xeoh85's Advice for Doing Well in Law School Forum

[lawschooliseasy]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

I call flame.

[weee]

I could see reading taking 10 hours if he had all three of his substantive classes to read for, and he read the casebook, hornbook, and e&e on that topic on top of taking thorough notes for the class for that day. It is definitely still madness to be spending 10 hours a day reading though

[northwood]

10 hours a day of reading?? plus classes? isnt that a great way to burn yourself out?

[lawschooliseasy]

10 hours a day of reading?? plus classes? isnt that a great way to burn yourself out?

No, its a great way to lie and intimidate the shit out of 0L's. You cannot read for ten hours a day unless you're taking a small middle school's worth of adderall prescriptions.

[northwood]

thought so.... well in any case- carry on.

[Omerta]

Yeah, it's only been one semester and I'm not going to go around and dispense wisdom from on high but I can say one thing with absolute conviction and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong: DO NOT GCHAT DURING CLASS! DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR SORORITY SISTER'S NEW FACEBOOK ALBUM! DO NOT PLAY SCRABBLE! If you cannot handle the responsibility of a computer in class, then don't bring it.
edit:

Disagree. I gchated excessive and did well.

I'd say you're the exception, not the rule. Also that makes your grades more impressive, congrats again man.

[lawschooliseasy]

Yeah, it's only been one semester and I'm not going to go around and dispense wisdom from on high but I can say one thing with absolute conviction and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong: DO NOT GCHAT DURING CLASS! DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR SORORITY SISTER'S NEW FACEBOOK ALBUM! DO NOT PLAY SCRABBLE! If you cannot handle the responsibility of a computer in class, then don't bring it.

Disagree. I gchated excessive and did well.

[Wavelet]

Anyone know what xeoh ended up doing?

[Georgetown51]

Stuff like this always makes me laugh a little bit. Here are my thoughts . . .

1. At whatever law school you are at there is a range of intellectual ability. If you are not near the top, you won't finish near the top no matter what crazy study "strategy" you put in place. The reason is that law exams are not memorize and spew affairs. On many exams, if you know the basics and are smart you can respond to a question better than someone else with 500 pages of memorized material.

2. Just do the work and study however you feel works for you. If I did this schedule I would completely burn out and quit school.

3. Realize that it doesn't really matter if you are #1 in the class unless you want to be a SCOTUS clerk or something. Aim instead for like top 30%-obviously at a T2 the range might be different.

4. Enjoy your time in law school. It is only a means to an end. Once you graduate, work is going to suck more, and if you got great grades but suck at working, you will still get fired.

[pjo]

Anyone know what xeoh ended up doing?

+1 would like to know also

[Helmholtz]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

[jawsthegreat]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

All of the people like you make my LOL so much. The sheer volume over what is required that you spend studying is so LOL, it's not even funny.

[jawsthegreat]

Yeah, it's only been one semester and I'm not going to go around and dispense wisdom from on high but I can say one thing with absolute conviction and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong: DO NOT GCHAT DURING CLASS! DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR SORORITY SISTER'S NEW FACEBOOK ALBUM! DO NOT PLAY SCRABBLE! If you cannot handle the responsibility of a computer in class, then don't bring it.

Disagree. I gchated excessive and did well.

Agreed.

[keg411]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

All of the people like you make my LOL so much. The sheer volume over what is required that you spend studying is so LOL, it's not even funny.

+1

[cornellbeez]

X gets 4-4.5 hours of sleep a night?? How is this possible?

You must not be a law student. Its 2 weeks into the semester and I'm already down to 4-4.5 a night (I read cases VERY slowly and carefully) - takes me about 10 hours a day just to read for class. The first week or two is hard but you get used to it... and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

10 hours a day to read for class. WTF?

hahahaha Veyron is such a tool.

Seriously though, cases are the least important part of most law school classes. You only need to know the holding for most classes.

[The Stig]

great advice!

[FlightoftheEarls]

Yeah, it's only been one semester and I'm not going to go around and dispense wisdom from on high but I can say one thing with absolute conviction and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong: DO NOT GCHAT DURING CLASS! DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR SORORITY SISTER'S NEW FACEBOOK ALBUM! DO NOT PLAY SCRABBLE! If you cannot handle the responsibility of a computer in class, then don't bring it.

