Working on outlines every week is a must in my opinion.  I put off outlining until I was preparing for finals and my grades were mediocre.  My reaction time on exams was slower than it should have been because I didn't have data firmly entrenched in my brain. This year it's a whole new ballgame.

 

I find my laptop most useful for profs that use slide presentations and move along quickly.  Most profs will post their slides, but I find typing out the notes myself works much better than staring at a slide because it keeps me engaged.  It's also very nice when a prof sneeks in a quick comment like "attend yourselves to note 50 on page 454" and then moves on without batting an eye.

Also, for outlining I love my laptop.  However, I can't say that I love using any "automatic" outlining software.  I usually do my outlines without any "help" from the horrors of Word's crappy outlining feature.   I usually create one huge comprehensive outline, one medium sized outline, and finally a mini-outline. 

Definitely get one as light as you can afford with tons of battery time.  Wireless is a must.  I work on my research papers with my junk piled around me on a table as opposed to squeezing into a spot in the computer lab.

It took me twenty years to decide to go to law school after working as a paralegal for that long.  Here's the deal:

1.  You will work very, very hard.  Your life will be dictated by billable hour requirements and deadlines on your calendar.  You will have to sacrifice a lot.

2.  Your clients will at times turn on you because you are often the messenger of bad tidings.

3.  You will hold the lives of your clients in your hands (financial lives most of the time).  The responsibility will keep you awake at night.

My opinion on the key to happiness for a lawyer is twofold - organization and discipline.  Know ahead of time that 10-12 hour days and weekends are part of the package.  On the other hand, don't get sucked into making your work life your LIFE.  Get some downtime.  Learn to say "no".  The word "no" will be hard to get out of your mouth at times because you'll be convinced that your entire career depends on taking on more work than you can ever accomplish. 

The lawyers I've met who regretted their decisions started out with the erroneous assumption they would work banker's hours and wear pretty suits.

I decided to become a lawyer because I topped out in my career financially and intellectually.  I no longer wanted my hard work to stop at the printer.  I wanted to "play" as it were.  I also looked around at the comfortable lifestyles lawyers can achieve.  Of course, the trade-off for that comfortable lifestyle is hard work - lots of it.  But, if you enjoy the law, like making a difference, and like the law enough to eat chinese take-out at your desk, it's worth it.   

I see ppl using WORD all the time, and they have a seperate file for every case, or for every class. That would be an organizing nitemare for me. I like things organized, and easy to find.

Separate files for every case would be really inefficient.  I have my notes and briefs for each class in one document.  That way I can cut and paste into my outline without opening a million documents.  I suspect the "one for each case" people will change their methods after their first outline. 

My study habits have changed since my first post in this thread.  I'm now up to about 2-3 hours on weeknights and anywhere from 4-6 Saturday and Sunday.  Of course, this ebbs and flows.  Although it doesn't "ebb" much  .  More often than not, I actually spend more time.