What are the top 5 tips you would give an incoming 1L?` Forum

[Bronx Bum]

1. Get a good old outline and don't worry about making your own.

2. Write like you're talking to a client.

3. Do a lot of practice problems.

4. Don't read the cases but google the holding so you can mention it on an exam (makes you look smarter).

5. DOn't over-do it.

[Jspain]

1. Learn to take exams
2. Focus on exams from day one. Don't be afraid to look stupid in class because you get called on and don't know some useless factoid like the plaintiff's hair color.
3. Related - don't waste your time doing things like quintuple highlighting cases
4. Don't study in the law school library
5. If you insist on talking in class, don't volunteer more than 2-3 times a week. More than this and everyone hates you and the people at the top of the class will feel less bad about making fun of you when your in class gunning only gets you median grades.

This human has it figured out.

Agreed. Love it.

[forty-two]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but if you aren't happy with your grades first semester, CHANGE SOMETHING. I know a bunch of people who complained about their grades yet studied and approached exams the exact same way they did first semester. As this thread shows, different things work for different people, so you might have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you.

[Ty Webb]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but if you aren't happy with your grades first semester, CHANGE SOMETHING. I know a bunch of people who complained about their grades yet studied and approached exams the exact same way they did first semester. As this thread shows, different things work for different people, so you might have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you.

Also hugely credited. This is true for people who worked hard, too. I could see someone who didn't work hard thinking that the study method was fine, but they just needed more of it. That's justifiable because it is changing something (the quantity). There are people who bust their tails and come away with less than stellar grades. These are the individuals who you can sometimes hear complaining about the arbitrariness of the grading system, the unfairness of the questions, and other excuses. They then proceed to do the same thing and again are left to cling to only excuses.

Don't be these people.

[Kretzy]

I thought I'd do one for people on the H/P or HH/H/P system. This system doesn't work as well when there are bad grades at the bottom of the curve.

1. "Punt" a class. Pick a class you don't like, or understand, or that everyone else is gunning for, and do the bare minimum necessary to pass. At most places that don't fail people, this means simply writing something on the exam other than "I can't do this." Having one less exam, unless you're an absolute boss at test taking, maximizes your chances at doing really well on the other tests. Plus, the somewhat random distribution of grades could mean Honors even in the class that you punted.

2. Actually care about LRW and writing class (very different than a place where it's just P/F). Since your GPA isn't necessarily broken down by credit hours, you want to maximize number of Honors grades, not the number of credit hours in which you get Honors grades. Lots of people hate LRW (and, here at SLS, Fed Lit). Combined, though, that's 3 classes where you can try and get Honors (25% of 1L year).

3. Relax. Drink a little. Or a lot. Go to Bar Review, go out with your friends, and really enjoy the first few weeks. You don't know how to study when you get here, stop pretending like another 5 hours in the library in October is going to give you that negligible boost you need to rock your final exam 8 weeks later.

4. Remember that you don't need to get the top grade in the class, but rather you need to be in the top X% of the class. You don't have to spot every issue, and there's no difference in the grade that shows up for most of the people in the top X% who get Honors. Understand the idea of "diminishing returns" when you think briefing every Notes case is going to put you over the top.

5. Go to office hours after taking practice exams. This single-handedly changed my strategy for an exam, after the prof described their scoring style (which wasn't discussed in class). Read your study groups' exam answers, and know what they're doing well and what you've spent too much time on/not enough time on. It doesn't take a lot of practice tests, but doing a few with friends where you can figure out your weaknesses actually does help a ton.

And 6. Fucking enjoy it. Remember you're at an amazing place, and don't spoil it by being lame.

[LAWYER2]

Phuck an outline, use others, canned outlines, or professors notes to create flash cards and learn them inside and out! I've ONLY had closed book exams so outlines were not helpful. Learning and memorizing the law helped me tremendously. Good supply of Omega 3 capsules to increase brain power can only help. Understand the law, reduce it to your own words as if explaining it to your grandmother.
Don't worry about the next person, they usually know LESS than you, no matter how prepared they seem for class. Read the cases, they're there for a reason.
~Tis all

[aliarrow]

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[downstream]

1. If your LRW class is P/F, do not devote any time to it whatsoever. Don't even buy the books. Though this cost me a high pass because I did super well on the memo each semester and didn't do great on the in class stuff, I still maintain it was worth it. People would slave away for hours on the ungraded first memo each semester and I never understood why. The other classes are actually graded and so much more important.

2. I disagree with the whole "if your outline is more than 50 pages long, you're doing something wrong" notion. My outlines for closed book classes were very long, think double the limit most people have mentioned here. If I cannot take the outline into my exam, who cares how long it is? I wound up having that entire thing memorized by the time the exams came around. I suggest having the typed outline on the left half of a page and leaving the right half of the page blank. Write notes about the material on the right side as you read through it, perhaps just the big picture elements, etc. Eventually you start focusing more on the big stuff on the right so this is sort of a condensing process. I believe that better exam answers have more nuance and you will invariably have more nuance in longer outlines, plain and simple.

3. Open book exams are a different story. The outline needs to be an attack outline. Pre-write intros to a question when you spot the issue so you can just dump those intros into the exam and then dig in deep on the analysis which is the most important part times 300. They should be short, have dividers in a binder, and be exceptionally functional.

4. Schedule and routine are the most important things. I would get to the law school for my 8:00am class everyday, finish class at 4, go to the gym immediately, come back and study until 10 and then go home, eat and go to bed at 1:00 or so. Once classes end and finals time begins, this stops. No more law library, just strictly working at home for 14 hrs a day or so. I kept on this routine for the entire year and thing it helped.

