What Happens When You're Not Prepared for a Law School Class

This is embarrassing. I originally had no intentions of blogging about this, but after my last post I realized I wouldn't be completely honest if I omitted the flip side of what happens in class... 

Related: What a law school class is like

A few months back, I was trying to finish up my Con readings but kept dozing off. Because this class is 2 hours long, we get a 10 minute break at the half. I decided that I'd go ahead and quit and either skim the cases during the break or look them up on Quimbee if they were long. By the time we got to our break in Con, we had only gone over 1 out of our assigned 6 readings. I reasoned that at this rate, we wouldn't even cover the cases I didn't read so I went ahead and took my break. But to make up for spending too much time on the first case, my professor decided to skip to the very last two (the only two I hadn't read yet). 

Related: Quimbee review

As you can guess, yours truly was the first person he called on. I also just so happen to sit in the front row, near his podium. He was staring right at me and I was panicking so much I didn't feel like I had time to pull up the case real quick without it being super obvious that I didn't read. Since it was mid-semester I wasn't the first person to get called on without reading, so I knew what would happen. An "I'm not prepared" by me followed by a kinda snarky "Oooookay...." by my professor before he picked someone else to go over the case.

Related: Getting called on in law school

I'm still not sure how this will effect my grade, whether it'll be a half a letter or less (hopefully not more!!) that's taken off. Every professor's syllabus says that class participation is considered when they have to place you on the curve. This is why I was sweating my midterm, because I knew that I was starting at a disadvantage.

This isn't how it always goes down. For my Contracts professor, he prefers that you tell him right off that you're not prepared. If you do this, he'll just warn you that it counts as an absence and move on. But if you try to fake he very obviously will let out an annoyed sigh and roll his eyes and ask if you're prepared. My Property professor will also right out ask you if you read the page, and if he thinks you're bluffing he'll ask you to summarize it. My Crim professor definitely doesn't put up with that, and will give this big speech about how we're all supposed to be lawyers and you can't tell a judge that you weren't prepared and you can't tell your client that you didn't do your job. His speech is bad enough that people will get up and leave before that class starts just because they haven't read.

I guess really you just have to know your professor and figure out if they'd prefer you at least try to give some answer or if they think that's just wasting everyone's time. What's funny now is that in Con there's been a few times when he has called on someone, then there's an awkward pause, and then they literally start reciting from the Quimbee case I have right in front of me. While my professor hasn't acted like this upsets him, the whole rest of the class can tell you dropped the ball because practically everyone uses Quimbee.
I hope my little horror story scares you into reading every case with the assumption that they will be covered in class. Honestly it was good for me though because I have not skipped a single case in any class since, and I've spent the rest of the semester in Con eagerly waiting to get called on so I can redeem myself.

What a Law School Class is Like

Today I realized that I've talked about what a typical day is like here in school, but never gave any insight to what class itself is actually like. Whoops! Major oversight on my part because it was one of the things I was most unsure and nervous about. I didn't know if it'd be as mean as Legally Blonde or as fast paced as How to Get Away With Murder, especially because of the Socratic method. I know every school is different, and every professor is different, but I have a feeling that the general idea is the same regardless.

Going Over the Case

My professors are very prompt and straight forward, so our classes generally begin with a professor diving right in to the material and calling on someone. Usually they just pick a name off the attendance sheet and then you're up. Depending on the professor, you might have to stand up when it's your turn. What the professors will want out of you is a brief background of who is suing who and why, the Issue part of your IRAC.

Socratic Method

Then you move on to the Analysis and Rule of your IRAC. You'll probably get a few leading questions asking for specific things that your professor wants you to get out of the case, like why were they suing under this theory and not another one or did the plaintiff prove all the elements they needed to. For the most part these questions aren't hard as long as you paid attention while reading and understood what was going on for the case. If there are any questions in your book after a case or within the footnotes, there's a really good chance that your professor might ask you one of those.

Open to the Class

After you've gone over the case, the professor might ask some tougher questions which you have first dibs on but could also be open to the class. These are things such as "What did you get out of this case?" or "How is this case different from the cases we read last class?" I've noticed that these seem to be more big picture questions, with professors wanting you to piece together what the chapter is about and what you should be getting out of each case.

Moving On

For my classes, we generally have about 2-3 students each class who go over the readings, with each one getting their own case or a combination of two shorter cases. In particular for my Crim class, my professor will call on two people and have one be the prosecutor and argue why the defendant in our case should go to jail and have the other person be the public defendant and argue why the person deserves a softer judgment. 

Lecture 

At least for my classes, the professors probably lecture for only 10 minutes because most of it is spent going over the rules and analysis of each case. Anything they do lecture is usually the more difficult material. Some professors put up slides with the information they want you to know, and some do a drawing or other visual so that you can understand the concepts. 

Here's what I made to print out and write my IRAC on. Mine's color-coordinated with the colors I highlight in my book as I read.

Dowload this IRAC template here