Blame the Quarters

It's going to be a hectic spring.

Just looking at my schedule makes me feel anxiety-ridden and stressed. I guess I'm going to have to do a lot of yoga to stay balanced.

(I'm hoping this will be the first and last time I whine about this. Well, the first time I have comprehensively whined about this.)

So what's the schedule?

• Four exams: Mon, Tues, Wed, Sat. (That would be the Sat. of Memorial Day Weekend, yes.)
  
• Bar review classes (program #1) start during final exams (Thurs, Fri).
• Bar review class #1 ends, bar review class #2 starts the next day.
• Bar review class #2 ends and then there are 9 days until the bar exam starts.

So, no mental break between the start of the current quarter (was 3/28) and the end of the bar exam (7/28). Four months? Including weekends? Wow. Even I didn't realize it was that intense. I know that 4 months straight doesn't sound like much to people in the working world, but this situation is actually relatively bad. Ask a law student.

I started to wonder... why does this schedule suck so badly?

The only answer I can come up with?

The quarter system.

There are both pros and cons to the quarter system. Before I came here, it seemed like the pros greatly outweighed the cons - the quarter system would be great! Looking back, maybe I was a little too excited at the prospect of 9 quarters. Let's take a look at some pros and cons.

Things that are good about the quarter system:

1. Since there are 9 quarters, you can take so many more classes, thus sampling all the areas of law you want to learn. (This would be great - except: (a) you exhaust all the areas you want to learn by the beginning of the third year; (b) the classes conflict and you can't take them anyway and have to fill the gaping holes with other things; or (c) you get tired of learning and the prospect of picking even more classes to take more exams in is disillusioning.)
   
2. The quarters are shorter, so if you don't like a class, it's over faster. (Yes, this is true. But since the quarters are shorter - 8 weeks in the spring! - the professors pack even more material into them, making them more intense.)
3. You don't start school until September. (Sure, that's great. But you don't get out until June.)
4. It makes your school unique. (Who cares, really...)
5. It's easier to take classes in other parts of the university since you're on the same schedule. (This has never affected me, since I haven't taken anything that's been either cross-listed or in another school. And how do other schools do it when their law schools are on semesters and other schools are on quarters? Somehow it works, doesn't it?)
6. Exams are over before breaks, and you have a more relaxing spring break. (Yes, true, more relaxing spring break. But you don't need the quarter system to have exams before winter break.)
   

Things that are bad about the quarter system:

1. First year ends in June. You end up with a really short summer because of when on-campus interviewing starts. People doing fellowships or jobs with required lengths end up not taking a vacation.
2. Second year ends around Memorial Day. You miss the start of your summer program. Not a huge deal, but missing out on a great experience always sucks. (Sitting in bankruptcy class last year thinking about how everyone else was meeting each other and starting the summer program was unpleasant.)
   
3. Third year ends around Memorial Day and graduation is in June. Graduation and final exams conflict with bar review classes. There is no break between finals and the horrible experience (so they say) that is studying for the bar.
4. Since the quarters are shorter, professors pack more material into the term, making it harder to keep up.
5. Since the quarters are shorter, the exams are sooner, which means you have no time to slack off should something else important come up.
6. There are more exams.
   
7. You have to work harder, which means maybe less time for other things. Everything seems to be on a shortened time frame. (See #4, 5, 6 above.)
   

Hmm. I'm leaning towards the cons right now. The only real pro seems to be the stress-free spring break. Or maybe that's just the nervous anticipation in me doing the talking. I think the spring/summer will be okay once I'm in a routine. But it would have been sooooo nice to have a break before bar review starts. Even just a few days! Mental breaks are so underrated.

Oh well. It's not like any of this matters if I don't get writing credit. The super-huge thing hanging over my head, making graduation seem like it is in the distant distant distant future. Sigh.

I'll try to think about happier thoughts now. Like, I don't know, the fact that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are dating? Nah. I'll just think about how nice it will be to go see Hitchhiker's this weekend. At the theater down the block. :)