5. I got my job without grades and was shocked at how many people wound up doing the same. Pump out those cover letters and resumes pronto. You have plenty of time to get them done at the beginning of the semester. Also- judges dont necessarily follow the NALP timing. I got mine in January but the other 2 externs applied and were accepted in early November.

6. Have fun but stop having fun like 5 weeks before finals. It sucks, that is all there is to it.

[Borhas]

#6 learn how to use a bookmark function, it's 2011 figure out how to work the internet before you get to law school

[aliarrow]

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[Dany]

Seriously? Y'all complaining about it just adds more clutter. I don't use the bookmark function because I don't use TLS that way - I browse through "View your posts." I know what the bookmark function is, and I don't find it useful.

[BeenDidThat]

:roll: Seriously? Y'all complaining about it just adds more clutter. I don't use the bookmark function because I don't use TLS that way - I browse through "View your posts." I know what the bookmark function is, and I don't find it useful.

False.

[aliarrow]

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[Borhas]

Seriously? Y'all complaining about it just adds more clutter. I don't use the bookmark function because I don't use TLS that way - I browse through "View your posts." I know what the bookmark function is, and I don't find it useful.

#7 use your browser's book mark function

[Knock]

You guys need to learn the not so subtle art of disguising your tags by thanking the posters who contributed.

[aliarrow]

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[Veyron]

ABANDON ALL HOPE!

[fatduck]

do not post in the lounge, under any circumstances.

[aliarrow]

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[beachbum]

You guys need to learn the not so subtle art of disguising your tags by thanking the posters who contributed.

+1, and I'm certainly guilty of this. I dunno why, but it bugs the crap outta me when someone just posts "tag." If you're gonna add to the clutter, at least have the decency/awareness to thank those who are contributing. Hell, you can just quote someone else who posted a thank-you.

[Lawst]

So, uh, am I supposed to know how to make an outline on Day 1? I realize that this may sound like a really stupid question, but if you asked me now to make an outline it would pretty much be:

This is my outline
- Blah, blah, blah - outline!
- Look at this magnificent bastard of an outline
- Ooh! Cheetos!

Outline strategies are great, but do I need to start looking up outlines on google to see what I'm supposed to be doing or does someone actually teach you? I've been out of UG for a while and I never made an outline there so I'm a bit lost.

[jtemp320]

So, uh, am I supposed to know how to make an outline on Day 1? I realize that this may sound like a really stupid question, but if you asked me now to make an outline it would pretty much be:

This is my outline
- Blah, blah, blah - outline!
- Look at this magnificent bastard of an outline
- Ooh! Cheetos!

Outline strategies are great, but do I need to start looking up outlines on google to see what I'm supposed to be doing or does someone actually teach you? I've been out of UG for a while and I never made an outline there so I'm a bit lost.

Haha I agree - when do they teach us how to outline - would it be a good idea to try to learn that in advance?

[forty-two]

So, uh, am I supposed to know how to make an outline on Day 1? I realize that this may sound like a really stupid question, but if you asked me now to make an outline it would pretty much be:

This is my outline
- Blah, blah, blah - outline!
- Look at this magnificent bastard of an outline
- Ooh! Cheetos!

Outline strategies are great, but do I need to start looking up outlines on google to see what I'm supposed to be doing or does someone actually teach you? I've been out of UG for a while and I never made an outline there so I'm a bit lost.

I had this question too last year. Your school should have some outline banks, and 2Ls and 3Ls are usually really awesome about sharing their old outlines. First semester, I based all of my outlines off of old outlines from students who had my professor and got an A in the class. I mainly used these outlines to figure out how to structure everything. Then I'd build my outline from my notes and check it against the old outlines every time I finished a section to make sure I didn't miss anything important or include a bunch of useless info.

[uwb09]

you should outline however you like to outline

for the majority of the semester I just organize the subject-matter and cases into a huge clusterf*ck of info, example:

I. Possessory Estates
A. Fee Simple
1. Fee Simple Absolute
a. blah blah blah about FSA
2. Fee Simple Determinable
a. blah blah blah about FSD
i. (case we read showing how a court works with a FSD)
3. Fee Simple Subject to a Condition Subsequent
a....

and so on

then, if I was allowed an outline for my exam, i'd make an attack outline that was more separated by question

V-1. Is this court the proper VENUE for this case?
(canned intro paragraph)
(quick run down on the rules and cases that involved if proper venue or not)

V-2. Would either party want to TRANSFER the venue?
V-2a. Was venue PROPER to begin with?
V-2b. Was venue IMPROPER to begin with?

etc...

[Lawst]

you should outline however you like to outline

for the majority of the semester I just organize the subject-matter and cases into a huge clusterf*ck of info, example:

I. Possessory Estates
A. Fee Simple
1. Fee Simple Absolute
a. blah blah blah about FSA
2. Fee Simple Determinable
a. blah blah blah about FSD
i. (case we read showing how a court works with a FSD)
3. Fee Simple Subject to a Condition Subsequent
a....

and so on

then, if I was allowed an outline for my exam, i'd make an attack outline that was more separated by question

V-1. Is this court the proper VENUE for this case?
(canned intro paragraph)
(quick run down on the rules and cases that involved if proper venue or not)

V-2. Would either party want to TRANSFER the venue?
V-2a. Was venue PROPER to begin with?
V-2b. Was venue IMPROPER to begin with?

etc...

Thanks. I'm sure what you wrote here will make sense to me in a few months. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I'm going to say good, though, despite the noticeable lack of Cheetos.