Let's get it started!

I am back at home for the new semester! Yay! I flew down yesterday for an induction today, having expected to be given a certificate. While attendance was not necessary, the overachiever in me was desperate for a win after a long streak without. After high school, where I got a certificate almost every week for something or other, I've really missed certificates!

Of course, due to the sickness of a member of faculty, I was unable to get a certificate today. With the flu doing the rounds, it isn't surprising that he too has succumb to the dreaded flu.

While I would have liked to have spent some more time with my family at home, returning to Brisbane early meant I was able to purchase my course reader and learning guides earlier than I ordinarily would be able to do. Thankfully, it is a textbook-free semester! The grand total for my bound books was a whopping $45! I have had multiple semesters where my total has easily been 10 times that amount! I'm definitely going to be feeling the financial benefits of that!

On the health front, I'm enjoying feeling healthy after giving up sugar. After going to the grocery store I'm noticing it's not exactly easy to be sugar, gluten and dairy free! I generally try to alternate between Rice, Soy and Almond milks, generally based on which ever is cheapest at any point in time. Although I didn't look at the ingredients lists of all the soy milks on the shelf, I couldn't find any that were sugar free! I'm sure that there are some out there and that I'll just have to search harder.

On that note, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow will be filled with beginning some rudimentary readings for this semester.  I'm also planning on doing a fair bit of cooking to build up my frozen meals to make it easier for the semester! Yay!

Good night world!

Sugar High!

With just over a week before the new semester begins, I'm getting impatient. I've been back at 'home' with my parents and will be returning to my 'home away from home' tomorrow. I'm quite keen to do so as I swear I have so many things to do. For a start, I've got to buy a table. That's right... my house does not have a table. We have chairs, and I've been meaning to buy a table for six months, but it just hasn't happened. HEL-LO IKEA!

As the title suggests, I'm on a bit of a sugar high at the moment. As I haven't had any sugar for a few weeks, the small orange and almond cake has my heart racing and I'm practically swinging from the ceiling fan. It's definitely great!

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of more information on my subjects this semester, although I'm pleased to report that I have no textbooks to buy this semester! As all law students will attest, textbooks can cost a (not so small) fortune and I'm looking forward to having an extra $500 in my bank account!

With that all in mind, I'm going off to spend some last minute time with my family! My mother is going to teach me how to roast a chicken!

Here's to keeping food groups!

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm currently off a number of groups of foods, one of them being salicilates. I have been off them for almost 2 weeks and I am about ready to begin testing myself to see if there is a reaction. After being off the different groups of food, I feel really good, although it is difficult to know which types of food are causing my symptoms. I won't go into my symptoms, but just know, I'm feeling great now. For a start, I have a lot of energy, am sleeping well and have lost weight even though I have shunned the gym this week. 


So, with that in mind, I am tonight making a delicious pasta, filled with the foods I have been unable to stomach this week. Hopefully (or not) this will find me filled with lethargy and what not. As someone with italian heritage, I cannot even imagine how I would cook without tomatoes and onions! For me, having a tin of tomatoes and a red onion in my cupboard means that I can make any number of dishes, and I will have to learn to cook again if tomatoes are leaving my life.


At least I have today. Today I feast on salicilates! Tomato and onion on a muffin for breakfast, a snack of avocado and tomato on a rice cracker, a salad for lunch and the Pièce de résistance, my yummy pasta sauce for dinner.


On the law side of things, I have almost constructed my time table. I have classes on Monday (well a class on Monday), Wednesday and Thursday, with Tuesdays filled with my continued work at a legal centre. The team I am in have been working on public nuisance ticketing which I have been surprised to find very interesting.


Of course, my time table is currently incomplete, as I still need to find a fourth subject. I have picked an interesting topic from the International Relations course list, although it clashes with my volunteer work. Thankfully, the subject is also available externally, so I am hoping that I will be able to undertake the class internally, but do the lectures externally. I am yet to email this to my lecturer to see if it will be fine, but I suspect it will be.


I'm also delighting in the fact that I do not need textbooks this semester! Whenever that happens I get pretty excited. As I will now be working primarily from my laptop, I'm pretty excited to get started. I purchased Microsoft Office for Mac last night and, although  I wasn't able to download it immediately, I should have it running in no time!


Get keen for a new semester everybody!

A new direction

Hi! My name is Anna and I'm a law student. I'm also healthy. Yup, that's right... I don't chug back litres of coffee on a day to day basis (though I do enjoy a nicely brewed one occasionally) and yes, I eat crazy things like quinoa, lentils, chickpeas and kale. It's not my fault! I swear! I wish I could be like the other law students, living off coffee and coffee-shop cake, but alas, tis not for me. My body sort-of hates me. I'm unable to eat gluten, dairy and, as of last week, salicilates, coffee, tea, sugar and alcohol. Hopefully I will be getting some of those groups back (especially salicilates), but I'm prepared for the worst.

