a slam dunk.  Of the hires mentioned, only Roy Williams qualified as a sure thing, since he had lived through the pressures of Kansas.  He knew exactly what to expect at North Carolina, and he had experience recruiting, coaching, and winning in that type of environment.  Gillispie doesn’t have that type of experience, and it would have been a question mark even for Billy Donovan, even if only a little one.

So as an IU fan, I look forward to the battles with Kentucky coming up.  I think Sampson and Gillispie are going to build similar programs, and I think both are going to be competing for championships sooner rather than later.  But I’m not terrified of Gillispie, like I was of Donovan.  Gillispie might struggle here and there, while it’s possible that Donovan might have just sailed to title after title.  Not likely, but possible.  So here’s to great battles between two of the biggest programs in basketball, with two of the better coaches in the game.

Thus we get a glimpse into the insanity of Kentucky Basketball fans.  IU, UCLA, and UNC fans are in the same ballpark (Duke and Kansas fans haven’t had a chance recently to attack underachieving coaches).  But UK fans are on another level.  Their lack of any connection to reality shows just how far their heads are in the sand (not that IU fans weren’t breathing sand a couple years ago).

It’s simply wrong to assume that Donovan is automatically going to take the job.  Forget the fact that he might have NBA aspirations, having been connected via rumor to the Heat and now the Grizzlies.  Look at Thad Matta.  I’ve been convinced Matta will move to a basketball school, because at the end of the day, most great head coaches are egotistical and competitive, and don’t want to play second fiddle to the football program.  Had Ohio State won the national title, the interest in the spring game might rival the Final Four trip.  But now I’m not so sure.  Ohio State can pay him more than any other school in the country.  He has recruiting connections all across the Midwest and shows no signs that next year will be a rebuilding year if Greg Oden and Mike Conley make the lead to the NBA.  And it looks like he might be building Ohio State into a basketball power in the Big Ten.

There’s no reason Florida is different.  Football brings in the bucks, Donovan’s success is making the fans take more notice, and while it might never rival Gator Football in terms of prestige and fan interest, there’s no reason to think Donovan can’t build Florida into a perennial SEC power, a regular Final Four visitor, and multiple national champion.  The question is what does he see as the more attractive challenge?  Is it building a great program at a football school, or is it turning Kentucky around (by their standards), and leading them back to the promised land?

The logical progression of a coach up the prestige ranks is over.  In fact, if Donovan stays at Florida, Kentucky might contribute to that when they are forced to scramble for a head coach, having now put all their eggs in the Billy D basket.  Arkansas might snap up another Kentucky target, John Calipari, before Donovan makes a decision.  Kentucky might have to look to the hot, young mid-major (gasp!) class of coaches which are in the running for the job you get before you get the Kentucky job.

This is why Kentucky fans are so insane.  The game has changed.  The fact that Kentucky has to back a Brinks truck up to the Donovan house to get him to listen to them is proof alone that the rule are different now.  No longer can you wave a blue-and-white (or baby blue, or red, or blue and gold) watch in front of a coach and instantly mesmerize him into joining your program.  Coaches see the crazy fans, the suffocating media exposure, and the potentially crushing expectations one one hand, and then look at the occasional anonymity, relaxed atmosphere, vast resources, and room-for-error that being at a football school brings, and it’s no longer a no-brainer what they’re going to do.  Kentucky fans need to realize this, and remember two things: you will have to beg a coach to take that job, and you shouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t work sometimes.

13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

(Via Kottke.org)

Basketball is a chaotic game that is more dependent on the skills of its individual players – rather than the randomness of baseball or the monolithic collective battalions of football – and it also allows for more small successes. In baseball and football, if you score, it is the result of meticulous planning and is therefore a spasmic release; when scoring is so rare, each tally matters. This is not an issue in basketball. One of the more common complaints from non-sports fans about the game of basketball is that it seems so easy to score; to the untrained eye, it can appear as if five men run down a court, throw a ball in a hole, then run back and watch as the other team does the same thing. This is an overexaggeration, obviously, but there is some truth to it; the goal of any game is to score, and basketball manufactures this goal in abundance. Hence, when two teams go through a regulation period and then yet another period and still have ended up with exact same total, it’s more startling; the more points a particular game allows, the more random it seems that it could remain deadlocked.

It’s nice to know that other people think about sports this way, as either the societies that grow around the games, or the art that the rythym of the game creates.

(Quote from Will Leitch, writing for the New York Times)