7. Figure out how your friends can help (including by staying quiet)
Your friends can't help you write or edit your paper, but they can help put you and keep you in the right mindset. One student, for instance, reports that “I found helpful ... having another student keep me accountable for the number of hours I was working. A close friend and I would exchange phone calls, playfully teasing each other to work a bit harder. Toward the end we would sit in coffee shops together [but at separate tables], each one's presence ensuring the other wouldn't turn in early and ignore some responsibility....
“[I]f it weren't for my buddy's consistently applying social pressure to be better than I would if no one were looking, I would have put in fewer hours and (presumably) performed more poorly.” If you're the sort of person who responds well to such friendly peer pressure, take advantage of it.
On the other hand, other people react differently. One student, for instance, suggested: “[Don't] talk to people doing the law review about the law review because others can contribute to your ... midcompetition blues .... It can be discouraging when another person says, ‘Just revising my draft,’ [when] you are not done [with the first draft] yet.” If you're the sort of person who responds this way, make a deal with your friends that you won't talk to each other about how far you've gotten.
The important thing is to know yourself, and to set things up so you and your friends help each other rather than inadvertently depressing each other. Humans are social creatures, and our mood and efficiency can change dramatically depending on our social environment. For this especially important, high-pressure task, take a few pains up front to arrange your environment so it helps you.
8 Th really go d and fortunate friends can help by lending you their apartments
If you live with a roommate, and a friend of yours is going out of town for the duration of the competition—not unlikely, since the competitions are usually during vacations—see if the friend will lend you his apartment. For most people, solitude and lack of distractions are a great help (even if occasional company can be a help, too).
9. Oh, no! I'm reading this chapter the day before the competition is to start
Don't panic. I stand by the advice I gave you, but preparation is helpful, not mandatory. Even if you couldn't prepare beforehand, just do the best you can during the competition. Likewise, even if you do less preparation than you hoped you could (you just skimmed the Bluebook chapters instead of reading them a couple of times), don't worry.
As one student reports, “A good friend of mine was in a section that had their huge memo due the day the competition started. As a result, he didn't prepare at all, and he still made it. I'm sure he's happy he tried, despite the [lack of] preparation.”
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