I've decided that I am going to start to blog more often, adding a little more about my 'healthy' lifestyle. I won't go all 'this is what everyone should do to be healthy' on you, just a bit of refocusing. I've retitled the blog 'Obiter Girl: The Healthy Law Student' to reflect my intended goal. I figure that, while my super strange and healthy lifestyle isn't for everybody, I am more than sure that there are things that will apply to others.

Holiday Blues

I really am quite over the holidays. Holidays for me, like many students, entails working, trying to save money for the next semester. Of course, I work primarily for my parents, so I go from very little family exposure to all family, all day! It really is a little too much!

I'm busily trying to craft the perfect timetable for the next semester and, as I am unable to undertake the legal clinic I desperately wanted to do, have decided I will take the family law elective. My decision to do so has shocked some of my friends and family as I SWORE black and blue that I would definitely not be doing the subject. Well times have changed... I'm now a fourth year student with a history of failing behind me and little experience. While I have a journal article published (oh yeah, that's some news I forgot to relay), I'm not so sure that it is enough to secure me a job. With divorce rates as high as ever, I feel it would be amiss of me to fail to even consider undertaking family law. When I look at law firms, so many of them work in family law that having knowledge of the area would be beneficial.

I remember talking to older law students while in my first year and they told me how sad family law is and how many of them were in tears week by week. I don't think this will be an issue for me, but it has been a reason I have avoided it. Right now, there is one thing that is turning me off the subject - the lecture is at 8am! I haven't had an 8am class since my first year and now that I live off-campus, I'll have to leave at around 7am to make it on time! I may live 15 minutes away, but the traffic early morning is a nightmare!

While I'm definitely over the holidays, I am enjoying my new laptop. I purchased an 11" MacBook Air to replace my 13" MacBook Pro that died during exams. It's great, but I'm also looking forward to the release of an updated iMac from Apple. I worked out that buying an Air as well as an iMac will ultimately cost less and  get me a great set-up. I can't wait to have a desktop!

This also means a significant change for me, going back to taking notes on my computer. I haven't done so for some time, but with a new (and tiny) computer it's not only an option, but the best option. Although the 11" MBA has a low-ish battery life, it should be more than enough for my needs. I've also gotten in the habit of always carrying a charger with me anyway, after having a dodgy laptop battery in my old computer.

Oh and yes, I have put my laptop in an envelope. Haven't you?

On that note, I'm off to spend some time with my family.

Sleep: Is it really that important?

I've never been the type of person that love to sleep all day. As a child I would make pillow forts that were solid enough to hide the light from my torch, allowing me to read late into the night. As I got older, I would wake up during the night and, unable to get back to sleep, would surf the internet. I eventually kicked that habit, instead staying up into the early hours before sleeping. I have continued to find, however, that if I go to bed at what is considered a 'decent' hour I wake up at least once during the night. I've always thought this to be 'abnormal' and assumed I had partial insomnia, but I'm starting to think that this is actually a more natural way of sleeping.

I've always been told that at night we sleep and our ancestors did the same because there was nothing else to do once it was dark. I've done some basic research and found that, while our ancestors did go to bed soon after dark, they did not sleep through the night, rather for around four hours before waking. They would talk and what not for a few hours before sleeping again for some time. From what I have read, the change in sleep patterns is attributed to the industrial revolution and widespread use of electricity. As more people had access to lighting, it no longer became necessary to sleep as soon as night fell and people began to stay up later, resulting in monophasic sleep.

I grew up in an industrial town, with many of my friend's parents doing shift-work. As a result, I was always aware of alternative sleep patterns, but never anything more sophisticated than sleeping during the day instead of at night.

My first encounter with drastically different sleep patterns was the 28-hour-day:

I loved the sound of it, and it even seemed fairly practical, but I figured it would result in confusion  and disconnect from the real world.

I continued exploring and found polyphasic sleeping. I found a 'popular' form was being awake for four hours and sleeping for 30 minutes, reducing the sleep needed per day and increasing productivity. Not only would this be impractical in so many ways (workplace, uni, socialisation etc) but I am the type of person that takes a lengthy time to fall asleep. If tired enough, I can sleep easily, but I am entirely unwilling to try such a drastic measure.

Biphasic sleep fell into my lap recently and quite unexpectedly. I stopped my research on sleep patterns a year ago and had all-but forgotten my findings. After an afternoon of research, it makes sense. Basically, the idea is that you sleep for three hours (for the super-dedicated), 4.5 hours (for most), or six hours (for others) in the morning. Notice that each number is a derivative of 90 minutes? The average sleep cycle is roughly 90minutes long, though people vary from 60 to 120 minutes. You then get up and go about your day. At some point you have a nap for around 90 minutes (another sleep cycle) and continue your day. The idea is that you can have your cake and eat it too; getting up early does not mean sacrificing late nights! Furthermore, you get more time in your day!

