questions about 1L LIFE

[queencruella]

How many hours per day: I study 2 (maybe 3 at first before I got the hang of it) hours for each hour in class.  Friday nights and most of Saturday I don't study at all.

Plenty of time for lesure activities, unless there is a legal writing thing due.

It is really intense for the first couple of weeks, then not at all, then it is really intense for the last month before finals.  And that last month is a killer. People are so starved for feedback on how they are doing that they compare EVERYTHING in an effort to assess their own abilities and standing.  It isn't that people are mean to each other or competitive in a way that they are going to take someone else down.  It is just craving feedback so they want to know how and what everyone else is doing in order to self-evaluate.  But that is really only in the weeks before finals.

It really irritates me that law schools don't value education or the students' well-being enough to fix the feedback problem.

Interestingly enough, my school used to have a graded practice exam system that it gave up for some reason this year. It's a real shame because I found that the one graded exam I was given was quite helpful in helping me to understand what the prof looks for and what I needed to avoid doing. Another prof was considering giving a midterm but it turned out not to be feasible.

I wonder if that had anything to do with this year's overenrollment.  Too-large 1L classes?  Or at least, that would be a convenient excuse.  I get that sense that professors would rather have the time that takes to spend on their scholarship or for free time instead, and of course administrations usually care more about scholarship than teaching (although your school strikes me as one that could be an exception to that).

I think it was the administration's decision. Practice exams were given right before fall break so profs did have time to grade it, but I got the impression that the administration felt that not all students were taking it as seriously as they should. It seemed like most of the faculty felt guilty about it and tried their best to compensate, but since 3 out of 4 of my classes had closed-book exams, there was no real way to simulate a test situation in those courses without the set practice exam time.

[slacker]

For my fall 1L exams, a group of us took old tests at the same time under timed conditions, and then talked about the issues -- they were all issue-spotter types of questions. That was somewhat useful.

For a few classes first year (and some second year) we got model answers to look over. Those helped in terms of seeing both the issues that were important to the professor but also for providing an idea of preferred format of response. I also met with professors both by myself and with study groups (sometimes rather impromptu groups), when the opportunity arose, to address either specific issues on prior exams (some would do this, some not), or specific issues with the material covered in the course.

[dodo97]

I did most of my reading before and between classes. Probably did 1-2 hours at night, three days a week. Now, I could've worked a lot harder and probably done better (just got my grades back and I'm on the fringe of top 1/3, either just head or just behind... we don't know the exact percentiles yet) which is fine with me and what I want to do). I did nothing on weekends but watch football and go out, except the couple of Sundays the week before memos were due.

I found I had a TON more time than expected for social/leisure stuff. It does get intense right around finals and when memos are due.

[Towelie]

I have several questions about 1L LIFE.

1) how many hours do you study each day?
2) any time for leisure activities?
3) is it really that intense?

1) ~2-3 hours on weekdays, and the same either on Saturday or Sunday (try to take at least one day off). Also, when I started law school I spent ~4-5 hours a day studying, but as the semester went on I learned how to extract info from cases in a more efficient way
2) Oh, plenty. I'm having a blast. Besides going to the gym 4-5 days a week, I go to the bars at least 2 times a week (usually 3), watch a ton of TV, shop, hang out with friends, etc.
3) Only if you let it be. I decided to stay away from the library and even from campus as much as I could when I wasn't in class. This helped a ton!

[Goodlaw]

I have several questions about 1L LIFE.

1) how many hours do you study each day?
2) any time for leisure activities?
3) is it really that intense?

Sounds like you're really stressing out. I read a great guide that helped me get through first and second year.  It's called Law School 101 and it was written by an attorney who wanted to give people a head's up about what to expect and how to deal with it.  Just a suggestion in case you're having a hard time. It really helped me and my friends.

[Jolie Was Here]

I have several questions about 1L LIFE.

1) how many hours do you study each day?
2) any time for leisure activities?
3) is it really that intense?

Sounds like you're really stressing out. I read a great guide that helped me get through first and second year.  It's called Law School 101 and it was written by an attorney who wanted to give people a head's up about what to expect and how to deal with it.  Just a suggestion in case you're having a hard time. It really helped me and my friends.

Holy hell!!  I wish that I could wave a wand and make all the damn trolls shilling for their own products go away.

[OingoBoingo]

1) I spent the first few weeks of last semester at school from 0730 am to 830pm. I can't truly say I spent every second studying but I did avoid to a great degree socializing for long periods. This was hard as there was some pressure to fit into a "group" - something similar to what I felt some 15 years ago in high school, with some of the clique factor thrown in there. It wasn't until the last month of the semester that I setled into a study group. I reccomend waiting till at least the first month or so to see if a study group others any benefits.

2) Yes, but that time was spent with my family rather than any law school friends. If you don't have family then I can see how NOT being part of a group could make your life "lonely." The prospective, from outsiders, was important to the degree that it helped me chill out on a daily basis.

3) Here is where I feel duped. Yes, as others have said it was intense when we had a paper due. At St Thomas we have the twist of having midterms which add strees a month into law school. You don't see the fruits of the stress until finals period come. Midterms give you some confidence, the best benefit being that you have an actual understanding of what you professor's expectations are answer wise. Plus, since they were worth anywhere from 10-30 percent of our grade they reduce some of the stress of finals period. The reason why i feel duped is that, despite all that you may hear in this forum and elsewhere, law school just isn't as "crazy" as people have made it out to be. If you strike a balance between your pursuits and understand that law school is just one of them, you simply should be fine in this regard.

Oingo

[OingoBoingo]

I have several questions about 1L LIFE.

1) how many hours do you study each day?
2) any time for leisure activities?
3) is it really that intense?

Sounds like you're really stressing out. I read a great guide that helped me get through first and second year. It's called Law School 101 and it was written by an attorney who wanted to give people a head's up about what to expect and how to deal with it. Just a suggestion in case you're having a hard time. It really helped me and my friends.

Holy hell!! I wish that I could wave a wand and make all the damn trolls shilling for their own products go away.

True dat. True.

Oingo