Soon-to-be-1L: What materials do I bring to class in law school?

[jhandin]

Hey,

I'll be starting law school in August.  I'm sure these topics will be covered at orientation, but I'm curious now.

What are the typical items brought to class on any given day of class?  Laptop?  Textbooks?  Anything specific that has helped you in the past?  Do students find it easier to take all notes on a laptop?

Also, they say that for every hour of class you have each day, that is 2 hours of studying you must do.  Why so much studying?  What kind of studying is there to do?  Outlining?  Reading?  Please explain.

Thank you in advance!!

[m1ss_uNdeRst00d]

I think it's actually 3 hours outside of class for every credit hour you're registered for. So, a load of 15 credit hours would be 45 hours of study time.

You have some very basic questions. I would suggest reading Law School Confidential.

[I am the Lorax]

I always brought my textbook and SOMETHING to take notes with.  Use a laptop if a laptop works for you.  If you do better w/ hand-written notes, don't bring a laptop.

The amount of time spent on each class will vary w/ each class.  I spent about 45 minutes on civ pro but three hours w/ con law.  Depends on the amount of reading, the level of specificity your prof is looking for, and how quickly you learn to tease out the holding in cases.

In short, there is no magic formula.  You're going to have to learn by doing, just like the rest of us did.  I highly recommend you read "Law School Confidential" as pp said as well as "Law School for Dummies".  It'll give you a pretty good idea of what to expect generally.  But as to what will work in specific classes, you're on your own.  Hopefully some 2L and 3Ls who had your profs will give you some tips at orientation--that's probably your best bet.

[Kiwiki]

Bring to class:  Casebook + note-taking equipment (pen and paper, or laptop, or both).  Sometimes I also brought my handy Legalines/Case Summary book if I hadn't jotted down my own brief notes before class or bookbriefed.

Time spent studying:  I usually spent about an hour and a half preparing for an hour of class time.  Sometimes more or less, depending on the length/depth of the assignment, but I limited myself to around two hours for sanity's sake.  This would consist of (1) reading the assignment, (2) reading the relevant section of a study aid like E&E to try and crystallize what we're supposed to "get" from the assignment, and (3) writing out a few notes about the topic before class to help me remember what I read and to help me follow the lecture--helpful if you get called on.

[vap]

To echo everyone else: bring casebook + note taking (whether laptop or pen/paper).  I prefer taking notes on laptop.

For 1L, I probably spent between 90-120 minutes reading and briefing per hour of class.  I was in class 16 hours a week, so roughly 25 to 32 hours of reading per week.

[Denny Shore]

Some profs don't care if you bring commercial outlines to class, which I found somewhat helpful (especially if I was confused about something and needed a quick explanation).
My Torts prof basically followed the gilberts outline almost verbatim, including hypos.

My list:
Pens and paper
notebook
textbook

Having pen and paper is especially useful if your prof draws a visual aid.

[M_Cool]

Buy a trammel.  Drawing circles is key to your success.

[ToTransferOrNot]

Personally, I always found my flask of very strong liquor to be helpful. Especially about midway through the semester when the gunners really started to compete with each other. And the beginning of the semester when I realized the hell I had signed up for. And the end of the semester, when studying for finals was making me go absolutely insane. And for studying in the library, when I saw all of the carefree freshmen enjoying the weather. And...


Well, you get the point.

A laptop and your textbook might be helpful as well... though the laptop can be dangerous if you are easily distracted. I learned more about Scrabble via Facebook than I learned about the law this semester. I think I may force myself to take notes by hand next year, unless I fail out this semester, which is conceivable.

[just dot]

I think it's actually 3 hours outside of class for every credit hour you're registered for. So, a load of 15 credit hours would be 45 hours of study time.

You have some very basic questions. I would suggest reading Law School Confidential.

This was great advice.  Law School Confidental was a good, quick read.  You need to know what to expect.   

I mean this in the most helpful way, if you don't even know what to bring to class you really need to read up on law school a lot more.  You don't want to go into this so blind.  It can be overwhelming if you do.

As for the study time outside of class- it really depends.  It depends on how you study, the class, your Prof, how much reading you have, how fast you learn, etc.  I probably averaged 1-3 hours of outside study time per class hour, sometimes more, sometimes less.  Study as much as it takes you to prepare and know the material.

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

The things I will bring in today:

Casebook (for 2 of the 4 classes)
Pablo Neruda -- Twenty Loves Poems and a Song of Despair
Winslow Homer -- Winslow Homer's Bahamas
Fountain pen with Skadden's name