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Pretty straightforward as the title states.

I realize that there are likely to be some differences from school to school and from professor to professor, but I'm just trying to get a general idea of which courses tend to be the easiest and which tend to be the hardest.

This is my 1L course list:

Civil Procedure
Contracts
Criminal Law
Torts
Legal Research & Writing
Constitutional Law
Property

Note: I've left out two Spring courses (Contracts II and Legal Research & Writing, again), for obvious reasons. Just in case you were wondering why the load might seem a little short.

Anyhow, anyone care to rank them?

Easiest
.
.
.
Hardest

Maybe this should be in the board for current students? I mean you might get more responses there.

Legal Research & Writing: I can't put this in with the others. It's just too different from the doctrinal classes. It's practical rather than conceptual. And, I suppose, it also depends on whether or not it's P/F, because if it is, I think it's easier to let go of your work at some point. Otherwise, you can revise things forever. I'm really glad mine was P/F!
1.
Contracts
Constitutional Law
These are hardest, I think. It's hard to say because it depends on personal strengths and on your prof, I believe. Do you struggle with abstract concepts? Do you have a background in economics? It seems like a lot of people hate Con Law, but my section had a prof who was such a good teacher that maybe it made it seem easier than it usually is? Or maybe people dislike it for some reason other than having a hard time understanding it? I think my half of the section lucked out in having a great Contracts prof, too, so that these two classes were tied in a lot of people's minds as the best ones we had.

2.
Civil Procedure
This is medium, but it's not necessarily intellectually harder than the three below. It's just one where you have to memorize a lot of minutiae. Or at least we did, with my prof.


3.
Property
Criminal Law
Torts
These three are easiest and pretty similar in terms of complexity. And a lot of stuff in Contracts, Property, and Torts overlaps.

From easiest to hardest:

Legal Research & Writing
Contracts
Torts
Property
Criminal Law
Civil Procedure
Constitutional Law

I've found civil procedure hardest, follow by torts/contracts, followed by criminal law.

Thank you very much for the responses so far.

Hopefully, I can get a few more responses and compile them together. There are a couple which look to stick out already.

Hachi wrote:Maybe this should be in the board for current students? I mean you might get more responses there.

Yes, this was also my first thought as well and I would have done it; however, upon spending enough time on this forum, I've seen a number of similar themed threads as this be posted there and then subsequently moved because (I assume) while they seem to fit in there, that forum isn't really meant for these types of thread.

Corsair may feel free to either confirm or correct this.

..

Corsair wrote:This is a bit borderline, but I'll let it stay.

Generally the issue is people post threads in this section just because they want an answer from law students, not because the question is actually on any of the topics this forum is meant to cover. With too much bleed over between the 0L questions in this section, and this sub-forum will lose some of its purpose and charm.

For the record, I actually didn't post it in this (Law Students) forum.

I had actually posted it in the Law School FAQ forum.

Hachi responded while it was there, suggesting that I actually post it in this forum where it currently resides. I responded to why I didn't post it here in the "Forum For Law School Students", where it now resides. In the meantime, it appears as though someone actually moved it here.

Yeah I moved it, because I agreed with Hachi. I just didn't think any 0Ls would be able to answer it.

My fault not Curious.

Now, I request that both Corsair and lishi be required to participate in this discussion.

Start ranking!

I think this is one of those questions that's fun to ask and fun to answer but has absolutely no practical value for any given individual reader. The answer depends largely on the individual strengths and interests of the student as well as the quality of the professor involved. Not sure how that's gonna help you if you ain't me, you know?

For example, here is my list, from easiest to hardest:

Legal Research & Writing
Constitutional Law
Property
Criminal Law
Torts
Contracts
Civil Procedure

Excepting the fact that nothing could be easier (or more tedious) than the research/writing; I am more drawn to, and perform better in, policy/theory-oriented classes. So Con Law worked great for me. My Crim Law professor is very policy/philosophy oriented, as opposed to being all about the black letter law, which some Crim Law professors can be. The same is true for Property...very heavy on policy and theory, not so much the rules against perpetuities. On the other hand, I despise more rules-based courses, which made them harder for me. Couldn't hate Civ Pro any more than I do, nor Contracts. Ewww. But others find them easy.

