What I learned from my first semester of law school...

[Trancer]

Thought this would be beneficial for us 1.5L's and anyone else who is about to start law school...

1. Do not put off outlining until November, keep up with your outlining every week.

2. Legal Research and Writing assignement will be a monkey wrench in your routine.  Plan accordingly, do not put off LRW for the weekends otherwise youll be in a race to finish them and thats not the best position to be in.

3. Flash Cards work wonders for memorizing Element and Factor based rules, but they dont supplement for actually studying the material.

4. Study, dont just read.  Ask questions while you browse through materials, find out whether the rule is a minority or majority rule.

5. Try to get your practice tests in 2 weeks before finals, messing up a previous test 3 days before a final can be a serious destriment to your self-confidence (even if it borders on hubris, its better to feel over confident than scared shitless)

[DutchessA]

1.  It takes approximately three months to see the true character of the people you choose to study with, select study mates carefully.

2.  Outlines should be updated every weekend.

3.  Practice tests are incredibly important, make time for at least issue spotting tests once a week.

4.  Studying isn't about quantity, its about quality.  Two hours spent in a quiet (or loud) room where you are dead-set focused is worth four hours where you are in and out of consciousness on the subject.

5.  No matter how hard you are working there is someone who is working even harder!!! And if there isn't, you are doing something right.

[Senior Belding]

These are tips for any school, not just law school.

[racheles05]

1. Get your resume and cover letters ready for job hunting in September.
2. Get to know all of your professors. The better you know them, the more you'll know what's on the exam.

[S|]

Since you are reflecting on your first semester, I have a question.  Do you feel that it is absolutely necessary to write a perfect exam to get an A? I did multiple practice exams and left the exam feeling as if I had done everything possible within the time allotted, but after extensive reflection on the exam I know there were things I could have done differently. Is it reasonable to expect that 5-10 students wrote a perfect exam?

[DutchessA]

It doesn't have to be perfect, just the best out of the bunch...  That is where quirks of the prof. come in and it pays off to know their personality and how they like things phrased.

I need to work on that with my torts prof.  He says I'm not nearly crazy enough with my ideas, I CAN BE CRAZY!!!

[Trancer]

When running from a bear in the forest, you dont need to run faster than the bear, just your friend.  That same mentality applied to law school.  As a side note, as far as cutthroat behavior goes ive seen very few overt acts by some individuals, but not as much as the hype.  Im a firm believer in synergy... i dont care if all 4 of my study mates do better than me, so long as we place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the class. 

[chrisfield]

This is good stuff.  Please keep posting for all of us 0L's.

[DutchessA]

I've experienced some fairly aggressive behavior from fellow students...most of it done to get a rise out of other students.  The best idea--trust your own gut instinct and what you know, if you have a question ask the Prof. if available. 

Same with me in terms of study mates, I hope that she did really well...which I'm sure she did.

[jacy85]

When running from a bear in the forest, you dont need to run faster than the bear, just your friend.

 
Excellent way of phrasing that.