Doing nothing part ix: The three hour rule
A blast from 1998. Also, buy my house!
To find earlier posts in my Do Nothing series, here are parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
A dear friend recently sent me an old article I wrote for Perspectives, the NYU Asian American Law Student Association’s publication, back in 1998. Apparently even back then, in a crowd of try-hards, I was the Jeff Spicoli of law school.
It’s interesting to see roots of this newsletter from long ago. Even if you don’t know about the intense stress of being a law student, I hope you enjoy the piece anyway. I proudly present 25 year old Douglas:
Perspectives • Spring 1998 • Page 24
THE BACK PAGE
a closing thought or two
The three hour rule
By Doug Tsoi, 2L
A week after I started law school, my friend Pete asked me how much work law school would be. I showed him my weekly schedule, meticulously planned out: blue to block torts study hours, pink blocks for crim, green blocks for civ pro, and yellow blocks for contracts. "I figure if I study eight hours a day every day, I can read all the cases, brief them, and write my outline (whatever that is) during the course of the semester." I told him. "And notice how realistic my study schedule is: I didn't block any study time for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday after dinner."
Ha! What a laugh. I probably spent more time coloring in those blue, pink, green and yellow blocks than I actually spent following them. I learned a couple things about being realistic those two days I tried to keep the schedule. First, time spent gossiping in the library is not real study time. I remember spending a complete two-hour torts block whispering with my classmate Mike about who was cute in our section. Second, time spent asleep in bed with a textbook doesn't count as study time either. Last, no one, at least not me, really gets up at nine on a weekend to read civ pro.
Throwing away the case-briefing-and-outlining, I rededicated myself to devising the greatest shortcut to a law school degree, a brilliant scheme which has become known as the Three-Hour Rule.
The Three-Hour Rule (“THR” for short) is founded on the very simple fact that law school exams are only three hours. So why would you spend time learning any more than you can write in three hours? And what can you write in three hours? Well, given a fact pattern that you need to interface with - only very basic concepts.
For example, in first-semester contracts, analyzing whether Betty Buyer and Sally Seller had offer, acceptance, and consideration takes about 45 minutes of the one hour you have allotted for the question, so hell, you don’t have to learn a whole lot more. Learning the subject in any more detail would be a waste of time and would probably only confuse you.
Now think of the benefits of THR. First, say goodbye to reading cases. Forget facts, case analysis, and especially footnotes; all you need to know is the holding. For example, you don't need to read Queen v. Dudley and Stephens as long as you know that you can't eat another person unless they’re dead and you're really, really hungry. Second, studying becomes a simple task of having a good Three-Hour Outline. Since any outline found at the SBA office has more information than you could ever write in three hours, you may actually have to create your own short version of it. Ah, a law student's work is never done. Third, no sleepless nights, diarrhea, loss of appetite, binge eating or irritability during finals week. You are the laid-back, TV-watching, 10 hour-sleeping, newspaper-reading envy of all your friends. Or, if your friends follow THR, you have plenty of time to play cards.
THR has served me well for three semesters, but use it at your own risk. For example, last semester's crim pro test didn't test us on one whole section of my Three-Hour Outline. My Three-Hour Outline became a Two-and-a-Half-Hour Outline. If I had studied more, I may have had more B.S. material for the rest of the exam. Oh well, got me out of the exam half-an-hour before everyone else.
Of course, your expectations have to be necessarily lower than other law students. I don't know anyone on Law Review that uses THR. But if you want a carefree semester for only a few hours of pain, accepting the extent of your ignorance just may be the way to go.
DOUG TSOI'S STUDY TIPS:
HOLDING: Law school exams are only three hours long.
APPLICATION:
1. Don't read cases. Forget facts, case analysis, and especially footnotes; all you need to know is the holding.
2. All you need to study is a good Three-Hour Outline.
3. Act laid-back during finals week.
4. Sell your friends on the THR so you have card playing partners.
5. Accept the extent of your ignorance.
6. Remember - this method is not tested by members of NYU Law Review.
Buy my house?
In other news, I’m moving (to another neighborhood in Portland). Anyone want to buy my house for $550k? I’m offering it to people off-market first in case a friend, a friend of a friend, or a reader(!) is interested. If there isn’t any interest, I’ll hire a real estate agent for a spring sale. But if you are looking for a duplex in Portland (rental income, flex space, extra office), this is your chance to buy something without having to go through endless open houses, multiple offers, bidding wars, etc.. I got the house from a friend off market, so I wanted to offer the opportunity to someone else.1 Feel free to forward to anyone looking in Portland.
Also saving myself broker fees.