Getting called on in class: Absolute LUCK

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I can't believe my luck today.
The class: Civil Procedure
My usual M.O: look at the reading in the hour before class, highlight some stuff, skim some stuff. Don't pay attention in class, rather surf the web and download stuff for my (new!) ipod.

This Morning: I didn't have Ks, my class an hour before CivPro, so I went to a coffe shop and read all the material for CivPro that I was behind on. Not only did I catch up, reading the material intently, but I also made notes on the cases and expecially today's case and anylized the cases.

So, I go into class as normal, except I'm on time today. har har.
I open my laptop and look at facebook, google, target.com, and listen to the class discussion in the background. I thought, "gee, I wish that today would be my day in the hot seat because it's the first day that I'm actually really really prepared" but since I was not one of the 2 people singled out at the beginning of class to be in the "hot seat" I thought I would not be called on.

And then, when we got to today's case, it happened. I got put in the Hot Seat.

Prof White looked up and called my name, and said "you're in the seat". I smiled at him, nodded, and said "let's go".
He proceeded to ask me numerous long-winded and leading-the-wrong-way questions which I answered, for the most part.
I don't remember what exactly they were, but he asked me what was somthing like a rule from the case and I answered, looking at my great notes, and he said, Okay where are you reading this? And I said "my notes", and the class chuckled. I got a kick out of that. I was blatently honest in my answers. I wasn't going to (or I tried my best not to) let him send me scurring through pages in the book searching for particulars, and he asked me one question which I had no clue about, and so I answered him: "I don't know." He had no come back to that! I think it's the first time in the class someone has admitted that they didn't know. Why should I try to pull something out of my ass when I'm under pressure and have no idea what or even where the answer is? Why not just be honest. I stayed in the hot seat for a long time, longer than many of my class mates, about 10-15 minutes. Many of them will get put in the seat and then just sit there, blank looks on their faces, flipping through pages as the Prof hurls question after question at them, and they never say anything but "umm" "err" "uhhh". And I survived. I did more than that, I did okay. And in law school (first semester first year) okay is as good as anyone can hope for. I even jumped back into the seat in the last 10 minutes of class voluntarily. It was quite the rush. I'm still alive. But I am LUCKY.

After class, two classmates approached me at different times and told me I did well in class.
Whooho!