South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 4, Ed. 1, March, 2005 Page: 1 of 12

View a full description of this newspaper.

Inside:
Spring Forum Roundup. p.4
Volume XXXVII, Number IV
Student Alumni Program p. 8
March 2005
Annotations
The Student Newspaper of South Texas College of Law
Job Hunting: The Quick Primer
Things You Need to Know and Do to get a Great Job
By Tabitha A. Serrano
Staff Writer
As a person's intro-
duction to a poten-
tial employer, the resume
serves a useful, efficient
purpose. On that single
piece of paper lies the en-
tire professional existence
of the ever hopeful job
hunter. If the job hunter's
done her job correctly, her
resume or resumes will be
carefully tailored to suit
eveiy potential employer
or contingency. Her fonts
will be immaculate and the
margins on the paper as-
tutely calculated to capture
the ever hurried eye of an
overburdened human re-
sources director, who
must go through hundreds
of similar introductions a
day. The content of the re-
sume, sparse as it may be,
will be similarly impres-
sive with her 4.0 GP.A.,
law review experience,
and summer clerkships
with top tier law firms
splayed fabulously across
the page.
Her resume will no doubt
garner her at least a few
hundred interviews. Her
penchant for meeting,
greeting and schmoozing
with any and all comers
will have landed her a few
hundred more. Of course,
she will show up to each
and every one decked out
in an expensive suit, black
Kate Spade "leader"
pumps, and carrying a
Coach leather purse. At
Colleen Austin enjoys her work as a paralegal at the downtown litigation ana appellate firm
of Burrow & Parrott, LLP.
the end of this harrowing
experience, she will have
landed her dream job as an
associate at big name, law
firm with a glossy rep.
Unfortunately,
most of us are not that
cool. Populating the desks
of potential employers
with resumes featuring
dismal grade point aver-
ages and poor writing
skills fails to titillate even
Continued on Page 5
Latest on the Bar Results Front!
South Texas Implementing Pilot Program to Increase
Student Bar Passage Rates
By Afton Granberry
Staff Writer
Tndoubtedly the most
feared three words in
any law student's vocabu-
lary are "the Bar Exam."
From the moment a future
lawyer decides to apply to
law school the preparation
for the Bar begins-or it
should. In Texas we are
rewarded with three years
of hard work with a three
day exam that tests every-
thing we've learned from
the rule of perpetuities to
strict scrutiny-concepts
that were hard to grasp the
first time around must be
relearned and refreshed in
preparation for showing
the world what we know.
Did I mention this is not
an open book exam.
Through the years
the Bar exam has grown
increasingly difficult and
preparation ever more
time consuming. A cot-
tage industry has devel-
oped to help law students
prepare for the exam
through intensive short
term review courses.
Ranging in price from free
to thousands of dollars, but
the price of passing seems
little consequence in the
face of actually failing
what you've spent three
years preparing for.
"We don't have
the hardest Bar in the na-
tion, just one of the long-
est," said Professor Peter
Lewis, who teaches the
South Texas Bar Preview
course. Disturbingly, most
students who fail the Bar
fail by less than 50 points,
a margin that can be over-
come with the right prepa-
ration. "People fail be-
cause they have poor study
habits. If you don't
change your study habits
you will of course have
bad results," Lewis added.
By taking a Bar preview
course early students can
begin to make changes to
those study habits which
will ultimately lead to their
own personal successful
passage of the Bar but also
success for the school in
higher passage rates..
South Texas Col-
lege of Law is not lost on
the need for Bar exam
preparation. The most re-
cent exam results reflected
a disturbing trend of South
Texas students struggling
to pass the exam. "We are
ranked seventh in passage
of nine Texas law schools-
we have too good a pro-
gram to be there," Lewis
said. "South Texas has
even tested below the state
average of passing for the
last nine out of ten exams-
this is a problem we can
fix by getting students fo-
Continued on Page 6

Upcoming Pages

Here’s what’s next.

upcoming item: 2 2 of 12
upcoming item: 3 3 of 12
upcoming item: 4 4 of 12
upcoming item: 5 5 of 12

Show all pages in this issue.

This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.

Tools / Downloads

Get a copy of this page .

Citing and Sharing

Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.

Reference the current page of this Newspaper.

Hennessey, Patrick J., III. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 4, Ed. 1, March, 2005, newspaper, March 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144568/m1/1/ocr/: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.

Univesal Viewer

International Image Interoperability Framework (This Page)

Back to Top of Screen