I plan to try 4.5 hours with a 90minute nap as I'm not a huge sleeper. While I'm not starting for a few weeks, my planned sleep pattern will be:
1:00am - 5:30am Sleep
6:00pm - 7:30pm Nap
In an ideal world, my nap would be around 3pm, and most likely will be where my uni classes allow, but reality dictates that it be later on. On two days of the week I will be rushing home from class to nap, hopefully getting it in immediately.

A large part of why I am interested to try this is that many people who have trialled such a sleep pattern have found they are more productive and have more energy. I have heard in the past (though I don't have any references to support this) that it is possible that we get too much sleep. I believe that this is probably very likely, based on the largely sedentary nature of the 21st century. We eat much more than we should for the energy we expend and it only makes sense that we sleep too much as well. It's also cited in many places that sleep is important for learning, so I am interested to see if having a nap in the afternoon helps with the learning process.

While there is plenty of scientific information out there, I think the main reason I am interested in biphasic sleep is that I'm a night owl and love staying up late, but see the practical benefits of being an early riser. I love knowing that few people are still awake and the imagery of writing or reading late into the night. For years as a child I woke up at 3:30am (and then more like 5:30am as I worked out I could stay up 'late') and loved having my day underway early. I love going to the gym in the morning, but don't like waiting until the traffic dies down. While I don't need to be anywhere early, I like to be, but late nights aren't something that I am sure I want to sacrifice.


Unfortunately, many of the people I have found online who have documented their biphasic sleep patterns seem to have reverted to monophasic sleeping after either a short period or an extended period. I know that it probably is not practical in the long term, but I can see the value of it for me at this stage of my life. I will be travelling overseas later in the year and know that I woun't be able to continue sleeping in this way, but during semesters, I see the value. At least I can say that I tried it!

ugh... practice makes perfect?

I know I have been a fairly prolific poster lately but I suppose exams have had me thinking about relevant things more than usual. After a weekend of heavy studying, I took a past exam and had a look at it.

Admittedly, I rely on past exams for practice much less than many of my fellow students. While it does feel good to practice, I hate doing questions when I don't have answers or suggested approaches that I can work with.

Early on in my degree I loved using practice exams and used them extensively in my exam preparation.  When I failed my first subject, I was confused - I had been doing past exams for weeks without any trouble, how could I have failed? I then realised that being able to answer a question  easily does not ensure the answer is correct and, without an answer to check, can just lead to a false sense of security.

You can avoid this by working with other people and comparing answers, but this approach doesn't work for me. I know that I work better at my own pace rather than working with other people, at least the majority of time.

After a few more exams, I realised it was important to do practice questions and ended up finding a series of books that had exam-type questions with answer structures. I've continued to use these when possible to avoid any risk of being blind-sighted in an exam.

If only law exams consisted of more straightforward questions, with clear answers! There is nothing like going into an exam and knowing the way a particular lecturer structures their questions. I'm slowly trying to make sure I work through a few past exam questions for each exam, but they are often so dry and boring that I'd prefer to work on anything else. Until today...

While I had already had a brief look at one of the past exams for the subject I am yet to sit, I only sat down to have a good look at it tonight. It turns out one of the questions is essentially the plot of The Hangover.

Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug are four friends who live in Brisbane... The four have made a booking at Caesar's Palace, a well known hotel in the heart of the Gold Coast. (For clarification, this is not the real Caesar's palace - Caesar never lived here.)...

The question continues, including Alan's purchase of vintage Jaegermeister, Phil's excessive gambling, Alan's grabbing of the wrong satchel and Mr Chow's chips, illegal parking and the theft of a tiger from Mr Tyson's mansion... It is a huge question with so many issues and a recommended time of 80 minutes to work through the question. Of course, it's so hilarious that I can't help but laugh whenever I try to work through the problem. While it is a different examiner this year, I can't help but be slightly worried that something similar will appear on this year's paper and wonder what I will do if this happens!

Going back further, I found a problem eerily similar to Grey's Anatomy, based at 'Brisbane Grace Hospital'. No joke! Ah I love when lecturers engage with pop culture!

Rest in Peace Highway Unicorn

So in typical Obiter Girl fashion, my ailing computer finally succumbed to death in the midst of exams. While I had most of my important documents backed up, there is no substitute for a working computer! As my laptop had been on it's last legs for some time, I had planned to upgrade to a new laptop at this point, although I was hoping it wouldn't be out of necessity. With four and a half years under it's belt, my poor laptop (known affectionately as Highway Unicorn) was well into old age and I had originally hoped that she would live until my eventual graduation. Apparently not.

Of course, in typical Obiter Girl fashion, my laptop died only 6 days after Apple's latest announcement, meaning there were long waiting lists for the gorgeous new Retina Macbook Pros. Of course!

In the end, I came up with a solution that means I will have the portability of a laptop (without having to wait a month or so!) and the power of a desktop! I've acquired an 11" Macbook Air and will be using it while away from home, while using an iMac at home... if I ever get around to getting one! Bonus: It works out cheaper than the new Retina Macbook Pros!

