what makes law school hard? Forum

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jfb

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by jfb » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:40 pm

3|ink wrote:
bergg007 wrote:
re-applicant wrote:This is a pretty straightforward question. Everyone on here always talks about how difficult 1L is and my friends in law school right now are constantly stressed out. What makes law school so difficult? Is the material intellectually difficult or is it just the pressure of being surrounded by smart people who are competing with you?

don't worry nothing can be as hard as being a warriors fan, year after crappy year.
Try being a Redskins fan.
Try being a detroit lions fan

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homestyle28

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by homestyle28 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:44 pm

D. H2Oman wrote:
Jackie O wrote:
D. H2Oman wrote: I know you're a douchebag because 100% of law students are including myself, no especially myself.
what the heck are you saying I'm a douchebag? Maybe I would seem less douchey if I didn't have to spend 8 hours working, almost 2 hours commuting, then go to class, then have to stay up all night reading trying to catch up while revising my briefs day after day

and that's not even including the 20 hours a week you spent volunteering to set up that late night basketball league for troubled inner city youth.
Which only taught them how to go without sleep, so now we have a breed of super-criminals.

QandAphorism

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by QandAphorism » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:49 pm

"What makes law school hard?

All of the stimulation, obviously.

bigkahuna2020

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by bigkahuna2020 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:09 pm

kalvano wrote:Remember in undergrad when you had a big paper or project due, and then the professor gave you a bit of a break?

Treasure that memory, because they will pile on more and more work in law school. I think that's mostly what gets to people is the unrelenting amount of work with no real breaks. "Oh, your graded memo is due for legal writing? That's nice, have 100 pages read by next class period."
...no.

jgloster

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by jgloster » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:47 pm

3|ink wrote:
bergg007 wrote:
re-applicant wrote:This is a pretty straightforward question. Everyone on here always talks about how difficult 1L is and my friends in law school right now are constantly stressed out. What makes law school so difficult? Is the material intellectually difficult or is it just the pressure of being surrounded by smart people who are competing with you?

don't worry nothing can be as hard as being a warriors fan, year after crappy year.
Try being a Redskins fan.
Try being a Los Angeles Clippers fan. Wait, they don't have any

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Cupidity

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Cupidity » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:53 pm

Everyone here is as smart as you

bigkahuna2020

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by bigkahuna2020 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:53 pm

jfb wrote:
3|ink wrote:
Try being a Redskins fan.
Try being a detroit lions fan
Try being a Bills fan. They only get good enough to crush your hopes

09042014

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by 09042014 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:54 pm

Cupidity wrote:Everyone here is as smart as you
Usually many are smarter.

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3|ink

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by 3|ink » Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:56 pm

So the first year isn't as bad as everyone says? The transition is what gets people?

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IAFG

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by IAFG » Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:19 pm

3|ink wrote:So the first year isn't as bad as everyone says? The transition is what gets people?
Law school is easy. Doing well is hard.

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DoubleChecks

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by DoubleChecks » Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:25 pm

3|ink wrote:So the first year isn't as bad as everyone says? The transition is what gets people?
lol are you reading this thread?

gist: people are saying law school itself isnt necessary hard, it is mainly due to the curve (peers are as smart/as hard working as you, yet you need to beat the curve); some also complain about the non-stop amounts of work, esp. as the semester goes on

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Bosque

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Bosque » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:20 pm

IAFG wrote:
3|ink wrote:So the first year isn't as bad as everyone says? The transition is what gets people?
Law school is easy. Doing well is hard.
Which is why TCR is the Curve.

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gwuorbust

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by gwuorbust » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:25 pm

DoubleChecks wrote:
3|ink wrote:So the first year isn't as bad as everyone says? The transition is what gets people?
lol are you reading this thread?

gist: people are saying law school itself isnt necessary hard, it is mainly due to the curve (peers are as smart/as hard working as you, yet you need to beat the curve); some also wimps complain about the non-stop amounts of work, esp. as the semester goes on
fixed to make TCR

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Renzo

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Renzo » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:55 pm

jfb wrote:
3|ink wrote:
bergg007 wrote:
re-applicant wrote:This is a pretty straightforward question. Everyone on here always talks about how difficult 1L is and my friends in law school right now are constantly stressed out. What makes law school so difficult? Is the material intellectually difficult or is it just the pressure of being surrounded by smart people who are competing with you?

don't worry nothing can be as hard as being a warriors fan, year after crappy year.
Try being a Redskins fan.
Try being a detroit lions fan
Hey, lay off Detroit

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Kurt Cobain

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Kurt Cobain » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:57 pm

kswiss wrote:
Also, there is a lot of pressure. A lot rides on first year, and even first semester grades. Its not like UG where you can just show up and get As. You realize that the people around you are all intelligent, so you have to be on your game.
Wish I went to your UG. People try too hard at mine.

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tgir

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by tgir » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:58 pm

Say when you all say that law school, independent of the curve, is easy, do you mean the workload, the material, or both?

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by 09042014 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 6:15 pm

tgir wrote:Say when you all say that law school, independent of the curve, is easy, do you mean the workload, the material, or both?
You read less than 100 pages a day and have literally one test. The material is easy.

It seems like exam-menship is the majority of the variance between grades.

