Studying on weekends.. Forum

[RP1983]

I see a lot of people posting their schedules and it shows them spending a lot of time on friday, saturday, sunday ( 9am to 7pm each day), working on law school stuff. Being an OL I was a bit confused when I read this. What exactly is there to do on the weekend if you have done all of your reading and outlining during the week. Sure you have to read and prepare for monday classes and sure some outlining may spillover to the weekend, but that shouldnt require you to slog everyday right? Do you spend the weekends studying and memorizing, reading supplements, taking practice exams, etc?

[northwood]

You need to be able to plan for one day where you can relax in order to prevent burn out. Do whats best for your, but try to keep some sort of balance.

[RW65]

My weekends included reading for the upcoming week, reading supplements, organizing class notes, outlining, working on a memo/appellate brief for legal writing. One of the things that is different in law school is that there is always something more you can be doing. Taking time off is important, but I never got to the point where I said "wow I really have nothing to do this weekend" and just did nothing.

[Wavelet]

While working a couple hours during the weekend is par for the course, you should never be working all weekend unless 1) your graded memo is due on Monday or 2) it's the week before/of finals.

[Pearalegal]

In the words of one of my favorite associates:

Don't....just don't buy into the law school hype man. Man, just don't do it. Do what you did in college, only more of it. On every level.

Take that for what you will. I'm still not entirely sure but I think it falls under the work hard, play hard mentality. So...balance.

[caoyun]

I see a lot of people posting their schedules and it shows them spending a lot of time on friday, saturday, sunday ( 9am to 7pm each day), working on law school stuff. Being an OL I was a bit confused when I read this. What exactly is there to do on the weekend if you have done all of your reading and outlining during the week. Sure you have to read and prepare for monday classes and sure some outlining may spillover to the weekend, but that shouldnt require you to slog everyday right? Do you spend the weekends studying and memorizing, reading supplements, taking practice exams, etc?

I probably never worked more than 2-3 hours from Friday through Sunday, except right before exams. It's just really not necessary. I mean, I guess if you want to make the top 10 or something, you may need to work a little harder than I did. But above median is definitely achievable with minimum effort.

[BunkMoreland]

I'm a top 5%er, and I always liked to read say, Mon-Wed readings on Sunday, just to get ahead for the week, and feel more prepared. It gave me more time during the week if something came up, and also to get to my supplemental stuff.

[Always Credited]

I see a lot of people posting their schedules and it shows them spending a lot of time on friday, saturday, sunday ( 9am to 7pm each day), working on law school stuff. Being an OL I was a bit confused when I read this. What exactly is there to do on the weekend if you have done all of your reading and outlining during the week. Sure you have to read and prepare for monday classes and sure some outlining may spillover to the weekend, but that shouldnt require you to slog everyday right? Do you spend the weekends studying and memorizing, reading supplements, taking practice exams, etc?

I probably never worked more than 2-3 hours from Friday through Sunday, except right before exams. It's just really not necessary. I mean, I guess if you want to make the top 10 or something, you may need to work a little harder than I did. But above median is definitely achievable with minimum effort.

unless everyone does more than a minimal effort.

[caoyun]

I see a lot of people posting their schedules and it shows them spending a lot of time on friday, saturday, sunday ( 9am to 7pm each day), working on law school stuff. Being an OL I was a bit confused when I read this. What exactly is there to do on the weekend if you have done all of your reading and outlining during the week. Sure you have to read and prepare for monday classes and sure some outlining may spillover to the weekend, but that shouldnt require you to slog everyday right? Do you spend the weekends studying and memorizing, reading supplements, taking practice exams, etc?

I probably never worked more than 2-3 hours from Friday through Sunday, except right before exams. It's just really not necessary. I mean, I guess if you want to make the top 10 or something, you may need to work a little harder than I did. But above median is definitely achievable with minimum effort.

unless everyone does more than a minimal effort.

Which I doubt ever actually happens. There are always going to be slackers.

[rbgrocio]

I see a lot of people posting their schedules and it shows them spending a lot of time on friday, saturday, sunday ( 9am to 7pm each day), working on law school stuff. Being an OL I was a bit confused when I read this. What exactly is there to do on the weekend if you have done all of your reading and outlining during the week. Sure you have to read and prepare for monday classes and sure some outlining may spillover to the weekend, but that shouldnt require you to slog everyday right? Do you spend the weekends studying and memorizing, reading supplements, taking practice exams, etc?

Law school work is not something you can plan to always complete during the week. When a memo or brief is due that will take most of your time; you will spend the entire weekend working on that, which means that you will have to read ahead, which also means that you may not be able to outline that week, which will consequently require you to outline two weeks later. Then you will spend a weekend preparing for oral arguments (we had oral arguments our 1st year). Some professors, though it is rare, will have a midterm. Again, if you have a midterm you will want to get ahead on your reading so that you can have a week to prepare for the midterm. Then family commitments and other events will also require you to sometimes read ahead or forbear outlining for a week, which will then require some catching up.

[Pizon]

In the words of one of my favorite associates:

Don't....just don't buy into the law school hype man. Man, just don't do it. Do what you did in college, only more of it. On every level.

Take that for what you will. I'm still not entirely sure but I think it falls under the work hard, play hard mentality. So...balance.

Yes. I actually did less in 1L than in college (at least when it came to academic pursuits), but my college experience was pretty intense.

[StudentAthlete]

Law school is a different animal (duh). Most likely you will be doing at least a decent amount of work on each weekend, otherwise you aren't doing enough or you somehow spent every waking minute during the week studying. However, like the person before said and this is very true, you should set aside time during the week and/or weekend for rest so you don't burn out.

[1ferret!]

Personally, I studied nearly the whole day on Saturday and took Sunday off (with the above stated caveat for memos, arguments, finals etc.). However, I may have had an unusual take on this: I wanted to learn the material and use class time to sit and listen for added examples and so forth. Generally, tried to have at least the casebook reading done for the week ahead and use the week for outlining and reviewing case notes. Plus, using a weekend day can free up time for weekday nights, for bar reviews and other events where you can get to know your classmates and network.
It depends on you, and your style. Some people don't spend nearly that much time and do well, but you won't really know until after finals come in, so if you feel that you need to prepare more, then by all means you should.