I'm ever so glad to be back in this century! At the same time that my computer was off-limits, my phone was being disobedient and failing to work. Of course. Luckily, I had my iPad so I wasn't entirely cut off from the world, but I was very close

the hand of facebook

Last year I took a few months off Facebook. It wasn't really intentional, at least not at first, but I later realised that avoiding the time-sucking site was amazing. I felt so clear in the head and I seemed to have much more time. In the end, I found existing in without the site was difficult, with many people only using the site as their only way to communicate with others. I gave up and returned to the site, but spend much less time on the site than I have previously.

So when I found myself looking for distractions while trying to study, I decided facebook had to go! Unlike the past, I now have an iPad and that has been my main mode of using the site. My password has been a long string of characters randomly generated online for some time and I haven't made an attempt to memorise the password. Instead I've been breaking the one rule of passwords - I've had it written down.

Unable to remember my password, I knew locking myself out would be relatively easy. I didn't need a friend to change my password and just needed to 'lose' the password. I sent a facebook message to a friend, asking them to hold onto the password and gave it on a piece of paper with a set of instructions to a housemate. I instructed both of them that I would argue that I needed facebook to check an answer with a friend but they were not to give me the password unless I articulated what I needed to ask. Simply stating I needed to check something for Trusts would be insufficient, but if I was to say I needed to ask about exceptions to perpetuity periods I would be able to get the password back. They both laughed, thinking I was going overboard. I just wanted to cover all bases.

Of course, my plan relied on one thing - logging out. I logged out on my phone and ipad immediately but, as I've realised now, never actually logged out on my computer. I also never threw out the piece of paper with the password on it and it remains in it's place on my wall. What I find fascinating is that I never tried to go to facebook. I haven't wanted to and I certainly don't miss it. I feel exactly like I did last year when I took my hiatus from the social networking site.

Even though I thought I was unable to get on the site for the majority of the past 3 weeks, I would like to think that my lack of attempts is evidence of my superior self-control. The fact that I attempted to lock myself out of the site is irrelevant in my mind, as I've glanced around the library, looking down on the many people who aren't studying but facebooking instead. Yeah, I know it's hypocritical of me, but I feel so much better than everyone else here. While I have found other ways to waste my time, facebok hasn't even crossed my mind and I've gotten more work done than I usually would.

While it is rather extreme, I definitely recommend you think about getting ride of facebook when you need to get work done! You don't have to change your password to avoid the site as there are many ways to block you from the site for shorter periods of time. The only downside is that you will have too much time to study!

the perils of open book

After a fairly successful semester (or at least I think it has been fairly successful) I'm in the midst of exams. I have now decided that I hate open book exams. Why? There are a number of reasons for this hatred, but they are not because I think they are more difficult.

It is no secret to my friends that I regularly wage psychological warfare... on myself. Yes, I'm one of those people who manages to 'psych' myself out about almost every piece of assessment. Having failed subjects previously has definitely added to my fear of failure as I have lived through it. Open book exams seem great - you can use any source you want to answer the questions. Of course, what if you don't bring something and it turns out to be VITALLY important in the exam? What if you see someone using a particular book which you have but have no idea how they are using it? The topics covered in the book don't seem to be on the exam - what do they know that you don't know?

As a result, I have a tendency to go overboard. For my open exam last night I vigorously prepared. It was for Trusts and I had done fairly well on the assignment, needing roughly 20% to pass the subject. I spent much of the week preparing my notes into an easily digestible form, ending up with a hefty 80 pages. I went all out, even including extracts as I had no intention to print out the giant pieces of legislation that we had covered. I then prepared some answer guides that were around 100 pages, leaving my notes almost irrelevant. Of course, these guides were AMAZING and I'm glad I had them.

In the end, I decided that I would print the legislation. My upcoming Property exam is closed book but we are able to take unanotated legislation in, so I figured I needed a copy of the Property Law Act anyway. I have an amazing (by which I mean cheap) laser printer and figured binding isn't too expensive. I was feeling lazy, so I printed out the Trusts Act, Successions Act and Property Law Act in full - one page per page. I couldn't be bothered to work out how to print back to back (I forget every time I do it!) so my Property Law Act is a hefty 300 pages, plus the binding! Didn't think that through.

I also took my textbook and a Equity & Trusts Questions and Answer book. I had so much stuff I could barely carry it all into the exam and was surprised to see how little some people took with them. I have a tendency to go overboard, but I realised that I had reached a new level. I thought back to other exams where I took legislation and realised I very rarely, if ever, actually looked through them or used the tabs. Other people had a few pages of  notes and others didn't even bother bringing the textbook! Admittedly, knowing the subject had an open book exam meant I didn't attempt to memorise through the semester, but rather focused on understanding, but still... I had so much in terms of notes!

