xeoh85's Advice for Doing Well in Law School Forum

[steve_nash]

Whenever this or Arrow's post comes up, I always feel like it's my duty to un-freak out the 0L's, so here goes: while this sort of schedule probably will lead to success in law school, it is by no means necessary to be successful. These guys are in the 99.9th percentile for work done in law school. It's great that it worked for them, but the vast majority of students just don't have what it takes to put in this kind of effort. The good thing for those of us that fall into that majority is that this effort is by no means required to make yourself stand out. I probably did a quarter of the work that xeoh did and I'm sitting in the top 5% right now. I'm not posting this to dissuade anyone from going all out (if you can do it, you should), I just don't want 0L's reading this and being freaked out by their competition.

I should also note that TTT-LS, from what I've gathered from his posts, was top 1% at NU and didn't study nearly the amounts that xeoh did. (TTT, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Hiei]

xeoh85 was notorious at ucla for being the #1 uber gunner of the entire class (i.e. raising his hand so much that professors stopped calling on him). then again, he transferred to stanford, got onto law review, and had offers at cravath and irell, so good on him i guess?

The reality that a lot of people don't want to face is that most people who do that well have that sort of personality and drive. There's a reason super successful lawyers have a certain image to the layperson.

[asmithxc]

xeoh85 was notorious at ucla for being the #1 uber gunner of the entire class (i.e. raising his hand so much that professors stopped calling on him). then again, he transferred to stanford, got onto law review, and had offers at cravath and irell, so good on him i guess?

The reality that a lot of people don't want to face is that most people who do that well have that sort of personality and drive. There's a reason super successful lawyers have a certain image to the layperson.

I don't agree with this. In my experience, there was no correlation between people talking a lot in class and getting good grades.

[KeepitKind]

great post! thanks

[sophie316]

4) But more importantly, a competitive spirit is what kept me from burning out. I have always been motivated to be the best.
When I would be the last person to leave the library at midnight, it would re-fuel my motivation and energy.
I was not the last poor sap to finish his work and return home for the day. No no no.
On those late nights when I was the last to leave the law school... I was the last man standing.

Oh dear lord. This is everything I hate about law school.

Also 0Ls, it is not necessary to be this insane to do well. Please don't think you have to sacrifice your entire life for this.

[03121202698008]

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[romothesavior]

4) But more importantly, a competitive spirit is what kept me from burning out. I have always been motivated to be the best.
When I would be the last person to leave the library at midnight, it would re-fuel my motivation and energy.
I was not the last poor sap to finish his work and return home for the day. No no no.
On those late nights when I was the last to leave the law school... I was the last man standing.

Oh dear lord. This is everything I hate about law school.

Also 0Ls, it is not necessary to be this insane to do well. Please don't think you have to sacrifice your entire life for this.

This sounds very credited.

[doyleoil]

4) But more importantly, a competitive spirit is what kept me from burning out. I have always been motivated to be the best.
When I would be the last person to leave the library at midnight, it would re-fuel my motivation and energy.
I was not the last poor sap to finish his work and return home for the day. No no no.
On those late nights when I was the last to leave the law school... I was the last man standing.

Oh dear lord. This is everything I hate about law school.

Also 0Ls, it is not necessary to be this insane to do well. Please don't think you have to sacrifice your entire life for this.

This sounds very credited.

You're right. It is.

[Stanford4Me]

I don't plan on being as asocial as it sounds like this person was, but I'll definitely take this into consideration.

[novacuseville]

great post. very helpful.

[interalia]

4) But more importantly, a competitive spirit is what kept me from burning out. I have always been motivated to be the best.
When I would be the last person to leave the library at midnight, it would re-fuel my motivation and energy.
I was not the last poor sap to finish his work and return home for the day. No no no.
On those late nights when I was the last to leave the law school... I was the last man standing.

Oh dear lord. This is everything I hate about law school.

Also 0Ls, it is not necessary to be this insane to do well. Please don't think you have to sacrifice your entire life for this.

This sounds very credited.

You're right. It is.

ASPIRE to do this much. Then, when you miss the mark, you´re more likely to land on your feet.

[smartblonde87]

wonderful post. thank you!

[DeSimone]

Great thread!

[megaTTTron]

hhahahahaha did you just bump xeoh's thread? hahahaha amazing.

[Undergradut]

What's amazing is that 2L and 3Ls at my T1 give advice that is contrary to Xeoh's.

They say..

Don't start outlining until November. And if you do, you'll be judged.

You don't need to use the supplements.

Don't study too hard. Chill out. Make time for fun. Take days off to relax or socialize.

[Protolaw]

I'm getting the same thing at my law school too, Undergradut. Very surprising...

[mbusch22]

What's amazing is that 2L and 3Ls at my T1 give advice that is contrary to Xeoh's.

They say..

Don't start outlining until November. And if you do, you'll be judged.

You don't need to use the supplements.

Don't study too hard. Chill out. Make time for fun. Take days off to relax or socialize.

lol, noobs.

[09042014]

What's amazing is that 2L and 3Ls at my T1 give advice that is contrary to Xeoh's.

They say..

Don't start outlining until November. And if you do, you'll be judged.

You don't need to use the supplements.

Don't study too hard. Chill out. Make time for fun. Take days off to relax or socialize.

There is no universal right way to do law school. Some people need to do Xeoh's method to get a B+ and others can drop a A never going to class and studying a supplement for three days before the exam.

The trick is you never really know what works for you until you get there by trial and error.

[mbusch22]

What's amazing is that 2L and 3Ls at my T1 give advice that is contrary to Xeoh's.

They say..

Don't start outlining until November. And if you do, you'll be judged.

You don't need to use the supplements.

Don't study too hard. Chill out. Make time for fun. Take days off to relax or socialize.

lol, noobs.

They aren't noobs. Lots of people do precisely that and crush law school. As DF indicated, there is no single "right" way to approach law school. The best method will vary by person, but unfortunately it can take some time to find out what that method is. And of course some approaches are generally better for the average law student than others. But there are no universal absolutes.

point taken. Yet personally, there's no way I could have done that. But I have to say the majority of people who take this approach probably end up in the middle.

[vamedic03]

What's amazing is that 2L and 3Ls at my T1 give advice that is contrary to Xeoh's.

They say..

Don't start outlining until November. And if you do, you'll be judged.

You don't need to use the supplements.

Don't study too hard. Chill out. Make time for fun. Take days off to relax or socialize.

lol, noobs.

They aren't noobs. Lots of people do precisely that and crush law school. As DF indicated, there is no single "right" way to approach law school. The best method will vary by person, but unfortunately it can take some time to find out what that method is. And of course some approaches are generally better for the average law student than others. But there are no universal absolutes.

point taken. Yet personally, there's no way I could have done that. But I have to say the majority of people who take this approach probably end up in the middle.

The majority of people who take any approach will (on a forced curve/normal distribution system) probably end up in the middle (or 1 std dev above or below).

[kehoema2]

Wow thanks.

[Veyron]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

[09042014]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

10 hours a day to read for class. WTF?

[missinglink]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

10 hours a day to read for class. WTF?

Yeah, double WTF.

I'm outlining and briefing as I go, and it still doesn't take me 10 hours a day to get through the reading.

[09042014]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

10 hours a day to read for class. WTF?

Yeah, double WTF.

I'm outlining and briefing as I go, and it still doesn't take me 10 hours a day to get through the reading.

If anyone at Northwestern is doing that much work they do a good job hiding it from the rest of us.