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Sogui

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Sogui » Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:57 pm

The curve

The time limit/word limit on exams

Seriously professors are bastards at CLS. If it takes 5 hours to give a coherent answer they give you 4. If it takes 2000 words to give a well-rounded treatment to a subject, they give you 1500. Then again that's the whole point.

Did I mention the curve? It's just stupid, at least HLS and Yale don't do traditional grades. Here you've got all the people jockeying for firm jobs and you don't have the faintest idea of where you fall into the mix.

Based on my experience so far, being smart isn't enough. I thought it might be, just be a little sharper than everyone else and you'll pull ahead right? Nah this isn't the LSAT, you've got to pound down material until you can recite the Restatement for your class if you want to be considered for a really prestigious clerkship/firm/etc....

Yea you need to be smart too, you need to understand what the professor wants, but I've finished 2 out of 2 exams in a dead heat because every time I open an outline, look up a case, check on a rule, verify the statute/section number, and "think twice" about the application of an obscure case - the guy who had his outline done by Thanksgiving, took every practice exam under test conditions, and spent his spare time making a 10 page attack outline off of his 80 page long outline when he wasn't re-reading his hornbook will be typing. He will be typing seamlessly, word after word, and by the time you get back from your little sojourn in your outline, he has 250 more words down. Those are points of analysis that you won't get to, nuanced counter-points that you don't have time for, and those things will impress the professor and the professor sees two exams, all the major issues spotted in both, but one is "colored" with more complex reasoning, do you have any doubt who is walking out with an A?

Even on the 8-hour take home tests. Finishing in 4 hours and spending the remaining 4 editing, proofreading, and clarifying your answers will be what gets an A, not the other 80% who "take it slow", spot all the same issues, and finish with a "rough draft" for an answer.

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by solidsnake » Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:16 pm

Stress caused by the workload and the implications grades have on your life. The actual subject matter while interesting is rarely, if ever, difficult application-wise; but actively keeping track of every tension and evolution in the law can get challenging in a course that amasses a huge corpus of material.

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Na_Swatch

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Na_Swatch » Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:21 pm

Sogui wrote:The curve

.............:

Seriously professors are bastards at CLS. If it takes 5 hours to give a coherent answer they give you pull ahead right? Nah this isn't the LSAT, you've got to pound down material until and spending the remaining 4 editing, proofreading, and clarifying your answers will be what gets an A, not the other 80% who "take it slow", spot all the same issues, and finish with a "rough draft" for an answer.
You ok there Sogui? You seemed normal until this recent spate of crazyyy posts... Def seems like exams are getting to you

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by scionb4 » Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:21 pm

1. People psych themselves out, and allow other people do it to them too. 2. People spend waaaayyyyyyyy too much time briefing cases early on thinking that is how you get good grades. 3. There is little guidance from the professors as to how to take a law school exam - you're pretty much left to learn how to do that on your own. 4. Even when you have figured out how to study efficiently, it's a ton of work.

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Kobe_Teeth » Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:31 pm

My profs weren't as tough as what Sogui had, but he summed it up pretty well. Law school is a big game but absolutely no one will explicitly state the rules of the game to you. Part of the challenge is in fact figuring it out on your own.

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by ScaredWorkedBored » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:46 pm

For about the tenth time...it has a rigid curve and for the first time in most people's lives, most of their classmates have equal intelligence and work habits. Not only does this make competition very difficult in and of itself, it hugely increases stress and bad lifestyle habits because everyone knows this. Unless they've done some kind of hard science undergrad, no one has seen this before.

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Sogui

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by Sogui » Sat Dec 18, 2010 10:39 am

Na_Swatch wrote:
Sogui wrote:The curve

.............:

Seriously professors are bastards at CLS. If it takes 5 hours to give a coherent answer they give you pull ahead right? Nah this isn't the LSAT, you've got to pound down material until and spending the remaining 4 editing, proofreading, and clarifying your answers will be what gets an A, not the other 80% who "take it slow", spot all the same issues, and finish with a "rough draft" for an answer.
You ok there Sogui? You seemed normal until this recent spate of crazyyy posts... Def seems like exams are getting to you
My GF read that post too and thought I was coming unhinged. Point taken, lol.

I realize I should hold back on any cynicism until grades are out. However, the word/time limits I ranted about are still what makes exams (and thus the semester you spend preparing for them) hard. I felt better after the LSAT (physiologically) than I did after any law exam. There is time pressure on the LSAT, but you know when you are done. You get breaks, breathers, and you end with a silly writing passage that lets you cool down. With a good law exam you actually start off slower, you read the hypo carefully, re-read the dense paragraphs, go over the question 2-3 times in your head, then you make a light outline of the issues you plan to discuss. After that it's pedal-to-the-metal typing where you are constantly bombarded with doubt and lingering questions that you must push past to finish on time.

You will be feeling "70% done" on a question you've spent 90 minutes on, you still have more to say, but you realize that if you don't start the next question in 5 minutes max then you will not be able to do better than a B for the class. It's that kind of pressure that just leaves me feeling dazed, like my brain is mush, afterwords.

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Re: what makes law school hard?

Post by ahduth » Sun Dec 19, 2010 1:24 am

Sogui wrote:It's that kind of pressure that just leaves me feeling dazed, like my brain is mush, afterwords.
Sweet. I'm pretty psyched now. I love it when my brain feels like it's been rearranged with a meat grinder.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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