YOUR advice for prospective law students

[Pittman2]

What "words of wisdom" would you pass on to future law students regarding the law school experience?

[emarejay]

Don't listen to anyone's advice. I'm serious too.

[Trel]

Do something else with your life...anything else.

[racheles05]

I'm pretty sure there's a similar thread around, but the biggest thing is to remain calm during finals and to strictly budget your time during exams. Don't get too stressed until exam time because all you really need to do is keep up with the reading and do outlining until then.

[midnight thursday]

What "words of wisdom" would you pass on to future law students regarding the law school experience?

Make damn sure this is really what you want to do. I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but it can be if you're just doing it because you don't know what else to do with your life.
It's work. It's alot of work. Besides the work, it's also an emotional roller-coaster. You're never sure if you're on the right track or if you're totally screwing up and you won't know until you get your grades.
Get ready to drink alot, get ready to cry alot (if you're a girl), get ready to put your fist through a wall (guys).
I would love it, if I didn't hate it so much.

[jimmyjohn]

What "words of wisdom" would you pass on to future law students regarding the law school experience?

Make d**mn sure this is really what you want to do. I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but it can be if you're just doing it because you don't know what else to do with your life.
It's work. It's alot of work. Besides the work, it's also an emotional roller-coaster. You're never sure if you're on the right track or if you're totally screwing up and you won't know until you get your grades.
Get ready to drink alot, get ready to cry alot (if you're a girl), get ready to put your fist through a wall (guys).
I would love it, if I didn't hate it so much.

I'll second the drinking.  I think about half of my classmates are alcoholics.  Alcohol seems to be VERY prominent among law students. I'll also second the self-evaluation and don't listen to other people advice.  Last semester I did what everyone on the pre-law boards had been saying thinking arrogantly that I would coast to excellent grades.  Unfortunately things didn't work out so well.  Take everything you read, see and hear as a 0L with a grain of salt.  You'll have to find things that work for you, not things that work for people on xoxo or over on the pre-law side.

[eray01]

Yeah, The pre-law people, generally speaking, don't know what they're talking about. And, some of the law students don't either. But, talking to a pre-law about going to law school is like talking to someone who's not an astronaut about what it's like to travel in space. They might have read a few books describing it, but they don't really know.

Oh yeah, and be ready to get familiar with the phrase "intellectual insecurity."

[jd2b06]

What "words of wisdom" would you pass on to future law students regarding the law school experience?

Hey Pitt,

My words of wisdom would be do practice exams do practice exams and then do more practice exams.  Especially if they are from your current professor.  Everyone their first year makes the mistake of freaking out because they're not prepared for class, or because they didn't understand some minute detail in one of their cases, or their professor has them totally confused and agitated.  Keep your focus on what COUNTS... and its the final exam at the end of the semester. 

I'm totally convinced that profs try their damnest to get law students hung up on the cases and the present taking their minds off of the future and what really matters... the exam.  Don't get caught up in the anxiety inducing tactics of your professor or your fellow students who don't know where their focus should be.

Outlining is not a MUST and doesn't guarantee success... and it's a big time waster for a lot of successful law students... choose the method that works for you. 

Learn the black letter law, and practice those exams, period.   

[unlvcrjchick]

My words of wisdom are:  do not waste your time - once you get into law school, that is - memorizing the fact patterns of the cases that you read.  I find so many 1Ls doing this that it makes me just want to take them aside, as if I'm speaking to a small child who doesn't know any better, and inform them that they won't get anywhere in law school if they utilize that strategy.  Just memorize the BLL and you'll be fine.

As the poster above me suggested, don't buy into the BS that you can only do well if you outline the course.  I'm in the top third of my class, and I've yet to brief a single case, let alone outline an entire course.  In actuality, when I stressed out more, during my first year, my grades were worse.  As soon as I adopted the "who cares, I'll just try to do the best I can without stressing too much" attitude, my grades improved dramatically. 

Bottom line:  you'll only find the strategy that works for you after a little trial and error.  However, if you remember that you don't have to remember all of the minutiae of the cases you read and don't take all of the competition too seriously, you'll undoubtedly succeed.

[CoxlessPair]

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