Schooly D

I'm probably not going to graduate with honors. They posted the rankings, and there are a bunch of us with 3.28 (me) and 3.29 - but the new cutoff for honors (top 25% of the class) is at 3.30. At my fourth year, that's a long distance. Add in that while I might get an A in my 1 cr class, I might not as it's oriented towards patent track lawyers so I am weak in areas they are strong (patents and copyrights). My two other graded classes are commercial paper - clearly not my strong point, and employment law - which should be my strong point, but that's the same prof I got my crappy B with last term despite a class participation boost and working harder than most of the class.

However, I'm going to pass the bar! I found some more specific information on bar passage rates, MD vs. VA: VA has a first-time taker 76% passage rate in the summer, while MD first-time takers pass the MD bar also at 76% in the summer. MD has lower ranked law schools with less overall bar subjects on the exam than VA. By either standard, if I'm in at least the top third of my law class and taking the bar prep course, I seem a pretty sure success on the bar exam itself. I know the correlation of law school to bar is weak, but it is a positive correlation and my rank seems to give some indication of where I'll wind up. This makes me confident, but not so much so that I drop the course and just take the exam on my own. That would save money, time, and if I pass be damn funny.

I talked to my smart friend who is in bar prep now, who has said that she and some friends tried to work while doing the bar prep, and say it's ok to do the first few weeks but not towards the 2nd half or so (she's also offerred to loan me her extra materials and audio CDs as she's taking the Feb exam). This fits my tentative plans perfectly and now I have a confirmed battle plan for the bar: take the prep course while working, with my office on notice that when it gets hard I am going to go part-time or all on leave to finish the prep and take the bar. This way I don't kill myself or fail the bar, but I also don't eat up all my leave just to work. I don't know many who have earned a vacation as much as I have, and I want it.

I'm avoiding doing my commercial paper prep work right this minute.

I just found out that Arlington County recycling has a drop off point for mixed paper, cardboard, plastic #1&2, and metal closer to my house than the place I always go off Columbia Pike. Now if I can just figure out where I can recycle bound books. I'm trying to get rid of everything I can before the move. I just recycled about 4 years of up-to-10-years-old consumer reports magazines. I still have textbooks from my Master's in I/O psyc! Amazing how long you can look at a bookshelf and not see what's on it.