How difficult can it really be... seriously?

[justice4u]

As many other soon-to-be 1Ls can attest to,entering Law School is frightening. This is in great part due to the stigma associated with Law School. The stigma is often perpetuated in blogs, websites and threads like this one and we all know what it sounds like. "Law School is nothing like college and is not for everyone", "if you were a straight A student in college, it don't mean jack in law school", " Law School is the most difficult thing you will encounter in your whole life". So my question is how difficult can it really be? In college i have taken constitutional law, civil procedures, criminal law etc. I have done very well in all of these classes. It seems as though in every class there are cases you study to try and understand particular issues and in the end of the semester you are tested on those issues with different set of facts of course (hypotheticals). So what's the difference? In response to the question i posed, i am expecting for my fears to be validated because i am very well aware that Law School is different from college. I would just love to know how?

[SamE397]

It depends

1. On yourself, how self motivated and dedicated you are, and how well you can handle stress

2. The environment of the school

I think the point of law school books that try to 'scare' you into realizing that law school is a lot of work are primarily just to trying to make you come to grips with the fact that law is serious and that you shouldn't be going into if you're not ready for a large work load. As patronizing as that may sound unfortunately it probably needs to be said because there are people who don't really know what to expect from law school who wind up in it just because they didn't know what else to do or were following friends.

[Tetris]

"Law School is nothing like college and is not for everyone", "if you were a straight A student in college, it don't mean jack in law school", " Law School is the most difficult thing you will encounter in your whole life".

TITCR

[botbot]

"Law School is nothing like college and is not for everyone"

Take the bad parts of college, multiply by 3.  Take the good parts of college, divide by 3.

"if you were a straight A student in college, it don't mean jack in law school"

It really depends why you were a straight A student.

" Law School is the most difficult thing you will encounter in your whole life".

No.

[nerfco]

Law school is not hard. Doing well in law school can be quite difficult and time-consuming. This is a function of a grading curve, and other students also putting a lot of time into the material.

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

Law school is not hard. Doing well in law school can be quite difficult and time-consuming. This is a function of a grading curve, and other students also putting a lot of time into the material.

This is more or less credited.

Because you're already taken CivPro, you have a general idea of the material -- and, indeed, the material is not hard.  The problem is that it's hard on a curve.  Imagine your best college classes, and now imagine your grades in those classes if you were evaluated entirely relative to your peers.

[Matthies]

I don’t think law school or the law is particularly difficult. What is hard is adjusting to a new way of thinking, being tested and presenting your ideas. Some folks will find that they adjust quicker than others. It just depends on how fast you “get it.” You will have some folks in your class who need to study 12 hours a day to get top grades and others who can coast and do the same thing. Its not that one is more intelligent than the other, its just more likely the later person just “thinks” in the way that works for law school more naturally than does the former.
 
The quicker you “get it” the easier law school becomes. I found that as soon as I stopped thinking in right/wrong, yes/no ways, like stopped forming an opinion as I read the case, the easier the whole process was, the sooner I dumped preconviced notions the easier it was for me to absorb what I was being taught and apply it, kind of like learning a new language either by emersion or looking up individual words in English to get their meaning in say Spanish. The piecemeal way is harder, the immersive changing the way you think method is easier in the long run, once you get that everything is cake.

[Harrison]

Law school is not hard. Doing well in law school can be quite difficult and time-consuming. This is a function of a grading curve, and other students also putting a lot of time into the material.

This is more or less credited.

Because you're already taken CivPro, you have a general idea of the material -- and, indeed, the material is not hard.  The problem is that it's hard on a curve.  Imagine your best college classes, and now imagine your grades in those classes if you were evaluated entirely relative to your peers.

And further imagine that these "peers" truly are your intellectual equals, all studying as hard as they can stand.  At least for the good schools, everyone has gotten high grades and is smart.  The party-hearty and slacker types don't last.

[just dot]

Law school is not hard. Doing well in law school can be quite difficult and time-consuming. This is a function of a grading curve, and other students also putting a lot of time into the material.

I agree with this.  The hardest part of law school is the amount of work, not the actual material.  You will have a lot of reading and if you add in some study aids or supplements, it can really be overwhelming.  You can study all of the time and still feel like there is more you could/should be studying.  You just have to strike a balance and make peace with it. 

["That One"]

How hard law school will seem depends on how hard your undergrad major was (IMO).  If you had a piece of cake major that required little to no effort then the workload will seem huge.  Please note that I am not saying you will get better grades if you had a difficult major.  I am just saying that the workload will seem more manageable.