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Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 10:14 pm
by Talon
ohmy212 wrote:This is great. Thanks! Do you mind sharing approximately how many hours a day/weekend you spent studying? Thanks again!
I never could keep track of how much time I spent studying, mainly because I would outline for 30 minutes, play 15 minutes of video games, go back to outlining for 15 minutes, then go out to eat, and so on. Fall was especially disorganized, since on the weekends I would often be gamecasting or streaming football games while outlining. If I had to guess, I'd say I spent 50 hours (including class time) during the first half of the semester, and 60 hours during the second half of the semester (to account for doing more outlining and taking practice exams). That could be way off though. At any rate, I never felt like I was being overworked.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:35 pm
by 02122015
Amazing post. I was starting to freak out a bit earlier (i.e. my time horizon made it past orientation and on to actual classes) but this really helped me feel more confident. Bookmarked immediately.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:22 pm
by MiamiUG
JOThompson wrote:I'll be referring to this often, thanks!
tag
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:27 pm
by holydonkey
thanks
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:35 pm
by lawschoolstudent85
ttt
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:33 pm
by charlow
Bump
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:41 pm
by blackmamba76
Bump. Thanks.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:47 pm
by senunit
Hey Talon, thanks a lot for this! Its very helpful to hear such insightful advice from someone who has done it and completed 1L successfully.
I have a Q relating to the practice tests. Lets say there is no access to a model answer. Does that leave the option to only compare it or show it to another student? Who's to know that the evaluation will be of any value having just met the fellow 1L's? Are there alternate advisable methods to approach this?
Also, when did you find that a supplement would be beneficial for your constitutional law course? Did you buy it before, or during the semester as the material became more difficult to understand?
Thanks again!
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 10:54 pm
by Talon
senunit wrote:I have a Q relating to the practice tests. Lets say there is no access to a model answer. Does that leave the option to only compare it or show it to another student? Who's to know that the evaluation will be of any value having just met the fellow 1L's? Are there alternate advisable methods to approach this?
If there's no model answer, comparing your answer to another student's lets you know how you're doing. It will make you aware of any major issues you missed, any improper applications of the law, and such (unless, of course, both of you made the same error). While you may not get a good sense for whether your answer is A quality or merely median, you'll at least learn what errors you are making and hopefully learn how to avoid them - that's the value of exchanging answers. Sometimes professors will offer to read over your answer to one of their old exams - you should consider taking up those offers.
senunit wrote:Also, when did you find that a supplement would be beneficial for your constitutional law course? Did you buy it before, or during the semester as the material became more difficult to understand?
I bought it during the semester. Constitutional law is a tricky subject because there are few clear rules - the case law does not, for example, clearly address the issue of whether or not a federal regulation of marriage might be an improper exercise of commerce power. The only way to successfully analyze that issue is to be familiar with the Commerce Clause cases, and supplements can present good points about the cases that you might not see just by reading the cases yourself.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:12 pm
by senunit
Thanks again man!
One more Q: does it matter what year the supplement is? For example, the con law supplement that you recommend is listed for sale in the 2008 edition and the 2009 edition. Would you recommend paying the extra money for a supplement that is updated?
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:06 pm
by Talon
senunit wrote:Thanks again man!
One more Q: does it matter what year the supplement is? For example, the con law supplement that you recommend is listed for sale in the 2008 edition and the 2009 edition. Would you recommend paying the extra money for a supplement that is updated?
Depends on the course. For constitutional law, you should get the latest supplement, since you don't want to miss out on recent decisions that have altered particular fields. For civil procedure you can use an older supplement if you know what has changed recently (pleadings in
Twombly, for example), but you may want to play it safe by getting the latest supplement. For the other classes, I think you can use older supplements - I don't think the basic doctrines have changed much in the past decade.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:18 pm
by jawsthegreat
Talon wrote:senunit wrote:I have a Q relating to the practice tests. Lets say there is no access to a model answer. Does that leave the option to only compare it or show it to another student? Who's to know that the evaluation will be of any value having just met the fellow 1L's? Are there alternate advisable methods to approach this?
If there's no model answer, comparing your answer to another student's lets you know how you're doing. It will make you aware of any major issues you missed, any improper applications of the law, and such (unless, of course, both of you made the same error). While you may not get a good sense for whether your answer is A quality or merely median, you'll at least learn what errors you are making and hopefully learn how to avoid them - that's the value of exchanging answers. Sometimes professors will offer to read over your answer to one of their old exams - you should consider taking up those offers.
senunit wrote:Also, when did you find that a supplement would be beneficial for your constitutional law course? Did you buy it before, or during the semester as the material became more difficult to understand?
I bought it during the semester. Constitutional law is a tricky subject because there are few clear rules - the case law does not, for example, clearly address the issue of whether or not a federal regulation of marriage might be an improper exercise of commerce power. The only way to successfully analyze that issue is to be familiar with the Commerce Clause cases, and supplements can present good points about the cases that you might not see just by reading the cases yourself.
Thanks
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:16 pm
by scottschreiber
I just read this post two weeks into 1L. Wow. Thank you, Talon. This post is beyond helpful.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:10 pm
by R.R. Raskolnikov
Thanks for paying it forward, Talon. I'll brush up on this over the summer.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:16 pm
by risktaker
Thanks!
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:06 pm
by lolschool2011
Tag.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:12 pm
by pattonthicke
tag
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:19 pm
by esq
Great stuff.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:26 pm
by rbarcelo9
Thanks for this, from a anxious/nervous 0L.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:30 pm
by kehoema2
Wow thanks for the insight. This will definitely come in handy.
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:43 am
by nerdherder
Bump.
Thanks!
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:49 am
by 005618502
Great post!
Tagging for later reference
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:20 pm
by reilanrc
thanks for a thorough and well-conceived 1st year advice guide...best ive read so far
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:24 pm
by northwood
wow.. thanks!
Re: Success in Your First Year of Law School
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:42 pm
by pride09
northwood wrote:wow.. thanks!