Weddingbee boards

Midterms, wow.  Lucky.  I just had a final exam for my law school classes (or a paper in some 2L or 3L classes).  100% of a grade riding on 4 hours - fun, fond memories.  My biggest advice is to PRACTICE.  Take as many practice exams by your professor that are publicly available (and by another prof at your school in the same subject if not).  That will really help you to issue spot and nail the answers.

Set timers.  Allow yourself to do wedding work only as breaks or rewards for completed work. You have enough time 1L year to do both if you manage your time wisely.

I do disagree with advice that life matters more and is somehow separate from law school exams.  Law school grades are SO crucial in the fall for landing a position for 2L summer and for getting on journals.  I don't mean to scare you, that's not my intent, but your 1L grades matter more than your 3L grades do, so please don't blow off studying.  (Don't panic, but don't ignore them.  Balance is key.)  And law school perfermance does affect your life - getting the job that you want and being satisfied and happy with your career.  Yes, you can make up for it later, but it's easier to do it right from the start than to play catch up.

@NDBee: Right, I absolutely agree - that's why I wrote "balance is key" and suggested setting timers or giving "rewards" for accomplishing specific goals.  I also said "You have enough time 1L year to do both if you manage your time wisely."  It's a little frustrating that it seems the only thing folks (not just you) took from my email was to study-study-study.  I just wanted to provide a countervailing point to those saying they don't matter and to focus on life.  It IS a part of life is all I was trying to say (not that it is the ONLY thing in life).  I absolutely agree with you: "they should be a priority, not the only priority. You can make it work, you just need to be realistic and set goals that relate to your chosen priorities."  I think the main trap for law students is either too many priorities (you do have to pick & choose) or nothing but studying and you burn out.

@JD193: You yourself wrote: "You will not remember what you got on your midterms in 20 years but you will remember your wedding  --> If you do poorly you will remember.  Do I remember the classes I got an A- versus an A?  No, but my friends with Cs do remember those classes!  The comments regarding breaks was because the OP indicated she was having an issue balancing things and focusing on studying (and had spent the whole day previously on wedding work), so if she sets timers, or bribes herself with rewards, whatever works best for her personally - everyone varies, then she'll be able to improve her focus on classes.  She didn't seem to need advice on how to relax and avoid burnout.  I shared my perspective because I've seen people who have not done as well in their career (and are unhappy) because they didn't try hard 1L year and blew it off - and this at top law schools.

The post should be taken as a whole (where multiple times I mention things about balance).  Pulling out isolated comments will give a distorted view.  In any event, it now sounds more like we are reaching a happy medium where we agree they are fairly important but not everything. 

I forget the exact quote, but there's one about how you can do some things well, or all things ok, but you can't do all things well.  (Terrible paraphrasing)

Taking the last exam is always so nice!  A belated piece of advice: no post mortem!  Do NOT discuss the exams.  You will only drive yourself crazy.  The worst was when I saw people doing that on the *bar exam* before it was even over (way to psych themselves out) - avoid those people like the plague.  And you can do really well even if you thought you did terribly - sometimes that means you caught all of the complexities and really understood it.