Survey for all you 2L's, 3L's

[chrisfield]

3 easy questions about your first semester:

1) How many hours a week were you in class/studying/reading/tutoring?

2) What was your class rank at the end of your first semester?

3) What tier school do you go to?

Thanks.  I know everyone is different but I am just trying to get a good idea here.

[Coffinberry]

1) 40-45
2) bet. 20-25% (no ranks after 1st semester, just deciles & quartiles)
3) bottom tier 1

[rapunzel]

1) I'd say 25-30 hours a week until mid-October then geared up to 40 or more.  By finals week and maybe the week before 50-60.

2)5% after first year- no rank after 1st semester- we have year long classes.

3) 3rd tier.

I doubt you'll find a positive relationship between hours spent and grades earned.  Some people put in a lot of hours on the wrong things and others just naturally get it without working very hard (although, those people are a small minority, thank god).  As you can see I geared up at exam time working hypos and practice tests.  I did not brief or outline in any formal sense.

[Pitt1L]

3 easy questions about your first semester:

1) How many hours a week were you in class/studying/reading/tutoring?

40 hours in easy weaks; 80 hours on tough weeks.  Maybe averaging in between.

2) What was your class rank at the end of your first semester?


Pitt Law doesn't rank... but for reasons you'll likely understand after your first year of law school, I hate that question.  That said, I did pretty well -- made a journal.

3) What tier school do you go to?


Pitt Law... I think it's ranked in the fifties or sixties.

Thanks.  I know everyone is different but I am just trying to get a good idea here.

[LostMyMonkeys]

1) At least a 40 hour week. Plus overtime. I treated it as a full time job. "overtime" ramped up around midterms, memo due dates, and finals

2) top 1%

3) T4

[Pitt1L]

By the way, I somewhat disagree about the idea that there's not a relationship between how hard you work and how well you do.  I certainly think that there are some people who did quite well and didn't work that hard, and there are certainly some people who worked extremely hard and ended up not doing particularly well.  But among those who graded on the top two journals at Pitt this year, I have found that most worked very hard their first year.  That's just my experience...

[racheles05]

1) How many hours a week were you in class/studying/reading/tutoring?
50-60 (I spent about half that in the Spring due to other commitments and I wound up doing better than I did my first semester, so I'm not convinced this is relevant)

2) What was your class rank at the end of your first semester?
5%


3) What tier school do you go to?
T2

[johnnylongtorso]

1)  As little as I had to.

2)  No idea, probably somewhere near the middle.

3)  T14

[chrisfield]

Thanks to all who answered so far.  Please keep them coming.  The larger the sample the better the idea new students can get. Thanks again.

[lanval]

1)  35-40 hours/week until the last month, then 50/week.
2) top third
3) mid Tier I