Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Don't Make This Common Law School Mistake

Before I went to law school, I read a few of the common law school guides that most law students read. These guides promised me academic success as long as I followed the particular strategies that they described. I followed their advice for about half of my time at law school, and it's a good thing I didn't keep following it longer.
As I got wiser to the ways of law school, I realized that much of the advice given to law students is counterproductive. As I moved away from the advice found in mainstream law school guides, my grades, and more importantly my overall law school experience, improved markedly.
Towards the end of my the time at law school and even for some time after I graduated, my friends and I would discuss all the mistakes we had made by listening to the silly mainstream advice. We would often wonder out loud how this advice came to be, illogical and ineffective as much of it is.
Now that I know better after making many mistakes as a law student, I will share with you one common law school strategy that you should fervently avoid if you want to do your best in law school. Unsurprisingly, most law school guides encourage this exact strategy, to your academic, financial, and social detriment.
The strategy I am talking about is the use of hornbooks and commercial study aids to prepare for classes and exams. As a law student, you should do your best to avoid this common mistake, and here are a number of reasons why. First, studying from commercially prepared study aids is not an effective study strategy, because the material in these study aids differs from your course material. The way study aids present material will also differ from the way in which your professor wants you to approach and understand the course material. Contrary to popular belief, you can get all the information you need to do extremely well on exams from the casebook, relevant statutes, and class, without ever resorting to study aids. Furthermore, buying hornbooks multiplies the number of sources you feel that you must study, and will only make the learning process more confusing, frustrating, and ineffective.
Second, hornbooks and commercial study aids are expensive, and the cost of these aids adds up fast, especially if you believe that you need them for each of your classes. Being that these extraneous materials contain little, if anything, of value to your studies, you will do well to save your money for more worthwhile pursuits, such as vacations, electronics, or whatever it is that you like. And yes, the money you save on hornbooks can actually pay for a vacation, even a nice one.
Third, given that study aids have nothing to offer over the actual course materials in terms of valuable study material, they waste your time. Your time in law school is valuable, and you should try to be as efficient as possible by using that time to study the casebook and to relax. The less time you spend on useless study aids, the more time you will have for effective study and for relaxation, which will help you stay balanced and focused in law school, while avoiding burnout.
Finally, you should be aware that most professors are against the use of study aids (except those who write these aids), and they know what they're talking about. Your professors were exceptional law students, and most of the time they know what they're talking about when it comes to study strategy, so listen when they tell you that the most important information is in the casebook and statutory supplement, rather than in a commercial study aid.
Instead of wasting your time and money on hornbooks and commercial study aids, read your class materials and devote at least some of your free time to activities that you enjoy.

What is Law of Attraction and How it Can Works For You




Law of attraction is one of the most common laws of the universe that understood by most people. There are many other laws out there, but the law of attraction is one of the most famous laws of all. This is because it has been brought famous by the book, The Secret.
Many people want prosperity, love, friendship, and many things in their life. And the good news is, with the help of the law of attraction, you are able to attain any of your dreams.
The laws of attraction works based on the principle of likes attract likes. And often, it starts from your inner self, which is your mind. In other words, if you want to be rich, you must first create it in your mind. If you want to be successful in your life, think about being successful in your mind all the time.
What you need to do to make the law of attraction to work for you is to create intention and attention in your life. You have to first create the intention of getting what you want in your life. It can be money, cars, friendship, love, and happiness, anything you can ever imagine about.
After that, you will have to create the attention by focusing about the things you want in your mind and in your life. The more you focus on the things you want in your life, the more likely you are going to achieve it in your life because you are directing your life towards it.
Stop wasting your precious time, money and even your hope into the law of attraction before you finally figure out what exactly it is. Do you know that this law is incomplete? Bob Proctor - one of the key figures in "The Secret", believes that the law of attraction is incomplete, and for the first time reveals the 11 Forgotten Laws that will finally uncover the law's true potential.
It is not that the law of attraction does not work for you. It is just that you have not discover the true potential of the law and how the other laws will help you manifest what you want into your life.

Gestalt: Law of Common Fate

The law of common fate is one of four visual perception laws as theorized by gestalt psychologists. Paul Martin Lester, the author of Visual Communication, an expert in the field wrote: "The fourth law of Gestalt psychology is the law of common fate. A viewer mentally groups five arrows or five raised hands pointing to the sky because they all point in the same direction. An arrow or a hand pointed in opposite direction will create tension, because the viewer will not see it as part of the upwardly directed whole."
Gestalt's law of common fate is a pretty simple concept. It is basically referring to visual directional lines within a design or layout. In a photograph, if two or more people are moving in the same direction, they have created a directional line known as the law of common fate. Together, they have a common fate or destiny. Another example of the law of common fate could include similar shapes aimed in the same direction. You might wonder why the law of common fate is of importance to artists. First of all, when two objects (whether it be shapes or organic forms) are pointed in the same direction in a layout, the directional lines become dominant in a design. So, if two or more powerful shapes are aimed at or moving in a certain direction, an artist knows to put the message at the point of destination.
Directional lines push our eyes around a page. This can be a problem every bit as much as bonus. For instance, visual collisions frustrate the viewing audience. It can cause too much tension and cause anxiety for the reader which in turn, makes the layout uninviting and too intense.
If a candid photograph of a moving car is heading to the right, the law of common fate dictates that the directional line is pointing to the right. Then again, if a candid photograph of a car is aimed towards the left and the image is part of a design, the directional line is now aimed towards the left. Therefore, if a car is headed towards the right (on an image), the image of the car should be placed towards the left-hand side of a layout, because our eyes read from left to right. This is why the law of common fate is so important. The law of common fate should not be ignored in graphic designs and advertisements. Understanding the law of common fate and how directional lines work on layouts can make all the difference in how information is read and understood.