As students entered the room I saw a number who also had the Q&A book with them. I have had very few open book exams, but have made an attempt to bring a Q&A book whenever I have. I have often found them useful, mainly for working out a good structure and approach, but moreso when I am fairly familiar with the content of the book. This time I spent very little time working on questions from the book. Regardless, when I saw the girl in front pull hers out from the start I was worried. I made an attempt to use the book later on in the exam, but I couldn't. I was worried - why was she using it when I couldn't find something it worked for? Luckily, this didn't bother me for too long as I remembered I had the answer guides with me. I worked through the problems I could using the guides where I could. One of the supervisors seemed fascinated by my bound notes and kept looking at them whenever he passed. Of course, law exams are never a straight forward time when question one addresses a discretionary trust, question two addresses a charitable trust and so on.

Although it has quite possibly happened before, I do not recall ever being told that we are unable to use materials during perusal. I had already had an open book exam earlier in the week for medical law and used my notes extensively in perusal for planning my responses... or at least I think  I did! As I said earlier, my attempts in Trusts have been focused on understanding the content and even though I think I have a fairly solid idea of how a trust works, I still like to check where I can. For me this was also the case for Criminal Law, with no exam for the first semester of the subject last year and an open book for the second. I remembered a significant amount on Charitable trusts so tried to use what I knew to plan out one answer, but without my guide I knew I was forgetting valuable information. In hindsight, I should have used the 10 minutes to plan out and begin my answers for the smaller questions. Alas, that was not the case

I'm extremely glad that I'm finished with trusts... at least for a few weeks. I spent so much time working on my notes this week that I have neglected property, to an extent. Even though there are only a few days left, I'm still trying to work through my notes and I'm not sure how much I actually remember. I have been working on my flash cards for a few weeks now so I am fairly certain I have memorized a fair bit about the cases that are relevant, but I still need to remember the contexts! Ahh!

One thing I am glad of is the overlap between property and trusts. While I didn't memorise anything for my trusts exam, I think I can remember the overlapping areas. I think. I hope. I suppose I should probably get back to it!

Good luck to anyone else working through exams right now!

no one likes revision

So it's SWOTVAC or, as my university 'officially' calls it, 'revision week'. All of a sudden the library, where I get the bulk of my work done, has filled and I struggle to get my usual desk.

My usual desk is perfect - it's not one of the tiny work-desks, all lined up and barely enough room to put my laptop and a textbook, but it's not a wide open section of bench that means everyone else can see what I'm doing. It's also close to a powerpoint, meaning I can actually use my laptop which has a life-span of a whopping 45 minutes. I hate being out in the open where everyone else can see what I'm doing, but I also like to be able to see what others are doing. From my desk I can see if the library is emptying, usually a sign that it is time to leave.

While tempted to work hardcore for the stretch of this week, I know it won't happen. I am still recovering from a large essay for one of my subjects, only now submitted, and am absolutely exhausted. While I know it's better for me to work really hard now, leaving me with more time to actually study in the next few weeks, it won't happen. I'll still be working on my summaries as the exam nears. It happens every time and, to be honest, I'm not sure that I mind.

I know I'm better off if I don't have to work hard on a summary in the days leading to an exam, or that the best way to use my time is to work through problems. The thing is that I have taken this approach before. I have studied all day and all night through SWOTVAC, only to get into the exam and not know anything. I've taken the approach of using problems to study, rather than working on a concise summary. These things don't seem to work for me.

Instead, I relax during SWOTVAC. When I told my mum this, she almost had a heart attack! 'Don't tell me things like that' she said, telling me how sick that thought made her. I tried to explain that by 'relax' I don't mean chilling by a pool (or fireplace) sipping margaritas, rather that I work hard, but use some time to relax. I continue to watch TV occasionally and get sleep if I am tired. I basically approach it like any other week, just minus the classes.

The fact of the matter is, I'm going to get stressed in exam period no matter how prepared I am. I get stressed in exams and once thought it was a healthy level of stress that really helped me. Through my time at university, it's become more than that, to the point where I completely blank on exams, unable to remember a single thing. Instead of doing the smart thing when this happens, I've continued, happy to just 'make it up' and hope it's right. Surprisingly (or not), that does not work.

While I've worked out a way to deal with my in-exam stress through pre-exam meditation, I have realised that my exam stress is high when I have been hard-core during SWOTVAC. I'm not 100% sure why as this is a new theory, plus I'm not a psychology student, but I believe that by working way too much and putting so much pressure on working hard before exams I am under too much pressure and, as a result, I need to reduce the pressure. It may not be the best way to do it, but I feel 'relaxing' is the perfect way to do it.

