Osler's Razor

I was one of those people that wasn't real obsessed with getting the right seat in PC, so I just casually showed up at like 7:50 thinking this was like any other class, only to find all but five or so seats taken. Luckily, some friends had saved me a seat next to them. Unfortunately, this seat was dead center in the middle of the room, eye level with Underwood. It was literally the worst seat in the history of PC seats. I spent the five minutes we had left before PC officially began wondering out loud why my friends hated me.

If I could say anything it is this. Honestly, it ain't that bad. Just read and take good notes. And do stuff to keep yourself sane. Go out with friends once a week, or once every two weeks. Watch a little TV every night. Don't freak out.

Oh, and don't sit in the middle of the classroom at eye level with Wren/Powell. I was right, my friends clearly hated me.
 

I have to disagree with Anon 7:51. As someone who just finished PC (I hope... goodness grief, I hope), I can say it IS that bad. It's consuming and tiring and frustrating. And then there's Big Trial, which I've decided the identity of your opposing counsel can make or break. (I was lucky in this respect.) It's nerve-wracking. I don't consider myself an emotional person, but I was a little puddle of a wreck more than once during those 5 months.

My first day consisted of Wren calling on me almost instantly. I stumbled through answers, and what saved me was that I had clearly read. My brain just wasn't connected to anything, least of all itself. I lived through PC II that day in fear that Wren had told Powell to start from the end of the alphabet.
 

Ah, showing up at 6:15 in the morning to make sure that Prof. Wren doesn't get there before you. Staring with trembling hands and thumping hearts at the room, wondering which seat will be the "bad" one. Do you sit close and be a suck-up? Do you risk being labelled a slacker by sitting in the back? Maybe you'll sit in the middle, but won't be able to hide?

Or you're in a class of 40 and there is no hiding from the dreaded EYE CONTACT OF SOON TO BE CALLED ON.

Or that poor sap that is the first to get called on. The almost bladder-emptying relief when it's not you.

The frenzied twisting and turning through pages to find that rule you highlighted, or the important facts you stickied with a post-it note.

Prof. Wren's impatient tapping, the "I can't believe you haven't answered this yet" stare of Prof. Powell... the sweat they cause to bead on your forehead as you wrack your brain and notes in front of you for that elusive bit of legal frippery that they're about to nail you to the wall with...

Yeah, it's not fun.

But as Anon says, read. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. It'll take 6-7 hours a night, more if you're preparing for an exercise, but do it. It's worth it. Literally a week or so after you get out, you'll be able to win your first trial. Because the professors will be mean to you, and they will hurt your feelings, and you will be given volumes more work than a human should be made to do outside of forced labor camps. You'll cry, and you'll whine, and you'll drink yourself into oblivion Friday nights...

But when you come out, you'll be a better person, and a better lawyer, for not being coddled like those weaklings at other law schools. You'll be hardened, forged by Mjollnir into an iron-hard shield to the defenseless, the downtrodden, and all those seeking justice. (See how cool Norse mythology is?)
 

"But when you come out, you'll be a better person, and a better lawyer, for not being coddled like those weaklings at other law schools."

Its always so nice to hear Gerald Powell's perspective in Osler's comments.
 

"Yeah, remember that time I punctured a lung in a car accident and had to be taken into intensive care? Let's get out the photos!"
 

Lane--
You're right. Norse mythology is awesome. Also, I don't know of any other religion with a deity named Frigg.
 

Yee! I feel your pain! I too was hit by Wren on day one. I HAD read, I WAS prepared, but it was...painful. The first day set the tone for my PC career: I loved Evidence and PR, (PR gave me hope for humanity, as Osler used actual ART in class!), and set the stage for a quarter (life)long fear of Professor Wren. I know, I know, Professor Wren is the nicest person alive...but he could still make my knees tremble. If I am ever opposite the man in trial, I will settle or offer a plea, and quickly.

(I think I was one of the few to actually be assigned a Wren memo during mini-trials, the quote of that experience..."Wren, as in Professor Wren, gave you a MEMO?? What did you DO???"). Sheesh.

The first day can mean so much. But, honestly, after that what can scare you? Not that any PC'ers have time to read the Razor right now, but good luck and god speed my friends! :)
 

my first day of PC one guy paid another $100 to change seats about 20 minutes before class was supposed to start because he was convinced he was in a bad seat. When they are in the process of changing, Underwood walks in. I believe the guy who took the money got called on first day. Good times.
 

PC is not easy. It's not meant to be easy, but it is worth it.

When you give your first "real" opening statement, and you are not interrupted and you are not corrected, you'll realize that nothing can be as bad or hard as PC. Knowing that the worst is already behind you, makes moving forward a little easier.
 

Anon 8:56 nailed it. That was my PC class, and I think it is the perfect anecdote to explain PC.
 

I sat next to Yee. My first day was the dread of being called on after Wren finished eating her soul :)
My proudest PC moment was not crying during my first minitrial - Powell-evaluated, of course - when absolutely nothing I was doing was going to be right and I was harangued for probably 15 minutes... and I hadn't even started talking yet.
My best PC advice is that although this is your entire world right now, it is NOT the end of the world. If you don't know something, Powell will give you a memo and possibly (probably) humiliate you in front of your peers. You might be told to leave the room. He won't drive needles under your fingernails or hook a car battery to your genitals. Keep perspective.
 

Ahh PC. On our first day a few young ladies showed up VERY early and placed sweaters on the backs of chairs they hoped to "save" for themselves and friends. Underwood comes in while the room is empty and promtly takes all the sweaters and throws them in a heap at the front of the room. Good stuff, good stuff indeed, to quote Powell.

My favorite moment was standing up to Underwood and "winning" the annual Erie inquisition, a line of questioning that, according to urban legend, had a 100% chance of drawing a memo for the entire class. That memo never materialized and I was a hero (at least for a day).

As for the class itself, let me just say that what you are put through is awful, to be sure, but well worth it. When I appeared for the first time before a federal appelate court I reminded myself (over and over) that 1) I am a Baylor lawyer and 2) it can't be worse than being interrogated by Underwood and/or Powell. I was right.
 

Micah, it's also the only mythological system which places the planes of existence upon a giant tree, where the level of Earth was formed by the pieces falling off a slain giant's body. A giant that came into being when the realm of cosmic fire met the realm of cosmic ice. Also, the first man and first woman are created from the giant's armpit sweat.

Top that, Abrahamic faiths!
 

My best PC advice comes from Rudyard Kipling. "...keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..."

In summary:

1. Don't complain. It's a part of life and it too shall pass. Nothing can be more poisonous to both your outlook and your preparation as negativity. Neither engage in it nor allow yourself to hang around it (too much). (Seth Sutton gave that advice in a Crim Prac & Pro class and repeated it to me on several occasions.)

2. Say SOMETHING. Unless I'm missing something, Powell did not give a memo until/unless the person absolutely clammed up and allowed fear of saying the wrong thing paralyze him/her from saying anything. To be sure, he will ridicule you and humiliate you if you say something stupid. But you will leave at the end of class without being assigned a memo, and you have lived to hunt another day.

3. Before the first day, I envisioned Powell taking a sawed-off out of his pants leg and blowing away someone sitting in the second row, center section. That never happened, so PC was never as bad as I thought it would be.