From easiest to hardest:
Torts
Contracts I
Legal Research & Writing I (Memos)
Civ Pro
Criminal Law
Legal Research & Writing II (Briefs)
Contracts II
Con Law
Property

I can't participate, because I've never had any of the classes.

But I do agree that this is a question that no one can really answer for you. Some people will kick ass at Torts while others will be horrible at it. Same as Civil procedure. I think it largely depends on you, your interest, your school, your professor, your TLS commitment, you love of girls named lishi, etc.

lishi wrote:I can't participate, because I've never had any of the classes.

But I do agree that this is a question that no one can really answer for you. Some people will kick ass at Torts while others will be horrible at it. Same as Civil procedure. I think it largely depends on you, your interest, your school, your professor, your TLS commitment, you love of girls named lishi, etc.

Ah, I thought you were a current student. My bad.


Anyhow, yeah, I didn't expect to get a one-size-fits-all answer, but I figured with enough responses I could gather somewhat of a general consensus.

I'm pretty much at the opposite end of the spectrum from dssinc. I love rules. So...

Civ Pro
Contracts
Torts
Property (very policy based)
Crim Law (also very policy based)

I haven't taken con law yet, though I imagine it will be closer to the bottom than the top.

I think this is one of those questions that's fun to ask and fun to answer but has absolutely no practical value for any given individual reader. The answer depends largely on the individual strengths and interests of the student as well as the quality of the professor involved. Not sure how that's gonna help you if you ain't me, you know?

Very true, of course. But since it's indeed fun to answer, here we go, from easy to hard:

Legal Writing & Research
Torts
Property
Con Law
Civ Pro
Contracts
Crim Law

I like courses with 'fuzzy' law -- things you can argue clockwise and counterclockwise and both can be right. Torts and Crim, as taught by these specific professors, were both like that, but with the opposite effect. Torts felt quite intuitive, because you could argue everything any way you like. In Crim, you could do that too, but the freedom in interpretation came more from framing things in creative ways and then applying hard rules. (Is this complicity in a crime? An attempt? An attempt to aid? An aided attempt? Etc.) The fact that each of these possibilities have their own rules and you have to keep them straight made it hard. I liked both Crim and Torts, but Crim was a lot harder.

Property is great for the old-fashionedness of it all.

My Con Law professor has an alternative teaching method that doesn't work at all. As a consequence nobody knows what to study for the course. I put it in the middle, because I just really don't know how hard Con Law is. I don't what I'm supposed to know, and I don't know how well I know it.

By the way, this bears no relation at all to grades, just with the difficulty of the course in terms of grasping the material and studying for the exam. My Torts grade was worse than my Contracts grade, for example.

Easiest to hardest (does not necessarily correspond to my level of enjoyment of a class):

Civ Pro
Contracts
Torts
Research and Writing
Criminal Law
Property

Curious George wrote:Pretty straightforward as the title states.

I realize that there are likely to be some differences from school to school and from professor to professor, but I'm just trying to get a general idea of which courses tend to be the easiest and which tend to be the hardest.

This is my 1L course list:

Civil Procedure
Contracts
Criminal Law
Torts
Legal Research & Writing
Constitutional Law
Property

LRW is just a time consumer, but it is not hard (at least to pass, different if you want best brief).

Hardest to easiest:

Property (teacher was ridic)
Con law I (federalism)
Civ Pro I (all the rules)
Contracts
Civ Pro II (personal/subject-matter jurisdiction, res judicata, class actions, some other stuff)
Crim Law
Con law II (equal protection + due process)
Torts

Hardest to Easiest:

Civ Pro
Contracts
Con Law
Property
Torts + Crim (tied)

Legal writing definitely does need to be in a class all its own.....time consuming, but not necessarily hard.