Disagree. I gchated excessive and did well.

I gchat, play facebook scrabble and all kinds of other games, read blogs, ESPN, etc., and I did/still do just fine. In fact, the only class where I performed poorly on the exam was a 1L class without laptops where I had to pay attention the whole time.

Maybe we might want to tone down the "absolute conviction" angle, especially if you're self aware enough to know how silly it looks to be "dispensing wisdom from on high" after one semester. Different things work for different people.

[Bumi]

Maybe we might want to tone down the "absolute conviction" angle, especially if you're self aware enough to know how silly it looks to be "dispensing wisdom from on high" after one semester. Different things work for different people.

Burn the infidel.

[Stringer6]

and like the guy giving the advice said SLEEPING on the WEEKENDS is KEY.

"catching up on sleep" is a myth. it doesn't do anything.

[cornellbeez]

This thread is all types of insane. If you want to do REALLY, REALLY well, then sure, follow the advice. But, you would have literally no life. It depends on what school you go to, too. If you only have to do somewhat well to get whatever job you want, and you aren't gunning for a clerkship, then why put yourself through this?

I will say that if you do follow this study method, and are not top 5%, then you're probably an idiot.

[Adjudicator]

This thread is all types of insane. If you want to do REALLY, REALLY well, then sure, follow the advice. But, you would have literally no life. It depends on what school you go to, too. If you only have to do somewhat well to get whatever job you want, and you aren't gunning for a clerkship, then why put yourself through this?

Tell me what schools can get you whatever job you want even if you only do "somewhat well." Yale? What else?

[cornellbeez]

This thread is all types of insane. If you want to do REALLY, REALLY well, then sure, follow the advice. But, you would have literally no life. It depends on what school you go to, too. If you only have to do somewhat well to get whatever job you want, and you aren't gunning for a clerkship, then why put yourself through this?

Tell me what schools can get you whatever job you want even if you only do "somewhat well." Yale? What else?

All of the T-14, well, except Georgetown maybe. I'm not talking about getting v10s or whatever, but high paying jobs in general.

[Adjudicator]

So you're saying that I could go to say, Cornell, and as long as I manage to be above median, I can relax, knowing that a pretty good job is safe in hand?

[cornellbeez]

I don't know too many people's study habits outside of my friends', who do not study that much, but the one guy I know who studies a similar amount is top 1% here (MVP). If you want the "best" jobs, and a clerkship, then follow this advice.

So you're saying that I could go to say, Cornell, and as long as I manage to be above median, I can relax, knowing that a pretty good job is safe in hand?

I don't know if I would relax per se. You have to take initiative to apply to jobs before OCI and prepare for OCI interviews. But, I think ATL reported that Cornell placed 40% into biglaw in 2009 OCI (Class of 2011). So you have a very good shot at a high-paying job.

I will say that being below median will possibly screw you over, and it depends on what market you bid on, too.

[Paichka]

I followed a modified version of Xeoh's strategy, and I'm somewhere north of top 3%. I modified it, though -- I picked two days a week to grind...I'd get all my reading done for the week done on the weekends, and two weekdays I'd stay until 10pm or so, reading hornbooks. I'd also outline after every major subject area in my classes. It was a lot of work, but I still had a life -- I caught up on TV on the weekends, and hung out with my daughter on the evenings that I didn't work late -- I made SURE that those nights, I was with her 100%. Studying could come in the two-three hours after I put her down, if necessary. It was hard, but it paid off.

This year, I've found that I'm more comfortable with reading less -- I maintained the same GPA while doing significantly less extra work. I didn't feel nearly as prepared walking into each exam, but once you've figured out how to successfully write a law school exam, I guess that skill carries over even if you're less familiar with all of the little nuances in the caselaw. I'm working just as hard as 1L year, but rather than studying, I'm doing things like participating in competitions and doing cite-checking for law review.

Honestly, I'd err on the side of doing more work than less, at LEAST for your first semester. Give Xeoh's method, or Arrow's method, or a combination of several listed here on TLS a try for one semester, and reevaluate once you get your grades back. Figuring out the method that works the best FOR YOU is more important than blindly following in the footsteps of other successful people.