College tracks

Grade 9 — start one project

You are on one track. The project lasts four years. This year you start it and keep a log. The log is the start of the file you will send. Do not open a second project.

Every week, do four things inside that project:

1. Mark which facts the clause uses and which it ignores, and write the result that follows.
2. Write one claim, two reasons, and one real objection. About one page.
3. Read one short clause and write what it says, separate from a summary.
4. Add to the log.

Finish these rungs on the First Principles ladder. Each one has a gate. The rung is done only when the gate is done.

Finish Instructions a machine could follow only, plus the memo below.

School courses beside the project: algebra. Add a lab science only if the major will require it.

Pre-law

Take one short statute, rule, or contract clause and a one-page fact pattern that includes irrelevant facts. Write which facts the rule uses and what result follows. One page.

Done when someone who has not discussed the problem with you follows your writeup and reaches your result, or their miss shows a step you left to judgement. If the open step is a judgment call, name the choices (A/B) on the page so the reader can pick without asking you.

This week. Use this clause, and only this clause: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Facts: Sam left a backpack on a city bus. Sam had eaten a sandwich at noon. The driver opened the backpack to look for a name. It was raining. Write one page on which facts the clause uses and what result follows. A reader who has not talked to you follows that page.

Log for this week. Date. Facts the clause uses. Facts the clause ignores. Result that follows. Reader’s name. Whether they reached your result without asking you.

Grade 11 — let someone break it

Same project. Someone outside your household tries to break the result. Their paragraph stays in the log. That person is the one who can write the letter.

Before you register for grade 12, write three lines from the course list your desired college publishes: courses you will have finished, courses still missing, and the term you will take each missing one. Add a missing course around the project. Do not drop this track’s mathematics, lab line, or memo to make room for an elective.

Every week, inside that project:

1. In a timed sit, apply one quoted rule to one quoted fact and write the result.
2. Answer the other side in the text, not afterward.
3. The packet is the source. A textbook restatement does not carry the claim.
4. Put the outside reader's paragraph in the log before you answer it.

Finish Deduction, Proof technique, Boolean algebra, and Counting, if those gates are not already done.

School courses beside the project: the major’s reading and writing. Add calculus only if the major will require it.

Pre-law

Sit for 45 to 60 minutes with a packet of two or three authorities and a fact pattern. No outside research during the sit. Write the answer the packet supports.

Done when the memo applies a quoted rule to a quoted fact. A summary of the authorities with no application is not done.

This week. Sit for 45 to 60 minutes. The packet is only the two rules from grade 10 and this fact pattern: the bag was zipped; the driver opened it; Sam was standing at the next stop; a passenger had asked for a lost phone. No other source. The memo quotes one rule and one fact and says what result follows.

Log for this week. Date. Start and end time. Rule quoted. Fact quoted. Result. No other source used.

Grade 12 — an artifact a stranger can grade

Same project. The artifact is what a stranger can grade. One reviewer has watched the work long enough to describe it.

Every week, until that memo is the one you send:

1. Quote the rule the exam will make you apply, and apply it to a fact in the packet.
2. Keep the claim in a piece a reviewer can check against that packet.
3. Let the packet carry the claim. A summary does not.
4. Write in the log which fact would change the result.

Stay on the memo. Do not add the linear-algebra or probability rungs unless the major will require them.

School courses beside the project: the major’s reading and writing. Add calculus only if the major will require it.

Pre-law

Write a longer closed-universe memo with a counterargument. Give the packet and your memo to someone else.

Done when they cannot dismiss the counterargument without quoting the packet, or their dismissal shows a fact you ignored.

This week. Add a counterargument section to the grade 11 memo. Give the packet and the memo to someone else. They have to dismiss that section by quoting the packet, or show you a fact you ignored. Write down which one they did.

Log for this week. Date. Reviewer’s name. Did they dismiss by quoting the packet, or show a fact you ignored. Which.

What you send

The application is this project. By the time you apply, the file has these parts:

1. The grade 12 artifact for your track.
2. The log, showing the same question across four years and what changed.
3. A letter from the person outside your household who tried to break the work.
4. The course record this lesson names: calculus and the lab sequence where your track requires them. Also take the courses your desired college publishes as required. If one of those crowds out the project, add it around the project. Do not drop the lab line or the mathematics line to make room for an elective.
5. The undergraduate admission test that college requires, on the calendar that college publishes. If your track has a mathematics line, take the test after that mathematics is underway. This is not the medical-school, law-school, or doctoral test, and it is not a substitute for the project.
6. An essay that states the claim, the best objection, and what the project changed. It is not a list of activities.

What you enroll in

The first year of college keeps the next gate open. Add a course only when it serves that gate.

Once a week, in the hardest course you are in, take one problem the exam could ask. Close the notes. Write the diagram, the equation, or the rule before you look up the solution. Record whether you finished it and where the solution disagreed. That page is the log. A course you only follow in lecture is not done.

Pre-law. A major you can do well, with a heavy reading and writing load. Once a term, sit a timed closed-universe memo from a packet. There is no required pre-law major. The law-school admission test is the grade 11 sit, longer, and you take it in college. It is not the test in the undergraduate application.

Through the degree, to the gate

The first year is the start. The gate opens only if the later courses are the same kind of work.

Pre-law. Every year of the major includes the timed memo. The law-school admission test is that sit, taken in college. Law school’s first year is a closed packet of authorities applied to facts, written to a professional standard. The undergraduate major is the one you can do well. The memo is the skill the exams grade.