My plan for this week:

• property law study --> make sure to work on flash cards now, even though it is last exam. Try to put some focus on this subject
• trusts law --> just try understanding. don't worry about how good the notes are now, just understand it. Will put more of a focus on the notes after medical law exam
• medical law --> notes needed. already familiar with most of the content and have all the knowledge from closed book mid-semester, so just look over some things in textbook this week. Start notes towards end of the week
• visit grandparents (friday maybe?)
• dinner with cousins (next sunday)
• go to gym a few times --> take ipad and drill flashcards on treadmill
• cooking - dad will be in town so won't need dinner a few nights this week. Must try to work out what to cook with the accidental veal purchase. Also try making chocolate banana oatmeal
• play guitar and start working on lyrics for friend's birthday parody

I'm almost positive that my plan for the week is significantly different to the plans of others. I've tried not to share it with too many people as they probably think I'm crazy for doing so little study. While it's still quite a bit and I still will have little time 'free', I'm making time for relaxing activities (gym, guitar, grandparents, dinner with family etc) and putting importance on those things. If I put the focus and importance on the non-study related things, hopefully I won't succumb to the stress of exams. Hopefully

Things I've done in the library

My approach to pre-exam study is fairly different to many people. I'm going to write about that later on, but I put more pressure on myself before 'SWOTVAC' and try to spend the last few weeks before exams working really hard so I can 'relax' before exams. Of course, relax is a subjective term so it will hardly be a beach holiday. Anyway, with exams a few weeks away, I've been working really hard in the library. As such, I have realised that I am practically living in the library and there are numerous things I have done in the library that I usually would only do at home:

I have done a full face of makeup for a family dinner:
We were meant to be having dinner at 6pm, so I left the library at 3:30 so I could go home, have a shower and get ready. While driving home I got a message saying dinner was being changed to 7 so I had a shower and got changed and headed back to the library. I actually got a heap of work done that night!

I painted my nails:
I love painting my nails black but my desk at home is snow white. While I'm fairly neat with my nail-painting, I felt safer doing them at uni. No spills and I got work done at the same time!

I have done a workout
Much like drilling concepts on the treadmill, I did pushups while reciting case law. I must admit that it was rather early in the day as I woke up at 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep, otherwise I wouldn't be doing something to draw so much attention to myself!

I have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner
I head into the library at night a few times a week at around 6-6:30pm. I don't stay too late, but I get as much work done as I can during that time. I have found if I sit down and eat my dinner at home I'm too full and don't feel like driving into uni. While I usually go, I don't leave for a while and get hardly any work done. Instead, I make my dinner as usual, putting it in a plastic container instead of on a plate and take it with me. I do the same with breakfast some days because it gets me out of the door faster!

Read a novel in a foreign language:
I made an effort to do this reading in study breaks and managed to read the whole thing in the library

Curled my hair
Before leaving home I put my hair in old-fashioned pin curls and wrapped it in a scarf. As I worked, my hair curled.

Planned my menu for the week, including pricing my groceries:
I ended up doing this while looking for something to avoid studying! It worked! This took forever, but was definitely worth it!

Developed unhealthy imaginary relationships with fictional characters, namely Donald Draper and Ezra Fitz
Not sure whether to be proud or ashamed of this!

Anyone else done crazy things in the library?

Law on the silver screen

So following on from my post about my favourite law-centric TV shows, I thought I'd post about my favourite movies that take place in the courtroom.

1. Legally Blonde
You may laugh, but Legally Blonde is a legal classic. I was 10 when the original was released and can't quite remember if I was able to see it in the theatre. I definitely saw the sequel with some friends at the movies. I loved Legally Blonde. Elle was everything a young girl wanted to be... she was a Barbie doll! As the story progressed we learn that Elle is also intelligent and it shatters the perception that pretty girly-girls are dumb. In addition, it encourages us to have a healthy interest in things outside of the law; Elle would not have been successful in court if she didn't have the interest in hair and beauty.

2. To Kill a Mockingbird
Yes, no list of legal movies would be complete without this classic. I couldn't tell you exactly when I first read the book,  but I believe I was 9 or 10. I loved it and seeing the movie made me love the story even more. In high school we studied the book (and movie) and I loved it a whole lot more. While I understood that book as a child, I had a better grasp of the finer points. I'm sure every law student has seen the movie and been inspired by the courtroom scene. While it wasn't the reason I chose to study law, the movie certainly inspires me and Atticus is the type of lawyer I want to be, if I can't be Elle Woods!

3. The Castle
I'm not sure whether this movie was released outside of Australia, but it is most definitely a classic. A man's home is his castle, and the Kerrigan family wanted to protect their castle. Not only is it a great Australian film, there are many references to fundamental Australian constitutional law cases throughout the movie as the family fought to save their home. In my first year when we had to watch some sort of movie or TV show that centered on the law, I picked The Castle. I didn't really pick up on many of the references, but on watching it last year I realised how it would have been a great study tool for constitutional law!

4. Kramer vs Kramer
I have a list of movies that I have always wanted to see, most of them 'classics'. Kramer vs Kramer is one of these. For those who haven't seen the film, the film shows the course of a couple's divorce and the impact on those in their lives, particularly their young son. The custody battle is central and actually inspired me to consider taking the family law elective which I had previously maintained I would never take. It is a great movie and extremely heartwarming.

