What should I be focusing on? I have no clue what I'm doing

[jarofsoup]

Talk to a few 2ls that have had your professors. 1L professors have very weird views on the law. Some are very non-traditional. Learn your professor and find out what they want. If they are all black letter...get an EE for the class. This will help you get a basic understanding of the course. If your teachers has a weird spin on the class get an old outline.

Do not be afraid of old outlines. My first year, I swore that I would never use them. As a 2L I used them a lot and did just as well.

But learn your professors, talk to some 2Ls/3Ls and go from there.

It is ok to feel lost the first couple of days.

[thesealocust]

Someone mentioned above it's too early to start outlining. My 'Law Skills' prof said the same thing. Is that true? I think for battery/assault I could throw something together. Other advice said to 'outline early.'

It's too early for it to be useful. You'll be sad if you wait until Thanksgiving, but you're learning so much and getting so much more familiar with the process every day that you'll have a clearer sense of what to do in a few weeks.

Yeah, there's actually a few things I don't get now. I'll wait a few more weeks.

I have a definition for assault given by the professor ('reasonable apprehension of imminent battery'), but is this different than the prima facie elements? Can I pull prima facie from the definition? Or should I run to the Restatements?

You should wait a few more weeks then try to figure it out The more exposure you have across your classes, the better your odds of muddling through instead of wasting your time.

[dkb17xzx]

Thank you for the responses

from what i'n reading, i get this as the main point: read the case, know the rule +how it was applied and wait a few weeks... it'll become clearer as weeks pass by.

[memo2partner]

The number one thing that you need to be focusing on is learning the black letter law from the cases and any exceptions to the rule. For instance, contracts--know the mailbox rule (black letter law) and any exceptions. The cases illustrate how the black letter law is applied in real life (on the exam, you will see a fact pattern and you should be able to say to yourself, oh, that fact pattern is similar to the case we studied, I will apply the law from that case to these facts--unless of course they tweak the facts to make it slightly different from the case you read--which is why you need to know the exceptions to the rule). After that, understand policy (the reason for the rule). If you know the law, you should be in decent shape for the exam. Focus on that.

[1l2016]

Thanks everyone for the responses! This forum is so helpful! I'll definitely be keeping everyone's advice in mind and hopefully it starts to make more and more sense.