How much work is law school. I just dropped a class Forum

[heyguys]

I think we had about 10-25 pages/class and there were 9 classes/week last semester. Other than doing the reading, law school is as much work as you make it. If all you want to do is pass w/C's, you could get by on 10-20 mins/night for class prep, and a few hours of cramming before each exam. If you want to do well, you'll have to do more than that. The exact amount of "more" varies highly among individuals.

+1

[rayiner]

If you don't like dense, long reading, you won't like law school. There is a class at my school called Law and Literature that requires reading 15 books in 14 weeks of school plus 3 shorter papers. And we're not talking about short novels. Moby Dick is on that list. So for one class alone, you're looking at bare minimum 300 pages a week. And that class is considered a "breeze 3L class."

Learn to love the written word or pick another profession.

This post is why you don't take classes like "Law and Literature."

I've yet to have a class with more than ~70 pages of reading per week.

+1.

[rayiner]

I simply do not care how hard you study in undergrad - in law school you will have to study like you've never studied before, or you will not do well.

LOL no.

[NotMyRealName09]

I simply do not care how hard you study in undergrad - in law school you will have to study like you've never studied before, or you will not do well.

LOL no.

Well aren't you so special? Ok, forget what I said, don't work hard. I worked hard, and I kicked ass. But not working as hard as you can seems to be an excellent strategy too.

[Mal]

I simply do not care how hard you study in undergrad - in law school you will have to study like you've never studied before, or you will not do well.

LOL no.

Well aren't you so special? Ok, forget what I said, don't work hard. I worked hard, and I kicked ass. But not working as hard as you can seems to be an excellent strategy too.

Rayiner is not saying it isn't hard work, but that there are people who will not have to study as hard as in undergrad to do well. For example, someone who came from engineering from MIT.

Personally, I worked far harder studying for the lsat than I do at law school. A large part of law school seems to be endurance through the term and maintaining my work ethic.

[rayiner]

I simply do not care how hard you study in undergrad - in law school you will have to study like you've never studied before, or you will not do well.

LOL no.

Well aren't you so special? Ok, forget what I said, don't work hard. I worked hard, and I kicked ass. But not working as hard as you can seems to be an excellent strategy too.

1) People who did well in my undergrad worked a lot harder than I do in law school. At least I don't have 20-hour problem sets due every week in law school...

2) There is a huge "diminishing returns" aspect to law school work for most of the semester. You can kill yourself doing all the reading, reading all the supplements, writing detailed briefs, but in reality you'd probably get the same grade if you just did your reading carefully and book-briefed then gave 100% in the last month around finals.

[fortissimo]

Those foreign students are way better at math than Americans are. Unfortunately law exams test the mathematical-logic skill extremely heavily, and people who had our high school math down by the middle of junior high are way ahead of us there. Real lawyering obviously depends a lot on language skills, which should indicate that the current system has its share of flaws.

I don't know, man. I minored in math, and I don't think the skills are all that applicable in law school exams. Although some of the skills are pretty useful in learning certain concepts in some classes, i.e. Property.

[XxSpyKEx]

If you don't like dense, long reading, you won't like law school. There is a class at my school called Law and Literature that requires reading 15 books in 14 weeks of school plus 3 shorter papers. And we're not talking about short novels. Moby Dick is on that list. So for one class alone, you're looking at bare minimum 300 pages a week. And that class is considered a "breeze 3L class."

Learn to love the written word or pick another profession.

This post is why you don't take classes like "Law and Literature."

I've yet to have a class with more than ~70 pages of reading per week.

+1.

See what nativedelta lacked to mention is that it is BS Law and ____ seminar where, although the class assigns 5 billion pages per class, there is really no point to reading more then 1 class worth of reading the entire semester (and most people won't even do that much), and that 1 class of reading will merely serve as a baseline for the research paper that the final grade rests on. Additionally, he lacked to mention that the class probably has typically averaged around a 3.7-3.9 GPA median, which is probably why he is in it... This is pretty much how all seminars are. The time that is spent in class is a complete waste, usually no one if even taking note or really even paying attention, and it really doesn't matter because the grade is based on a research paper, not stuff covered in class/assigned reading.

Realistically in a class with an exam you are pretty unlikely to see much more then 60-75 pages per week, and across 3 classes (assuming 4 credit classes) that comes out to a whole 225 pages per week (at most). That should roughly take you about 2 long days to complete. Law students ITT just like to whine a lot.

[masterthearts]

500 pages per week in one class? I do not believe that.

I took a grad school history class while in undergrad, and the reading was normally 300-600 pages per week, average probably 400. Perhaps OP is in a grad class.

Actually, it was a 400 level seminar class and I need to take one to graduate. I had the prof before for a 300 level class and he does assign a lot of work. But, I am not ready for 500 pgs of reading/week since I am also studying for the June lsat. I will take an easier seminar class next year.