Having been in class for three days now, I have noticed that there is an interesting group mentality beginning to show. It's almost like meiosis, in that our class is quickly dividing into groups. Not social groups, per se, but the so called "study group". Let me explain.
On day two, we were given two cases to analyze under a specific statue and the void-for-vagueness doctrine over lunch. Interestingly, the class split into two types of person: the types who wanted to go it alone, and the types that sought other human contact. Being in the latter, I found two guys that seemed reasonably intelligent, that I had gone out with the week before, and that I thought might contrast well with my mindset. At that moment, our cell divided from the others. I had to turn away good friends, perhaps better friends.
Over lunch, the three of us actually came up with answers that were fairly close to the "correct" answer given by the prof. And we worked quite well together, each contributing ideas that built upon the others for a full legal thought. We agreed that this was the ideal study group.
Fast forward to today. Again, we had fairly deep thought lunch work, so we decided to have a working lunch. This time, however, someone else wanted to tag along. None of us wanted to be "that guy" that refuses to share answers, so we allowed it. After a fairly unproductive lunch, we gathered another unattached soul, and lost the first. Again, our group didn't work as efficiently as it did on day two.
There is an exchange that goes on in this situation. As law students, we recognize the importance of networking and being social with one another. After all, our legal life will be dependant on these people. And yet, there must be a cutoff. When the engine runs fine, you don't need to keepadding parts. Sure, you may get supercharged here, or you might get a speed boost there. But as you go, there is a diminishing marginal return on additional study partners. Where do you draw the line?
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The rhetorical ramblings of a student at Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington.
3 comments:
It's true that when study groups get too big, they end up being completely unproductive, but I have a hard time believing that adding one person to a group of three can have that much of an impact on productivity unless the new addition is more interested in gabbing about other subjects than discussing class materials.
As to the statement "I had to turn away good friends, perhaps better friends, for the sake of my legal education." Please don't ever say this outloud unless you want to be labeled a gunner from the start and a d-bag gunner at that. With three days under your belt, you don't know how to study law, you certainly don't know who the top students in your class will be, and you don't know who you might need to rely on in the future. Don't start burning bridges before they are built.
Meiosis? Did you mean mitosis?
Meiosis = division into basically 4 sex cells
Mitosis = division of cells, period.
A bit nitpicky, sorry.
And, I agree with anonymous. Why did it matter that much?
Well, to be honest, meiosis works too, since the concept was division into parts. And since it's law school, sex cells might even be more appropriate, but I digress. And I too agree with anonymous, in that we welcomed, with open arms, another group member today. The fact is that we don't want to reach the point of diminishing marginal returns. Too large a group is inefficient, and if we just started bringing in everybody, we would probably never get done with anything. Nothing against the others, I just recognize that, at some point, enough is enough.
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