5. Miracle on 34th Street
I was 5 years old when Mara Wilson starred in Matilda, the movie based on Roald Dahl's book. I loved it and I saw myself in her. We had a similar haircut and she was young, just like me. Her remake of the Natalie Wood classic was released two years earlier than Matilda, but I hadn't seen it until afterwards. It was undoubtedly the first time I had ever seen the law in a movie or TV show and was heartwarming. While the movie hints that Santa is a construct of modern society (something with which I disagree... he still leaves me presents under the tree), as a young child I did not see this and rather just enjoyed the idea that a young girl got to hang out with Santa Claus! In more recent years I saw the original and loved it so much. Definitely a legal classic!

Quest for Distraction!

When I was in High School, I had a theory that if I were to watch, or even just listen to a movie or tv show, while doing an assignment I would avoid other forms of distraction. My theory was that doing so allowed a part of my brain to be distracted, but only minimally, allowing the rest of my brain to focus on my actual task.

Yeah, I worked out a way to justify watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls. I knew deep down that it wasn't realistic but I liked the justification. The thing is, as I've gotten older, this habit has not subsided, but become more of an issue.

It was, at one point, almost impossible for me to study without something on in the background. In a way, my theory from high school rings true - if I have a TV show playing in the background, I'm not surfing the web instead of studying and I probably do get more work done. Most of the time I don't actually watch the show, rather listen in the background much like music, but I'm sure it's not the best way to study.

I like the background noise and find music much too distracting. As a music nerd from a prior life, back when I wanted to be a conductor and study music, the classical music people insist is perfect for studying distracts me. I often find myself  tapping my feet, singing along or conducting. - not a great way to study either, especially in the library. My much loved punk-rock music doesn't work either as it is best listened to loudly and that never works well in earphones. Pop is too distracting and leads to thoughts of gossip and has me going straight to google to find out all about Carly Rae Jepson or whoever the latest diva is. Indie music is a little distracting too and often leads to google. There was a time where I could study to Jack Johnson, but that is now almost impossible, with the music forever associated with trying to sleep in fits of insomnia.

As I think about why music doesn't work for me, I wonder if watching a movie or TV show for background noise is such a bad thing?

After doing a little research, my suspected fears were confirmed - you shouldn't do anything but focus on study. While studying in front of the TV or while listening to music isn't a new thing, the computer is terrible for the ease of engaging in non-study related activities. However, studies have drawn a distinction between passive multi-tasking, like listening to music (or movies) and active multi-tasking, like surfing the web and facebook. Not surprisingly, active multi-tasking is worse for you.

From the LA Times, I learnt:

"What it might suggest is that if you learn these things while you're distracted, then your ability to generalize that knowledge might not be as good," said Russell Poldrack, an associate professor of psychology. "Even if you can learn under multi-tasking, it can change how you learn."

Poldrack also said that "The bottom line is that active distractions involved in multi-tasking are going to reduce one's ability to learn."

However, Poldrack and others have been unable to determine whether listening to something like music is such a bad thing, particularly if it is functioning as white noise to drown out other distractions.
 

Apologies

Oh readers, I've done it again! I've neglected you. I'm sorry for my absence of late and I know that my failure to keep you updated has obviously had you wrought with worry. Well have no fear, I am back! I haven't been away from the blogosphere entirely. While failing to update my loyal readers, I have been writing for Survive Law.

While I promise I will soon write for you, I will leave you today with an article I recently wrote for Survive Law: Things First Years Say. Enjoy

How soon is too soon to get started on assessment?

If you are a law student, I wouldn't be surprised if your approach to assessment is dissimilar from mine: I have a tendency to get super-motivated and start an assignment the second I receive a topic. That motivation lasts about an hour, often less, as I realise the topic is boring/difficult/easy/stupid. At some point (often a week or so before it is due, although sometimes in the days before) I become super motivated yet again. This all ends up with me handing in an assignment that I am totally sick of and, a week later, would not be able to tell a person the topic.

We all know it isn't the best way to go about getting a lousy few marks down before our big exams, but we all do it anyway. We all wonder if it was the adrenaline, Red Bull, coffee or lollies that kept us going and vow to ourselves that it will not happen again as we drift off to sleep, still standing in front of the submission box. Other students behind us growing impatient, we promptly forget the promise we made to ourselves and carry on, destined to forever forget to start the next assignment early.

When I start an assignment, or even studying for that matter, early enough, I have a tendency to assume it is too early and 'no one could possibly be starting now'. WRONG! Someone else always will have started before you and law school is WAR. Well, not really, but you get the idea! Do you really want to be the last person to start? Even factoring the stress of starting an assignment with so little time remaining, neglecting to start in a timely fashion means you run the risk of losing valuable resources, if you are like me and like using library books.

So starting early is a given, right? But what do you do when you are in a situation like I am now, with 3 assignments and 1 exam in a short period of time? Someone told me in high school that when you get an exam timetable you should always plan to start studying for the last exam first.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but it makes plenty of sense. I'm planning on taking this idea and using it for my assignments. While I won't completely finish the one due last now, I plan to have a great draft done in the next week or so which will enable me to spend the time I need to spend on my other pieces of assessment.

What is your take? Do you start super early or are you like me, a perpetual procrastinator?

Here we go again....

So the moment I have been dreading has finally come. Life got hectic! 


After a super busy week of uni and trying to catch up on readings (a result of my decision to do my readings after classes... still fine tuning the system) I decided to take a look at the assigned topics for assessment. Did I mention I was so busy I didn't notice essay topics for one of my subjects were released for almost a week? On top of that I almost forgot about my external subject yet again. It seems my rather strict study schedule is not strict enough... or maybe too strict.

ALL I DO IS READ!

AHH law school! I seriously think all I ever do is read! Read this, read that!

I generally have a fairly strict rule about finishing the assigned readings before a class. I tend to feel that if I do not do the readings first I will not do them. Of course, this works negatively because if I haven't done the readings I have previously felt that the class would not be of any benefit. Obviously this isn't a good way to go! In my first year I varied between reading before and after and I felt that before worked better for me.

 I've changed this policy this year, at least for my Medical law subject. While the lecturer may have a general plan as to where he will finish each lecture each week, the course is divided into seven general topics. It has taken two weeks thus far to complete the first topic and I almost gave myself a heart attack looking at the learning guide and seeing how much reading was expected for that first week. Needless to say I was unable to complete the hundreds of pages and was relieved to see that we only completed a third or so of the topic. I then decided it was probably more beneficial to do the readings after the class so I would know how far to go.

This week I extended the reading after lectures idea to all classes. It wasn't intentional as I had family commitments over the weekend that prevented me from doing all preparation over the weekend. I learnt that a real benefit of reading after you have been to class is that anything a lecturer emphasises is going to be something you pay more attention to. If you are reading prior to class you just have to assume everything is important. Sometimes a lecturer disagrees with the text they have assigned on important points and taking the text as gospel is useless. Of course, lecturers sometimes go the other way and don't emphasis parts of the textbook but expect you have paid attention to them in your readings when it comes to the final exam.

So what did I learn? I learnt that it is definitely the way to go for subject where how much content will be covered is not known, like my medical law subject. It is also a good way to go when the lecturer may have a different perspective to the text. Reading, or at least perusing the text, is better for more difficult subjects. For me, Trusts is more difficult and very heavy. It isn't helped that the class does not finish until 8pm and I have a busy day. When it gets to my trusts lecture, I'm exhausted, both physically and mentally so I struggle to actually absorb the information if it is 100% new. For this subject, I really have to be familiar with the content before I get to class.

What is your approach? Do you do your readings before or after class? Do you vary your approach based on the subject itself? I'm interested to see what others do!

Law on the Small Screen!

I love pop culture. If I had my way, I'd spend a ridiculous amount of time watching TV shows and movies. In one of my first law courses we actually spent a week studying the perception of law in pop culture. In class we watched Legally Blonde and we were required to watch a movie or TV show with a legal perspective for the tutorial. I jumped straight into the homework, watching the Legally Blonde sequel and numerous movies.

For tort law we also had a great deal of pop-culture injected. We, on occasion, watched excerpts from movies such as Scream and Home Alone and were required to list the torts that were on the screen.

Perhaps it was this lecturer-approved exposure early on in my degree that made me truly appreciate a good legal drama or sitcom in conjunction with my studies. Perhaps it was my long-lived love of pop culture and the characteristic was bound to emerge anyway. Whatever it was, I love a good legal tv show. I love the movies too, but I love that I can have a poor attention-span and still have an idea of what happened in a TV show!

So here goes, my favourite legal-themed tv shows, in no particular order:

Buried Alive

Oh readers, I am so sorry for my absence of late. I have been buried in work already. It also doesn't help that I haven't been using my laptop much, sticking to my iPad for much needed Internet time. Nw that I am responsible for my Internet, plus the difficulty in findin reception for my wireless Internet... It is hardly worth the effort. So far I am enjoying the content of my subjects. There are, of course, boring aspects, particularly in my Trusts subject. At least I am not alone in my boredom as I am quite aware that most other students are suffering. In fact, the class size was much smaller in the second lecture this week, although this may have been due to the rain.I am loving medical law and my study group appears to be quite promising! On top of my studies, I was offered a research position in a program that partners my law school with a community legal centre and am tasked with putting together a report. It is very exciting and a fantastic opportunity. I am very much looking forward to getting right into the meat of the topic. I am also getting into competitions this year. I have already organised a team for mooting and possibly a partner for negotiation, which I have been rather excited about. It will be a great deal of work, particularly as I already am feeling the pressure, but I am looking forward to a great semester.